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Socio-economic well-being and behavioral reactions
Edward Groenland, Socio-Economic Well-Being and Behacioral Reactions. A panel study of people drawing benefits from the Dutch National Social Security System. Tilburg University Press, Tilburg. pp. 230. This is a Ph.D. thesis translated from the original Dutch by the author. The study is part of a wider research project into ‘Social Security and the allocation issue’, based on the Dutch Social Security system. Briefly, Groenland sets out to examine how the recipients of different forms of social security payments view the quality of their lives and what, if anything, they do as a result of these feelings. With a better understanding of the process involved, Groenland would then hope to provide suggestions for Government policy to enhance the quality of life of such recipients. Groenland used both a one-year longitudinal study and cross-sectional comparisons between samples. Discussion of the concept (or more properly concepts) of ‘well-being’ forms one central strand of the book. After a fairly lengthy discussion of a variety of models, Groenland arrives at the ‘tentative definition’ of socio-economic well-being as (that which). . . ‘refers to a sense of well-being evoked by the socio-economic aspects of one’s (life) situation. It is multidimensional in nature with a common monetary base’. Groenland explicitly puts emphasis on cognitive aspects, though to this reader at least it is difficult to see how ‘well-being’ could be other than felt or experienced. According to Groenland, the ‘affectively toned experiences of wellbeing or ill-being’ that result from the cognitions have ‘the potential to evoke behavioral response of an overt or covert nature’. It is the investigation of the relationships between socio-economic well-being and these behavioral responses in the samples that forms the heart of the book. The chapter on construction of measurement scales for what turned out to be a four-dimensional construct of socio-economic well-being and of scales of overt and covert behaviour shows that a great deal of time and effort (not to mention statistical analysis) went into this part of the research. That the four dimensions can be combined (‘mashed’ might be a better term) into one final figure in the statistical analysis that follows is not very convincingly explained. The ways in which the notion of covert behaviour are handled and the questions aimed at
tapping such behaviour also left a sense of unease. Covert behaviour seems here to mean thinking about doing something, where overt behaviour is doing it. Yet some of the questions, at least in translation, appear to confuse the two. Many of the questions used are also complicated both in their construction and use of vocabulary, though this may reflect a higher level of educational achievement amongst recipients of various social security benefits in the Netherlands than in the UK. Groenland provides a considerable amount of statistical findings along with analyses of the relationships between variables in the study, all of which were no doubt pored over eagerly and scrupulously by the examiners. Well, what does it all boil down to? Firstly that income is a key variable affecting socio-economic well-being and both overt and covert behaviour. Next that being unemployed, as against being employed, tends to lead to feelings of relative deprivation, which lead to feelings of low levels of well-being, which lead to covert behaviour. The group in this study with the strongest feelings of deprivation were those on welfare; not least because they apparently continue to choose ‘wrong’ comparative reference groups which accentuate the differences, unlike the unemployed group who adjusted their comparisons the longer they remained unemployed. Policy implications? Apart from implying that more income be provided, in effect Groenland seems to suggest that those who can move out of the social security system should do so and those who cannot, due to disability for instance, should be encouraged to change their perceptions so that they see the positive side of their situation. A change of comparative reference group to those as badly off as themselves might reduce feelings of relative deprivation. Reinterpreting unemployment as being freed from the drudgery of work whilst being given an income, rather than being without work, that commodity so highly valued by the employed, is another of Groenland’s suggestions. Following on from this, Groenland proposes that the Western view of work be reevaluated (downwards?) and hence the deprivation perceived by those on social security may be reduced. A cynic might rephrase this as: getting the poor to realise that there is always someone worse off than themselves; anyway work is really a curse, so we shouldn’t value it; nor should those dreadful capitalists insist that the only way to get an income is to work for it. It seemed
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such hard graft to arrive at these conclusions via such a complex statistical process that this reviewer took some of Groenland’s advice and went canoeing down the Dordogne rather than immediately writing up this review. Nigel van Zwanenberg Newcastle Business School University of Northumbria Ellison Building Ellison Palace Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST UK
G.J. Miller, Managerial Dilemmas: The Political Economy of Hierarchy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992. pp. 254. g32.50 (ISBN 0 521 37281 X>. An initial fly-page reads: ‘this . . . book . . . bridges the gap between traditional organization economics. The former stresses ... theory . . . and organizational managerial leadership and cooperation among employees, while the ... . latter focuses on.. . incentive systems that will induce efficiency Miller demonstrates that it is impossible to design an incentive system based on self-interest . . . he concludes that organizations whose managers can inspire cooperation . . . enjoy a significant competitive advantage.’ These few sentences capture the thesis and favour of the book. Miller begins by wondering why, given that market mechanisms are so efficient, organisations tend not to employ them internally, preferring to make hierarchical arrangements. The answer, he suggests, lies in the cost of calculating the costs and benefits of every transaction (although, actually, he does not seem to realise just how high such costs really are). Having acknowledged the efficiency of hierarchy, he asks why hierarchical processes tend toward centralised dictatorship instead of participative democracy. To answer, he cites situations in which democratic processes result in everyone getting what no one wants - and hardly ever the solution that most rational people would
tapping such behaviour also left a sense of unease. Covert behaviour seems here to mean thinking about doing something, where overt behaviour is doing it. Yet some of the questions, at least in translation, appear to confuse the two. Many of the questions used are also complicated both in their construction and use of vocabulary, though this may reflect a higher level of educational achievement amongst recipients of various social security benefits in the Netherlands than in the UK. Groenland provides a considerable amount of statistical findings along with analyses of the relationships between variables in the study, all of which were no doubt pored over eagerly and scrupulously by the examiners. Well, what does it all boil down to? Firstly that income is a key variable affecting socio-economic well-being and both overt and covert behaviour. Next that being unemployed, as against being employed, tends to lead to feelings of relative deprivation, which lead to feelings of low levels of well-being, which lead to covert behaviour. The group in this study with the strongest feelings of deprivation were those on welfare; not least because they apparently continue to choose ‘wrong’ comparative reference groups which accentuate the differences, unlike the unemployed group who adjusted their comparisons the longer they remained unemployed. Policy implications? Apart from implying that more income be provided, in effect Groenland seems to suggest that those who can move out of the social security system should do so and those who cannot, due to disability for instance, should be encouraged to change their perceptions so that they see the positive side of their situation. A change of comparative reference group to those as badly off as themselves might reduce feelings of relative deprivation. Reinterpreting unemployment as being freed from the drudgery of work whilst being given an income, rather than being without work, that commodity so highly valued by the employed, is another of Groenland’s suggestions. Following on from this, Groenland proposes that the Western view of work be reevaluated (downwards?) and hence the deprivation perceived by those on social security may be reduced. A cynic might rephrase this as: getting the poor to realise that there is always someone worse off than themselves; anyway work is really a curse, so we shouldn’t value it; nor should those dreadful capitalists insist that the only way to get an income is to work for it. It seemed
Book reL+ws
757
such hard graft to arrive at these conclusions via such a complex statistical process that this reviewer took some of Groenland’s advice and went canoeing down the Dordogne rather than immediately writing up this review. Nigel van Zwanenberg Newcastle Business School University of Northumbria Ellison Building Ellison Palace Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST UK
G.J. Miller, Managerial Dilemmas: The Political Economy of Hierarchy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992. pp. 254. g32.50 (ISBN 0 521 37281 X>. An initial fly-page reads: ‘this . . . book . . . bridges the gap between traditional organization economics. The former stresses ... theory . . . and organizational managerial leadership and cooperation among employees, while the ... . latter focuses on.. . incentive systems that will induce efficiency Miller demonstrates that it is impossible to design an incentive system based on self-interest . . . he concludes that organizations whose managers can inspire cooperation . . . enjoy a significant competitive advantage.’ These few sentences capture the thesis and favour of the book. Miller begins by wondering why, given that market mechanisms are so efficient, organisations tend not to employ them internally, preferring to make hierarchical arrangements. The answer, he suggests, lies in the cost of calculating the costs and benefits of every transaction (although, actually, he does not seem to realise just how high such costs really are). Having acknowledged the efficiency of hierarchy, he asks why hierarchical processes tend toward centralised dictatorship instead of participative democracy. To answer, he cites situations in which democratic processes result in everyone getting what no one wants - and hardly ever the solution that most rational people would