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The purpose of this paper is to test whether the usual positive effect of self-employment on job satisfaction remains once the greater autonomy and flexibility afforded by self-employment have been factored in, as well as the existence of differences in unobserved characteristics across individuals.

It may be thought that the probability of being self-employed and the declared job satisfaction are not independent from each other due to differences in unobserved characteristics – as psychological or personality traits – across individuals. Therefore, self-employment should be treated as an endogenous variable when it is introduced as an explanatory variable in a job satisfaction equation. Given this, the paper proposes the estimation of a treatment effect model in which self-employment and job satisfaction equations are estimated jointly.

The results suggest that the usual positive effect of self-employment on job satisfaction is due to the greater work autonomy afforded by self-employment, and not to the greater willingness of the self-employed to report higher levels of satisfaction. Thus, the paper finds that once flexibility and autonomy are considered, the usual positive effect of self-employment on job satisfaction disappears and becomes negative.

It would be useful further empirical analysis using other data, especially panel data, to test the robustness of the results.

The paper proposes an alternative way to analyse the relation between self-employment and job satisfaction by taking into account both the greater autonomy and flexibility afforded by self-employment, as well as psychological or personality traits.

The aim of this article is to gain insight into some of the factors that determine personnel‐training efforts in companies introducing advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs). The study provides empirical evidence from a sector with high rates of technological modernisation.

Ad hoc survey of 90 firms in the manufacturing sector with advanced manufacturing technologies in production processes.

Managerial decision to develop training is determined by a factor that is extraneous to the investment in new production technologies, that is to say, recruitment policies. As for the existence of a specific training budget, implementation of AMTs does not appear to determine a company's decision to allocate specific budget items to personnel‐training programmes. It is concluded that training policies are strongly influenced by factors outside the inner context of the organisation.

Similar research could be conducted on informal corporate training, working with additional variables to determine how they affect company training policies. The propositions were tested in a specific industry and area. Further research would be convenient in different regions and sectors.

Contributes to the literature in human resources about the adaptation of human resources strategy to necessary changes in the workplace.