Exploring the public-private and company size differences in employees' work characteristics and burnout: data analysis of a nationwide survey in Taiwan

Abstract

Distinct differences exist between public-private sector organizations with respect to the market environment and operational objectives; furthermore, among private sector businesses, organizational structures and work conditions often vary between large- and small-sized companies. Despite these obvious structural distinctions, however, sectoral differences in employees' psychosocial risks and burnout status in national level have rarely been systematically investigated. Based on 2013 national employee survey data, 15,000 full-time employees were studied. Sector types were classified into "public," "private enterprise-large (LE)," and "private enterprise-small and medium (SME);" based on the definition of SMEs by Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the associations of sector types with self-reported burnout status (measured by the Chinese version of Copenhagen Burnout Inventory) were examined, taking into account other work characteristics and job instability indicators. Significantly longer working hours and higher perceived job insecurity were found among private sector employees than their public sector counterparts. With further consideration of company size, greater dissatisfaction of job control and career prospect were found among SME employees than the other two sector type workers. This study explores the pattern of public-private differences in work conditions and employees' stress-related problems to have policy implications for supporting mechanism for disadvantaged workers in private sectors.

Keywords: Burnout; Civil servant; Company size; Job stress; Private sector; Public sector; Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME); Taiwan.

Fig. 1.

Average starting salary of civil servants^a and private sector employees^b and the economic growth rate of Taiwan^c, 1980–2015^d. ^a Military personnel not included. ^b(1) Civil servant: Calculated based on the “Civil servants, Military personnel and Teachers on Compensation Plan”, issued over the years by the Central Personnel Administration, Executive Yuan, Taiwan. (2) Private enterprise employees: according to the results of “survey on wage by occupation” over the years, Council of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan, Taiwan. ^cNational statistics, Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, Taiwan (www.stat.gov.tw). ^dThe exchange rate for the Taiwan New Dollar against the US dollar is about 30:1 (October 2017).