Study title

Finnish Working Life Barometer 2011

Dataset ID Number

FSD2824

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2824

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Statistics Finland. Interview and Survey Services
• Ministry of Employment and the Economy

Abstract

The annual survey studied employee opinion on the quality of working life in Finland. Main themes were psychosocial working environment, job characteristics, pay systems, satisfaction with the job, employment security, training and development, capacity to work, and bullying and discrimination at work. The year 2011 survey contained new questions on teleworking, staff training and development, and how employers took into account the circumstances of employees in work arrangements.

First, the respondents were asked how many years they had worked for the employer they were working for at the time, type of contract, number of persons at the workplace, and what kind of changes there had been in staff numbers, working hours, contracts, and tasks during the past 12 months, and whether people had been transferred to other units. A number of questions pertained to co-operation negotiations, their process and results. Further questions covered team work, whether there had been conflicts at the workplace, between what groups and whether the conflicts had decreased or increased over the past 12 months. Incidents of bullying, harassment and violence were charted.

Next set of questions investigated the respondent's autonomy and influence at work and other job characteristics, overtime and its compensation, flexible working time arrangements, and R's membership in a trade union or professional association. Changes over the past year in workload, physical or mental stress, access to training etc. were explored as well as pay and bonus systems, and satisfaction with pay. Psychosocial working environment was charted with a number of questions, for instance, whether the relationships between the employees and supervisors/managers were open and confidential, whether trying new things was supported etc. One topic pertained to whether the respondents had presented any ideas to improve working conditions, products, services or working methods at the workplace and whether there had been other development initiatives. The respondents' participation in job-related training and development was investigated.

One theme pertained to job satisfaction. The respondents were asked to what extent they agreed with a number of statements relating to staff sufficiency, organisation of work, access to information, physical and mental stress etc. They were asked how likely it was that they would be dismissed or laid off, or their tasks or working hours would be changed over the next year. Views were probed on the employer's financial situation, effects of the economic recession on the workplace, employment situation in Finland and possible changes in working life. A number of questions investigated how the employees' capacity to work and occupational health and safety had been taken into account at the workplace, the respondents' sickness absences, and estimate of own mental and physical capacity to work.

The next set of questions charted whether the employer took into account the respondent's life circumstances in the number of work tasks, flexibility of working time and career development. Relating to remote working, the respondents were asked how often they worked at home, their reasons for working at home (e.g. agreement with the employer), number of hours spent working at home in the previous four weeks, whether they worked somewhere else than their home and workplace, and whether they had been in contact with the workplace or clients (by using telecommunications) outside their regular hours in the previous four weeks. Discrimination at work based on ethnic group, age, gender and type of contract was explored.

Background variables included the respondent's year of birth, age, gender, region, type of municipality, education, economic activity, status in employment, industry of employment, occupational group, employer type, weekly working hours, and additional jobs. Information on age, gender, region, type of municipality and education level were obtained from registers. The other background variables were obtained from the Labour Force Survey 2011 telephone interviews which were often conducted together with the Finnish Working Life Barometer interview.

Keywords

arrangement of working time; autonomy at work; discrimination; economic recession; employees; employment contracts; job characteristics; job satisfaction; job security; local bargaining; occupational training; personnel management; personnel policy; telework; wages; working conditions; workloads

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Social behaviour and attitudes (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Equality, inequality and social exclusion (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Employment (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Labour relations/conflict (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Working conditions (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Occupational health (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Finnish Working Life Barometers

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• Statistics Finland

Time Period Covered

2011

Collection Dates

2011-09-05 – 2011-10-13

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Finnish-speaking employees aged 18-64 who worked at least 10 hours a week

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Data Sources

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey 2011 [e-publication]. ISSN=1798-7857. Helsinki: Statistics Finland. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/tie_en.html [referred: 8 July 2013].

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Simple random

Simple random sample from the population register. For its Labour Force Survey 2011, Statistics Finland drew a random sample of people aged between 15 - 74 and living in Finland. From the Labour Force Survey sample, Finnish-speaking employees who had responded being employed for at least 10 hours a week were selected for the Working Life Barometer.

Collection Mode

Telephone interview: Computer-assisted (CATI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

80.1

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

3.0

Related Datasets

FSD2756 Finnish Working Life Barometer: Local Government Employees 2011

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

The variable numbering in the data follows the numbering used in the original questionnaire.

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Statistics Finland & Ministry of Employment and the Economy: Finnish Working Life Barometer 2011 [dataset]. Version 3.0 (2018-07-26). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2824

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Materials

Aho, Sami & Mäkiaho, Ari (2012). Työolobarometri. Lokakuu 2011. Helsinki: Työ- ja elinkeinoministeriön julkaisuja; Työ ja yrittäjyys 29/2012. http://www.tem.fi/files/33535/TEMjul_29_2012_web.pdf.pdf [viitattu 14.6.2013].

Related Publications

Kunta-alan työolobarometri 2011. Työ- ja elinkeinoministeriön työolobarometrin 2011 kuntatyöpaikkojen osatarkastelu (2012) [verkkodokumentti]. Helsinki: Työturvallisuuskeskus, kuntaryhmä. Saatavilla: http://www.ttk.fi/files/2500/Kunta-alan_tyoolobarometri_2011.pdf [viitattu 13.7.2012].

Aho, Simo & Mäkiaho, Ari (2012). Työolobarometri. Lokakuu 2011. Helsinki: Työ- ja elinkeinoministeriö. Työ- ja elinkeinoministeriön julkaisuja; Työ ja yrittäjyys 29/2012. http://www.tem.fi/files/33535/TEMjul_29_2012_web.pdf.pdf [viitattu 2.8.2012].

Auvinen, Katri (2014). Menettelytapojen oikeudenmukaisuuden, työperäisen autonomian, ideointiin kannustamisen ja konfliktien yhteys muutosorientoituneeseen organisaatiokansalaiskäyttäytymiseen. Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto. Sosiaalipsykologian pro gradu -tutkielma.

Koivula, Aki (2015): Joustava työaika, parempi työ? Työajan ja työn laadullisten tekijöiden tarkastelua vuosina 2009-2013. Teoksessa: Koivula, Aki & Oksanen, Janna & Räsänen, Pekka (eds) Economic and Sociological Studies in Turbulent Times. Working Papers in Economic Sociology (VII). University of Turku: Turku, 1-26.

Keyriläinen, Marianne & Lyly-Yrjänäinen, Maija (2021). Työelämän laadun 15 vuoden trendejä. Mitä kansalliset kyselytutkimukset kertovat? Helsinki: Työ- ja elinkeinoministeriö. Työpoliittinen aikakauskirja 64 (2), 24-37. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-327-860-0