Online Probing:
Across all countries, self-employed respondents are more likely to answer that they can choose or change their order of tasks, methods, and also speed of their work. However, the majority of all respondents agree with these items, indicating positive decision latitude.
In question 18a, Item A and Item B were probed to get a better understanding of how respondents interpret both items and whether the interpretations differ between employees and self-employed.
Cognitive Interviews:
This question was asked in the cognitive online pretest to assess differences between employed and self-employed. It was decided that these differences and further related issues should be taken up in more depth in the face-to-face cognitive interviews.
As in the online pretest, most respondents answered positively to all three items, with only two respondents not choosing “yes” for each statement in Germany and three to four in Poland. In almost all cases, these were employed respondents.
Comprehension and differentiation of items
The understanding of the second item and the term “methods” was explored. The German translation into “Vorgehen” (literally “procedure”) is rather similar to the translation of the first item “Reihenfolge” (order).
For both the German and Polish respondents, differences in comprehension don’t arise from employment status as such (i.e. employed versus self-employed, or typical versus atypical employment situation), but from the individual work settings. Associations are commonly related to temporal, organizational or procedural aspects, or referring to order.
Respondents gave definitions of the term “methods of work” with ease and give in-scope examples:
However, respondents often confound the dimensions in their explanations. This means that they demonstrate a correct understanding of the term methods, but usually add aspects that refer to the order of their tasks and/or their pace of work:
In sum, “methods of work” is clearly a related concept to order of tasks and also pace of work, with some respondents differentiating these aspects better than others.
Answer Options
Both in Poland and in Germany, one respondent refused to answer item B, saying that they couldn’t decide. These respondents wanted to have an answer option “partially” or “half/half”. These respondents explain why they would need an “in-between” category:
In Poland, nearly half the respondents spontaneously reacted to the questions saying it is hard to give a categorical, binary answer, as situations vary. Nine respondents in Poland (PL02, PL03, PL05, PL06, PL08, PL09, PL11, PL14) explicitly state that a scale should be used to give a differentiated answer.
In Germany, ten of 16 respondents state that the answer category is very good, good, ok, or indicated that there was no category missing. Three respondents (DE03, DE11, DE16) explicitly missed a third category “in parts”. Another three respondents (DE02, DE05, DE14) would prefer to give open answers to this question.
In sum, most respondents choose “yes” as an answer category because they feel that this answer is more appropriate when they feel that they can “sometimes” or “often” influence their order or tasks, methods of work or pace. Giving “no” as an answer is only done when they have “absolutely no say” in this regard.
Other findings
One respondent continually refers to both his main paid job and his additional job while answering the question (DE14). This is an example of respondents forgetting to focus on the main paid job only. Another respondent (DE05) double-checks with the interviewer whether she should refer to her main paid job.
| Itemtext | Aktiv getestet |
|---|---|
A. your order of tasksItemtext:
A. your order of tasks
Empfehlungen:
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Befund zum Item:When asked to explain why they selected their answers to this item, respondents argue along several lines.
This reasoning is provided equally often by employees and the self-employed.
Respondents who say they are not able to choose or change their order of tasks mostly argue that their work requires them to complete tasks according to a specific schedule (about 12% to 18% of the cases in each country):
Surprisingly, this explanation is provided not only by employees, but also by self-employed respondents (DE: 2 respondents, UK: 4 respondents, PL: 9 respondents). It seems that these respondents do not interpret the item to refer to the general level of autonomy involved in their job but to a rather specific task or specific working conditions:
“You can't change anything or you wouldn't sell.” (R196UK)“The order is strictly determined by law and by the technical requirements.” (R98PL; Respondent installs fiber-optic networks)“In farming, you can’t start from back to front.” (R202PL) Another surprising finding is that four respondents (DE: 2, UK: 2), who work as (preschool) teachers, say they are not able to change their order of tasks but that the order is dictated by the curricula or pupils:
Finally, a few respondents in each country (DE: 4, UK: 3, PL: 1) argue that the order of their tasks depends on their clients. This explanation is given by both employees and the self-employed:
It is important to note that two of these eight respondents answer “yes” to Item A, while the other six respondents answered “no”. Hence, when interpreting this item, the focus of the first two respondents is on whether their order of tasks changes from time to time, while the focus of the latter six respondents is on whether they are able to choose or change the order “as they please”. Thema der Frage:
Arbeit & Beruf/ Arbeitssituation & Berufstätigkeit
Konstrukt:Autonomy
|
Ja |
B. your methods of workItemtext:
B. your methods of work
Empfehlungen:
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Befund zum Item:Interestingly, considerably more German respondents say they are able to choose or change their methods of work (about 90%) than UK and Polish respondents (about 70% respectively). A closer look at the response distributions reveals that this difference is mostly due to the fact that employees in Germany are considerably more likely to answer “yes” to this item (83%) than employees in the UK (53%) and Poland (57%). It seems that the term “methods of work” is interpreted somewhat differently by respondents in Germany than by respondents in the other two countries. Given that the understanding of this term was not probed directly in this study, this issue should ideally be addressed further in the upcoming face-to-face cognitive pretest.
This reasoning is provided slightly more often by self-employed respondents than by employees.
Surprisingly, this explanation is again provided not only by employees, but also by self-employed respondents (DE: 1, UK: 6, PL: 7). It seems that these respondents do not interpret the item to refer to the general level of autonomy involved in their job but to a rather specific task or specific working conditions:
Finally, four respondents (DE: 2, PL: 2) argue that their method of work depends on their clients. This explanation is given by both employees and self-employed:
However, in contrast to Item A, all of these four respondents say they are not able to choose or change their methods of work. Thema der Frage:
Arbeit & Beruf/ Arbeitssituation & Berufstätigkeit
Konstrukt:Autonomy
|
Ja |
| C. your speed or rate of work | Nein |
