Comparing the self-employed and
employees on payroll
Marjan Gorgievski a, Arnold Bakker a,
Wilmar Schaufelib
A Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
B Utrecht University, The Netherlands
1

What predicts good work performance?
Personality (e.g., Rauch & Frese, 2007; Zhao &
Seibert, 2006)?
Competencies (e.g. Markman, 2007)?
Selfish passion for work (e.g., Shane, Locke &
Collins, 2003)?
2

Work engagement (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2003)
Vigor
Dedication
Absorption
Workaholism (Schaufeli, Taris & Bakker,
2006)
Excessive working
Compulsive working
3

Warning from cultural psychology:
Are our measures equivalent across cultures?
4

scalar metric Equal variance
I get carried away
when I’m working
I am immersed in Work engagement
my work (absorption)
I feel happy when I
am working
intensely
5

Work engagement
Full metric invariance
Partial scalar invariance (3 items different of 9)
Working compulsively
Full metric invariance
Partial scalar invariance (4 items different of 8)
Working excessively
Full metric invariance
Partial scalar invariance (3 items different of 9)
6

Raw sd Raw mean sd Raw Estimated
mean Employee difference corrected
SE s difference
Work 4.08 1.12 3.71 1.16 .37 .43 (SE = .09)
engagement
Working 2.36 .55 2.24 .52 .12 .07 (SE = .03)
excessively
Working 2.07 .61 2.04 .57 .03 Ns
compulsively
Corrected difference is only slightly different from raw
difference.
7

Intra role performance
Full metric invariance
Equal variances
Extra role perforance
Full metric invariance
Equal variances
Innovativeness
Partial metric invariance (1 item different from 6)
Equal variances
8

Working In‐Role
excessively Performance
.44
.78 .32
.63
.33 Working -.47 Extra ‐Role .25
Compulsively Performance
.18
.05 .53
-.40
Work Innovativeness
Engagement .24
9

Working In‐Role
excessively Performance
.44
.78 .32
.63
.33 Working -.47 Extra ‐Role .25
Compulsively Performance
.18
.05 .53
-.40
Work Innovativeness
Engagement .24
10

Working In‐Role
excessively Performance
.44
.78 .32
.63
.33 Working -.47 Extra ‐Role .25
Compulsively Performance
.18
.05 .53
-.40
Work Innovativeness
Engagement .24
11

Working In‐Role
excessively
Performance
.39
.72 .38
.33 Working .21 Extra Role .26
Compulsively ‐
Performance
.42
.23
.04
.39
-.13
Work
Innovativeness
Engagement .33
12

Measurement equivalence may be an issue when
comparing sub-cultures
The self employed have more work engagement
and work more excessively, but not more
compulsively than salaried employees
Working compulsively suppressed the positive
effect of working excessively
This pattern more visible among the self-
emloyed,
This effect stronger for innovation and extra role
behavior
13