autonomy & control in the workplace and beyond contemporary data issues in `capital’ dr philip...

© University of Kent Q-Step Centre 2015

Autonomy & Control in the Workplace and Beyond

Contemporary Data Issues in `Capital’

Dr Philip Cunliffe & Dr Lucy Barnes


Autonomy in the workplace How much independence do you have in

performing your tasks at work? If you do not currently work, characterize your major work in the past.

Complete independence … something in between No independence at all

How well does this survey question track concepts that would be useful for a Marxist analysis?


A broader survey sample To your laptops…

Open up www.worldvaluessurvey.org in a browser Left-hand menu

select Data and Documentation Select Online Analysis

Select Wave: 2005-2009 Select `United Kingdom’ (bottom right) Type: V246 in the box named `Variable’, and click

`Show’.

http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/


Workplace independence in the UKThis shows the responses from a representative survey of about 1000 people in the UK for the same question you answered.

In the WVS: Complete independence: 24% … something in between: 63% No independence at all: 5 %


Summarizing this information What’s the average (mean) level of autonomy

at work?

How precise do you think this estimate is?


How precise? We can say more exactly how precise this

estimate from 1000 people is The standard error of the mean

Imagine we took a bunch of 1000 person samples, and got the averages over and over again

We’d get slightly different answers each time On average we’d be estimating the population

mean, but there would be variability

The standard error of the mean captures that variability, based on our original sample


The standard error of the mean

SEM (variability) = variability / sample size SEM = standard deviation / sample size

Use the sample standard deviation in the data The sample size is the number of substantive

responses (i.e. excluding NAs and Don’t Knows) in the data

Calculate the SEM


Confidence intervals A different way of thinking about variability 95% confidence interval is the interval within which 95% of

the estimates of the mean will fall, based on our data


Calculating confidence intervals Confidence intervals use the variability in the

SEM 95% of estimates fall in the interval defined

by

Calculate the gap from the mean to the boundary (1.96*SEM)

Add/subtract this from the estimate of the mean (7.13)

Calculates confidence intervals!


Interpreting the survey information How does the average in the survey sample

compare to that in our class? Does this relate to the kinds of jobs you/we How do you expect autonomy to vary with

level of education? have had?


Back to the WVS On your ‘results’ page, find the box called

`cross by’. Scroll down and select `highest educational level attained’. What group has the highest level of autonomy at

work? How does this compare to your expectations?

If different– does this mean that the statistics are Wrong Useless Incomplete

Or something else?


Broader contrasts How do you think autonomy at work would

change with the level of capitalist development?


More countries Click back to the `Select countries’ tab and

also select China and India

Click again through V246, ‘Show’., and consider the shares in each country who claim to have ‘complete control’ What does this look like, across countries? Is this surprising? Why, or why not? What else about the comparative information do

you notice?


Employer control outside the workplace Can (should?) employers be able to control

what employees say on social media?

"As more and more of our daily speech migrates online, business groups are hoping that [the regulatory agency] will make it easier for employers to control that speech":

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2012/07/getting_fired_for_what_you_post_on_facebook.html





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