Being Your Own Boss and Bossing Others: The Moderating Effect of Managing Others on Work Meaning and Autonomy for the Self-Employed and Employees

Milena Nikolova, Boris Nikolaev () and Christopher Boudreaux
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Boris Nikolaev: Colorado State University

No 14909, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We examine the moderating role of being a supervisor for meaning and autonomy of self-employed and employed workers. We rely on regression analysis applied after entropy balancing based on a nationally representative dataset of over 80,000 individuals in 30 European countries for 2005, 2010, and 2015. We find that being a self-employed supervisor is correlated with more work meaningfulness and autonomy compared with being a salaried supervisor working for an employer. Wage supervisors and self-employed supervisors experience similar stress levels and have similar earnings, though self- employed supervisors work longer hours. Moreover, solo entrepreneurs experience slightly less work meaningfulness, but more autonomy compared with self-employed supervisors. This may be explained by the fact that solo entrepreneurs earn less but have less stress and shorter working hours than self- employed supervisors.

Keywords: self-employment; supervisors; autonomy; work meaningfulness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 L26 M10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2021-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-eur and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Small Business Economics. 2023, 60, 463–483

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Journal Article: Being your own boss and bossing others: the moderating effect of managing others on work meaning and autonomy for the self-employed and employees (2023)
Working Paper: Being your own boss and bossing others: The moderating effect of managing others on work meaning and autonomy for the self-employed and employees (2021)
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