A Dimming of the ‘Warm Glow’? Are Non-Profit Workers in the UK Still More Satisfied with their Jobs than Other Workers?

Abstract

Research has long shown that employees working for non-profit organisations report a higher level of job satisfaction than workers in other sectors. This chapter investigates trends in job satisfaction using longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey (1992–2008/2009), through models which contain detailed information on individual, job and organisational characteristics. We use fixed-effects ordered-logit models to investigate job satisfaction taking account of our panel structure and the nature of the job satisfaction dependent variable. The results suggest an important, non-profit premium in job satisfaction which, contradicting the apparent bivariate evidence, is not changing over time (in appropriate models) – the warm glow of higher job satisfaction remains.

Citation

Paola Donegani, C., McKay, S. and Moro, D. (2012), "A Dimming of the ‘Warm Glow’? Are Non-Profit Workers in the UK Still More Satisfied with their Jobs than Other Workers?", Bryson, A. (Ed.) Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory and Labor-Managed Firms (Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory & Labor-Managed Firms, Vol. 13), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 313-342. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0885-3339(2012)0000013015