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This chapter explores the development of an individual-level measure of decent work. It draws on a recent article written by the authors, which was part of a larger international project to validate a cross-cultural self-report measure of decent work within the context of the Psychology of Working Theory (Dodd et al., 2019). It discusses the importance of a psychological perspective on decent work to better understand working lives; summarizes the findings from the validation studies Decent Work Scale (DWS) in eight countries; outlines potential uses of the DWS; and considers the limitations of the DWS as well as challenges to conceptualizing decent work more generally.

‘Decent work’. The very phrase conjures up a range of images and interpretations. But what does it mean for practitioners? What does it mean for academics? Much has been spoken, and even more has been written, but there is still little consensus as to how these questions can be answered. This book aims to offer some answers by exploring the increasingly relevant topic of Decent Work from a range of perspectives. This initial chapter introduces readers to the purpose, rationale and structure of the book. It offers a description of the concept of Decent Work and introduces readers to the work of the Decent Work and Productivity Research Centre of Manchester Metropolitan University.

This study aims to present the evolution of decent work studies. Findings point to several directions for future research efforts, including conceptualizing decent work and the pandemic’s associated impact. Results will help to guide government authorities to promote decent work by delivering fair income, increasing the stability and security of employment and monitoring employees’ work-life balance.

This review consists of knowledge mapping based on keywords from multidisciplinary studies on decent work and the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) model on tourism and hospitality studies. First, keyword knowledge mapping was conducted in VOSviewer, resulting in 667 papers. Then, a PRISMA model generated a systematic review of the literature in tourism and hospitality based on 41 papers.

Knowledge mapping revealed six thematic clusters, namely, Labor Rights and Gender Equality, Sustainability and Health, Psychology of Working Theory, Conceptualization of Decent Work, Marginalized Groups and Unemployment and Job Quality. According to the PRISMA model, the conceptual evolution of decent work in tourism and hospitality can be divided into three stages: initial (1999–2008), emerging (2009–2018) and development (2019–present).

Based on the findings, further interdisciplinary research into decent work is recommended. Scholars in the tourism and hospitality sector can incorporate other fields of decent work, such as psychology, to broaden the lens of studies to discover the role of meaning and purpose in the workplace and to promote the concept to its fullest extent. Furthermore, employees’ assessments of decent work might help businesses improve human resources management via corporate social responsibility measures.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first systematic review of decent work in tourism and hospitality. It shows that this notion is in its infancy, as most studies on the topic thus far have been empirical and descriptive. Nonetheless, most findings contribute to knowledge and practice by clarifying industry employment conditions.

Building on the emerging literature on the psychology of working theory, this study aims to examine the impact of decent work on employees’ mental health as well as the association between the dimensions of decent work on employees’ mental health.

Quantitative data were collected from 260 employees working in the Ghanaian mining industry.

Data analysis showed a positive significant relationship between decent work and employee mental health. Furthermore, access to health care, adequate compensation and hours that allow for free time and rest related positively and significantly with employee mental health. However, the relationships between physical and interpersonal safe working conditions, organizational values that complement family and social values and employee mental health were not significant.

The findings extend the emerging literature relative to the influence of decent work on mental health in developing country context, specifically, sub-Saharan Africa where concerns for decent work have become extremely relevant because of the experience of extreme poverty and unemployment that characterize the region.

How to foster voice behavior has always been a hot topic in organizational research; however, the mechanism through which performing decent work affects employee voice behavior remains to be fully understood. To address this deficiency, the current study investigates how basic need satisfaction may relate to perceived decent work and voice behavior and the moderating role of gender. Our research draws upon self-determination theory and social information processing theory.

The theoretical model was tested using two-wave investigation data collected from a sample of 349 employees and 85 supervisors in Southwest China.

Decent work perception was positively related to voice behavior, and this relationship was partially mediated by basic need satisfaction. In addition, the relationship between decent work perception and basic need satisfaction as well as the indirect effect of decent work perception on voice behavior via basic need satisfaction was stronger for men than for women.

This study highlights the pivotal roles of basic need satisfaction and gender in the consequences of decent work perception in the workplace. The authors provide new insights into the relationship between decent work perception and voice behavior and inspire scholars to elucidate other explanatory mechanisms in this link.

The study aims to investigate the impact of “decent work” dimensions on faculty members’ work engagement levels in the higher education institutions in India.

Data were obtained from 293 faculty members working in higher education institutes in India. The proposed study hypotheses were tested by deploying the statistical technique of multiple regression analysis using statistical package for social sciences Version-24.

Results demonstrated that of the five dimensions of “decent work,” only “access to health care” and “complementary values” were significant predictors of work engagement. “Adequate compensation,” “free time and rest” and “safe interpersonal working conditions” as dimensions of “decent work” were not found to be significantly related to work engagement.

Findings encourage education policymakers to implement a “decent work” policy for faculty members with greater emphasis on ensuring workplace-fit and provision of adequate health-care facilities to keep the workforce engaged.

It is one of the few studies conducted in the South-Asian context that highlight “decent work” as a crucial job resource, useful in enhancing the work engagement of faculty members in higher education institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to benchmark national culture in the context of decent work practices in project-based industry of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This should help in achieving successful short-term migration. The study also aims to validate the decent work practice indicators for Bangladeshi, Chinese, Indian and Pakistani construction labourers working in the UAE.

This study takes an ethnographic approach in its qualitative research methodology. The research involves observational methodology for its data collection during the execution of construction projects, semi-structured interviews to confirm the data collection during observational approach and a narrative methodology for the data collection within the labour camps, grassy fields and town streets. The qualitative data were expressed in quantitative terms to signify statistically the effect of the national culture in the context of decent work practices in this industry. Hence, the research involved triangulation in its data collection and analysis.

The study reveals that the national cultures of the migrant construction labourers in this context are not the same as identified by Geert Hofstede about four decades earlier. It was found that Indians were high in uncertainty avoidance, Pakistani construction labourers were high in masculinity, Bangladeshi construction labourers were low in long-term orientation (LTO) and individualism and Chinese labourers were found to have high individualism and LTO. This study verified decent work practice indicators for Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi construction labourers and identified different decent work practice indicators for Chinese construction labourers in the UAE than Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi construction labourers.

The study was limited to the construction labourers in the UAE. The data were collected during observation while execution construction projects and limited to visiting construction labour camps, grassy fields and town streets.

The differences in the national culture of the migrant construction labourers and the decent construction practices in the UAE have economic, social and environmental implications for construction labourers in the Arab world, for both migrant sending and receiving countries. Understanding and managing various national cultures and improving prevalent decent work practices would help to improve economic and social condition of the migrant construction labourers and help to arrest the advance of looming health problems.

The study identifies the national cultures of the migrant construction labourers in the context of decent work practices in the UAE. Improvement in the decent work practices of the migrant sending countries and the UAE and understanding of the culture of the migrants will help in preparing effective migration policy by both migrant sending and receiving countries. No study was found to have identified national cultures in the context of decent work practices and assessed the need for improvement in this regard.

This paper aims to validate the Korean version of the decent work scale and examine the relationship between decent work and work engagement.

After completing translation and back translation, the authors surveyed 266 Korean employees from various organizations via network sampling. They assessed Rasch’s model based on item response theory. In addition, they used classical test theory to evaluate the decent work scale’s validity and reliability.

The authors found that the current version of the decent work scale has good validity, reliability and item difficulty, and decent work has a positive relationship with work engagement. However, based on item response theory, the assessment showed that three of the items are extremely similar to another item within the same dimension, implying that the items are unable to discriminate among individual traits.

This study validated the decent work scale in a Korean work environment using Rasch’s (1960) model from the perspective of item response theory.

The purpose of this paper is to identify lessons and implications on the theme of decent work in social care. This has long been highlighted as integral to improving social care for the elderly. The COVID-19 pandemic experience reveals lessons and implications about the systemic absence of decent work in one place, Scotland, in care homes. The main lesson and implication is a need for change beyond the focus on levels of pay and systemic advocacy of decent work as it is conventionally understood.

Data was collected using qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 20 care workers in care homes.[AQ4] A range of care system institutional stakeholders was also interviewed. A range of care system institutional stakeholders was also interviewed.

Decent work in social care may only be progressed to the extent that a culture change is achieved, transcending the institutional stasis about who owns and engages with progressing decent work.

This is a study in one place, Scotland, with a small sample of frontline care workers in care homes and representatives from a range of institutions.

Effective culture change for decent work in care homes needs to be a higher research priority. More explicit culture policies can be a mechanism by which overall decent work and system change may be catalysed and sustainably secured together. Explicit culture change is here set out with respect to operational, institutional and national domains.

There needs to be social policy and political support for situating decent work to be part of a broader culture change around care work with the elderly. A culture-oriented change plan as well as new resourcing and structures can together ensure that the nadir of the pandemic experience was a historical turning point towards transformation rather than being just another low point in a recurring cycle.

The situating of systemic decent work progress within a broader culture change, and modelling that culture change, are original contributions.