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Empirical Research on Decent Work: A Literature Review Cover

Empirical Research on Decent Work: A Literature Review

Open Access
|Jun 2019

Abstract

Decent work is the sum of people’s aspirations in their working lives. This article aims to report the results of a systematically conducted literature review of empirical research concerning decent work. Electronic databases B-On and EBESCO host, using the keywords ‘decent work’ in the ‘title’ and ‘abstract’, yielded 689 citations. After a two-stage application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 38 articles were retained for analysis. All studies were conducted between 2003 and 2017. The studies focused on work conditions in the case of decent work deficit, those workers not benefiting from decent work conditions, and what is necessary for the existence of decent work. Study samples consisted typically of workers from different sectors and countries. Data collection was mainly by interview or institutional statistical databases and most studies were descriptive and cross-sectional. The results of this review show that empirical research on decent work is grounded in various disciplines and is still in its early stages. Additionally, most studies report decent work deficit and do not cover the whole decent work concept. Medium, low, and very low development countries are under-researched.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.16993/sjwop.53 | Journal eISSN: 2002-2867
Language: English
Page range: 4 - 4
Submitted on: Apr 9, 2018
Accepted on: Apr 25, 2019
Published on: Jun 14, 2019
Published by: Stockholm University Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 2019 Susana Pereira, Nuno Dos Santos, Leonor Pais, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.