Job quality in the Economy for the Common Good: conceptualisation and implementation in Austria and Germany

Laia Ollé-Espluga*, Johanna Muckenhuber, Markus Hadler

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    4 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The Economy for the Common Good (ECG) is an Austrian-born movement promoting an alternative economic model built on values oriented to the common welfare such as human dignity, solidarity, ecological sustainability, social justice, transparency and democratic participation. To provide (high) quality of work plays an important role in the ECG philosophy but little is known on the actual labour conditions of workers employed in such type of firms and whether they differ from those of firms in the "regular" default economy. In this paper we focus on Austria and Germany, the countries where this economic model is most widespread, and present results on the general structure of firms following the ECG model and the working and employment conditions in these firms. We identify three main dimensions of job quality promoted by the ECG model, namely employment quality, information and worker participation, and psychosocial working conditions. Using data published in the Common Good Reports, we extracted data informing about these dimensions of job quality at an organisational level of 59 firms with at least 5 employees in Austria and Germany. We discuss which work-related features are promoted by organisations following the ECG model and compare them to the standards encouraged by the model. Results are also discussed with respect to evidence on the quality of work in the social economy.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)177-202
    Number of pages26
    JournalCIRIEC-Espana: Revista de Economia Publica, Social y Cooperativa
    Issue number99
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jul 2020

    Keywords

    • Austria
    • Economy for the Common Good
    • job quality

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