National employment systems and job autonomy: Why job autonomy is high in the Nordic countries and low in the United States, Canada, and Australia

We present evidence that, across countries, similar jobs carry Very differe nt levels of autonomy. Workers in Nordic countries have greater discretion than workers in the United States, Canada, and Australia, all else being eq ual. This suggests that Students of job autonomy, who emphasize task comple xity and human capital, should heed the role of the wider institutional env ironment. We examine three explanations of the link between national locati on and autonomy. The Taylorism/de-skilling thesis suggests that work contro l is a zero-sum game between workers and managers, such that in countries w here managers exercise great control, workers will exercise little. The col lective bargaining thesis suggests that union bargaining strategy is the ke y: unionists will have high autonomy in 'co-determination' countries and lo w autonomy in 'job control' countries. We argue more broadly chat national management, training, bargaining, and unemployment systems operate accordin g to different logics. Where they are oriented to rule-governed work, auton omy will be low. Where they are oriented to skill-governed work, autonomy w ill be high. Detailed data on job autonomy from over seven thousand jobs in seven countries support our contention that national employment systems sh ape job autonomy.