The effects of employee and country characteristics on employment commitment in Europe

Abstract:

This article aims to explain variation in employment commitment among employees in Europe with individual- and country-level factors. Country-level factors refer to cultural, institutional and macroeconomic factors, while individual-level factors refer to characteristics of employees and their current jobs. The cultural, institutional and macroeconomic approaches have rarely been taken account of when studying the employment commitment of employees.

The data are based on Round 5 of the European Social Survey, collected in 2010 (N = 26 countries and N = 18,064 employees) and analyzed by means of a multilevel regression analysis. Results indicate that being female, having a higher tertiary education, displaying a high level of job discretion, perceiving low job insecurity and perceiving one’s pay as adequate increased employment commitment. Of the country-level factors only the economic prosperity of a country, measured by Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, positively affected employment commitment. The GNI seemed to explain the relationship between country-level self-transcendence values and employment commitment.