Reducing work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: UK employees' preferences for working-time reduction and the factors affecting them

减少工作以减少温室气体排放：英国员工对减少工作时间的偏好及其影响因素

• 批准号: 2606207
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Southampton
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2606207
• 关键词: Reducing; work; reduce; greenhouse; gas

Background and rationale: An equitable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in response to globalclimate change requires significant change in citizen's lives, particularly more affluent individuals in theGlobal North. A change recommended as fulfilling simultaneously environmental and social policyobjectives is a working-time reduction (Gough, 2013). Environmentally, shorter working hours are likelyto reduce consumption among those with greatest responsibility for emissions (Buchs et al, 2011;Druckman et al, 2012). Socially, working-time reduction can ease unemployment through job sharing(Jackson and Victor, 2011), and has been strongly associated with improved mental health (Buhl andAcosta, 2016).However, there are doubts about feasibility. Ecologically-aware citizens are sympathetic (Iosifidi, 2016)9 / 13but constitute only a small minority. More promising to generate broader interest are employee concernsabout overemployment ie preferences among national working populations for fewer hours (Simic, 2002).Research on these preferences is mainly quantitative, unable to explore underlying motivations:preferences are interpreted at face value rather than explored in relation to broader socio-economic andinstitutional factors related to national working-time regimes (eg workplace regulation, practices relatingto full/part time work and anti-social hours) (Fagan, 2001). Qualitative work has focused mainly ondebates about women's preferences (Hakim, 1995) or individuals with particular work challenges(Balderson et al, 2020).This project thus seeks to develop a more structurally-informed understanding of the working timepreferences of affluent employees in the UK (ie those earning above the average wage) as a means toestablish working-time reduction's potential in mitigating climate change. Its research questions are asfollows: To what extent are more affluent employees in the UK prepared to sacrifice income in return forgreater leisure time? Which groups (by income, gender, occupation etc.) are more prepared to do so andwhich less? What are the main obstacles preventing individuals from developing a working-timereduction preference, or acting on their preference if they do? How do these relate to the UK's workingtimeregime? How do gender considerations affect these dynamics?A mixed methods approach will be adopted to answer these questions. First, use will be made of UK'sQuarterly Labour Force Survey, a large household sample survey which includes questions on workingtimes, actual and preferred. From this micro-data, workers on or above average wages will be selectedand split between those who indicate overemployment (ie their actual working hours are greater thanpreferred) and those who do not. Using a dichotomous dependent variable (overemployed/otheremployees), a binary logit regression will be conducted using explanatory variables comprising sociodemographicfactors, household and family characteristics, employment conditions, occupation andincome. The qualitative part of the study will follow the completion of the quantitative part and bedesigned to explore in depth underlying motivations as indicated by the regression. It will focus on theexperience of employees of two UK companies which have voluntarily during recent years reducedworking hours to increase productivity. Their employees' experiences can provide particular insight onthe practical operation of working-time reduction and thus its broader potential.

背景和理由：为应对全球气候变化而公平地减少温室气体排放，需要显著改变公民的生活，特别是全球北方较富裕的个人。同时实现环境和社会政策目标的一个建议改变是减少工作时间（Gough，2013）。从环境角度来看，缩短工作时间可能会减少那些对排放负有最大责任的人的消费（布克斯等人，2011年;Druckman等人，2012年）。从社会角度来看，减少工作时间可以通过分担工作来缓解失业（杰克逊和维克托，2011），并与改善心理健康密切相关（布尔和阿科斯塔，2016）。有意识的公民是同情的（Iosifidi，2016）9 /13，但只占少数。更有希望产生更广泛的兴趣是雇员对过度就业的担忧，即全国工作人口对减少工作时间的偏好（Simic，2002年）。对这些偏好的研究主要是定量的，无法探索潜在的动机：偏好被解释为表面价值，而不是与更广泛的社会经济和与国家工作时间制度有关的制度因素（例如工作场所法规，与全职/兼职工作和反社会时间有关的做法）（Fagan，2001年）。定性工作主要集中在关于女性偏好（Hakim，1995）或具有特殊工作挑战的个人（Balderson等人，2020）的争论上。因此，该项目旨在对富裕员工的工作时间偏好进行更结构化的了解英国（即收入高于平均工资的人）作为确定减少工作时间在缓解气候变化方面潜力的一种手段。它的研究问题如下：在英国，更富裕的员工在多大程度上愿意牺牲收入来换取更多的休闲时间？哪些群体（按收入、性别、职业等）更愿意这样做，哪个更不愿意？哪些主要障碍阻止个人形成减少工作时间的偏好，或者如果他们这样做了，就按照他们的偏好行事？这些与英国的工作时间制度有什么关系？性别因素如何影响这些动态？将采用混合方法来回答这些问题。首先，将利用联合王国的季度劳动力调查，这是一项大规模的家庭抽样调查，其中包括关于工作时间、实际工作时间和首选工作时间的问题。从这些微观数据中，将选择平均工资或高于平均工资的工人，并将其分为表示过度就业（即他们的实际工作时间大于首选时间）和不表示过度就业的工人。使用二分因变量（过度就业/其他就业），使用包括社会人口因素、家庭和家庭特征、就业条件、职业和收入在内的解释变量进行二分logit回归。研究的定性部分将遵循定量部分的完成，旨在深入探讨回归所表明的潜在动机。它将侧重于两家英国公司的员工的经验，这两家公司近年来自愿减少工作时间以提高生产率。他们的员工的经验可以提供关于减少工作时间的实际操作的特别见解，从而提供更广泛的潜力。