Quality of Work and Quality of Life of Service Sector Workers: Cross-national Variations in Eight European Countries

Abstract

How do European service sector workers evaluate their quality of work and life nowadays? Europeanization and globalization are bringing about major shifts in the economy, but we know little about how this is affecting the well-being of Europe’s citizens. This chapter presents a range of subjective indicators for the quality of work and life as reported by service sector employees in eight European countries. In addition, it provides background information on the organizational context. The countries involved are at different stages of economic development and have differing welfare systems, as explained in Chapter 3. Four organizations were surveyed in each country: one bank or insurance company, one public hospital, one retail organization and one IT or telecom company.