Personality, occupational sorting and routine work
ISSN: 0142-5455
Article publication date: 19 June 2020
Issue publication date: 22 September 2020
Abstract
Purpose
A prominent labour market feature in recent decades has been the increase in abstract and service jobs, while the demand for routine work has declined. This article examines whether the components of Type A behaviour predict workers' selection into non-routine abstract, non-routine service and routine jobs.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on the work by Barrick et al. (2013), this article first presents how the theory of purposeful work behaviour can be used to explain how individuals with different levels of Type A components sort into abstract, service and routine jobs. Then, using longitudinal data, it examines whether the components of Type A behaviour predict occupational sorting. Estimations were performed based on the linear regression method.
Findings
The results show that the Type A dimension “leadership” was associated with a higher level of abstract and service job tasks in occupation. High eagerness-energy and responsibility were also positively linked with occupation's level of abstract tasks. These results suggest that workers sort into jobs that allow them to pursue higher-order implicit goals.
Originality/value
Job market polarisation towards low-routine jobs has had a pervasive influence on the labour market during the past few decades. Based on high-quality data that combine prime working-age register information on occupational attainment with information about personality characteristics, the findings contribute to our knowledge of how personality characteristics contribute to occupational sorting in terms of this important job aspect.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements: The Young Finns Study has been financially supported by the Academy of Finland [grants 286284, 134309 (Eye), 126925, 121584, 124282, 129378 (Salve), 117787 (Gendi), and 41071 (Skidi)], the Social Insurance Institution of Finland; Competitive State Research Financing of the Expert Responsibility area of Kuopio, Tampere and Turku University Hospitals [grant X51001]; Juho Vainio Foundation; Paavo Nurmi Foundation; Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research; Finnish Cultural Foundation; Tampere Tuberculosis Foundation; Emil Aaltonen Foundation; Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation; Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation; Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation [grant to Laura Pulkki-Råback]; Diabetes Research Foundation of Finnish Diabetes Association; EU Horizon 2020 [grant 755320 for TAXINOMISIS]; Yrjö Jahnsson foundation [grants 6664 and 6646 to Jutta Viinikainen and Jaakko Pehkonen]; Strategic Research Council [grant 293120 for the project Work, Inequality and Public Policy/Petri Böckerman; Palkansaaja Foundation].
Citation
Viinikainen, J., Böckerman, P., Elovainio, M., Hakulinen, C., Hintsanen, M., Kähönen, M., Pehkonen, J., Pulkki-Råback, L., Raitakari, O. and Keltikangas-Järvinen, L. (2020), "Personality, occupational sorting and routine work", Employee Relations, Vol. 42 No. 6, pp. 1423-1440. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-06-2019-0253
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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