WES
Workplace Employee Survey
Description
- Nature: Combination of a workplace survey and a survey of employees (within the same workplaces).
- Usage: The database allows researchers to investigate changes that occur among employees and to link these changes to events taking place in firms and vice versa.
- Content: The primary goal of the WES is to establish a link between events occurring in workplaces and the outcomes for workers. The second goal of the survey is to develop a better understanding of the forces shaping companies in an era of substantial change. The workplace survey component of the WES covers subjects such as the adoption of technologies, organizational change, training and other human resource practices, business strategies, and labour market dynamics. The employee survey component covers wages, hours of work, job type, human capital, use of technologies and training.
- Coverage period: The workplace survey covers the years 1999 to 2006. The survey of employees covers the years 1999 to 2005.
Funded Projects
This project consists of three projects:
Project 1 - Complementarity of Performance Pay and Task Allocation
Bryan Hong, Lorenz Keung and Mu-Jeung Yang
Complementary management practices are those that are interdependent and together reinforce one another to improve overall firm performance. Research has suggested that such complementarity between different management practices is one underlying cause of differences in performance outcomes among firms. The purpose of this study is to examine the complementarity between two specific management practices: pay-for-performance and decentralization, the dispersion of decision making from a central authority to subgroups of the firm. While these practices have been empirically investigated individually, little is known about how the interaction between decentralization and pay-for-performance may affect firm performance.
Project 2 - Barbarians at the Gate: How foreign competition affects intra-organizational conflict
Bryan Hong and Romel Mostafa
Cyert and March (1963) describe the firm as the combination of interdependent groups, which often have competing interests. It is no surprise that such competing interests can lead to conflict within firms, also referred to as intra-organizational conflict. The effects of intra-organizational conflict are well studied. Research has indicated that the time managers spend managing conflicts is substantial, suggesting the cost of conflicts within the firm are significant. Little is known about how forces outside of the firm affect the likelihood and prevalence of conflict within a firm. The purpose of this study is to estimate how one specific external force, foreign competition, affects the occurrence and frequency of intra-organizational conflict in the Canadian context. This study uses data from the Workplace and Employee (WES) survey conducted by Statistics Canada.
Project 3: Incentives as a Moderator of Conflict During Organizational Change
Bryan Hong
When a firm experiences an organizational change or restructuring, it is likely conflicts that disrupt the firm will occur. This study focuses on how organizational changes affect the prevalence of conflicts and employee grievances filed within the firm. As a measure for organizational changes, this study employs changes in organizational structure (ex. centralization, decentralization, outsourcing) from the WES survey. This study also investigates how the presence of group level pay-for-performance incentives (ex. profit sharing plans) affect the frequency of firm conflicts.
Additional datasets: Labour Force Survey (LFS) & General Index of Financial Information (GIFI)
Romel Mostafa is an Assistant Professor at the Ivey Business School, Western University
Lorenz Kueng is an Assistant Professor at Northwestern-Kellogg
Mu-Jeung Yang is an Assistant Professor at University of Washington, Seattle
Related Research Themes
Industry and Firm Analysis, International
How are business strategy and organizational structure related? We analyze the systematic alignment between strategy and structure as well as their implications for firm performance and innovation.
Related Data Sets
WES
Related Research Themes
Industry and Firm Analysis
Papers and Publications
January, 2019
December, 2017
How do firms in high-income countries adjust to emerging market competition? We estimate how a representative panel of Canadian firms adjusts innovation activities, business strategies, and exit in response to large increases in Chinese imports. Whether firms invest in process or product innovation matters: on average, the number of process innovations declines more strongly than the number of product innovations. In addition, firms that initially pursue process innovation strategies and survive have higher profits ex-post, but are ex-ante more likely to exit. In contrast, firms that initially pursue product innovation strategies have higher profits if they survive, without significant impact on exit. Both empirical patterns are consistent with our theory, which suggests that innovation strategies do not ensure insulation against competitive shocks, but instead increase risk.
Author(s)
Lorenz Kueng (Kellogg School of Management & NBER)
Nicholas Li (University of Toronto)
Mu-Jeung Yang (University of Washington, Seattle)
Related Data Sets
WES
Related Research Themes
Industry and Firm Analysis
September, 2017
June, 2017
Related Data Sets
ASM, ASM-I, CBSA Customs, CEEDD, CFA, CIP, LEAP, LWF, NALMF, SFSME, SIBS, T2-LEAP, TEC, WES
Related Research Themes
Incomes, Industry and Firm Analysis, International, Labour Markets
Related Data Sets
ASM, ASM-I, CBSA Customs, CEEDD, CFA, CIP, LEAP, LWF, NALMF, SFSME, SIBS, T2-LEAP, TEC, WES
Related Research Themes
Incomes, Industry and Firm Analysis, International, Labour Markets
Related Data Sets
ASM, ASM-I, CBSA Customs, CEEDD, CFA, CIP, LEAP, LWF, NALMF, SFSME, SIBS, T2-LEAP, TEC, WES
Related Research Themes
Incomes, Industry and Firm Analysis, International, Labour Markets
Keywords: microdata, data access
March, 2017
Related Data Sets
ASM, ASM-I, CBSA Customs, CEEDD, CIP, CFA, LEAP, LWF, NALMF, SFSME, SIBS, T2-LEAP, TEC, WES
Related Research Themes
Incomes, Industry and Firm Analysis, International, Labour Markets
Author(s)
Natalie Goodwin, Statistics Canada RDC Analyst, Western University RDC
Related Data Sets
ASM, ASM-I, CBSA Customs, CEEDD, CFA, CIP, LEAP, LWF, NALMF, SFSME, SIBS, T2-LEAP, TEC, WES
Related Research Themes
Incomes, Industry and Firm Analysis, International, Labour Markets
Keywords: RDC
Outline
Accessing business microdata for research purposes at the Canadian Centre for Data Development and Economic Research (CDER) at Statistics Canada
- CDER basics
- Data sets available for access to CDER
- Application process
- Future directions
- Other information
Related Data Sets
ASM, ASM-I, CBSA Customs, CEEDD, CFA, CIP, LEAP, LWF, NALMF, SFSME, SIBS, T2-LEAP, TEC, WES
Related Research Themes
Incomes, Industry and Firm Analysis, International, Labour Markets
Keywords: CDER; microdata; data access
May, 2015
Related Data Sets
ASM, ASM-I, CBSA Customs, CEEDD, CFA, CIP, LEAP, LWF, NALMF, SFSME, SIBS, T2-LEAP, TEC, WES
Related Research Themes
Incomes, Industry and Firm Analysis, International, Labour Markets
Keywords: CDER; proposal
JEL Codes: Y9
Author(s)
Kim P. Huynh works at the Bank of Canada
Related Data Sets
ASM, ASM-I, CBSA Customs, CEEDD, CFA, CIP, LEAP, LWF, NALMF, SFSME, SIBS, T2-LEAP, TEC, WES
Related Research Themes
Incomes, Industry and Firm Analysis, International, Labour Markets
Keywords: CDER; proposal; microdata
JEL Codes: Y9
January, 2015
The conditions under which profit sharing affects workplace productivity have never been fully understood. Using panel data, this paper examines whether there is any link between adoption of an employee profit sharing plan and subsequent productivity panels. Overall, we find a significant link between adoption of a profit sharing program and subsequent productivity growth in both panels, but only among establishments that utilize work teams. growth in Canadian establishments, and whether this relationship is affected by various contextual factors, particularly use of work teams. In so doing, we use both three and five-year panels. Overall, we find a significant link between adoption of a profit sharing program and subsequent productivity growth in both panels, but only among establishments that utilize work teams.
Author(s)
Richard Long, University of Saskatchewan
Related Data Sets
WES
Related Research Themes
Industry and Firm Analysis, Labour Markets
Keywords: productivity; Employee profit sharing; teamwork
JEL Codes: D2, C3
May, 2014
The stock of human capital of the firm is an important determinant of its innovation performance. As such, any increase in this stock through firm-sponsored training should have a significant impact on innovation. We test this hypothesis using detailed information on the firms' human capital investments and innovation performance using the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey 1999-2006. Our results using fixed workplace-effects or allowing for time-varying productivity shocks show that increases in both on-the-job and classroom training lead to more product and process innovation. We then investigate whether innovation can serve as another channel through which training affects productivity.
Related Data Sets
WES
Related Research Themes
Industry and Firm Analysis, Labour Markets
Keywords: Firm Investment; Capital; Data Availability; Human Capital
JEL Codes: J24; L2
November, 2012
Author(s)
Statistics Canada
Related Data Sets
ASM, ASM-I, CBSA Customs, CEEDD, CFA, CIP, LEAP, LWF, NALMF, SFSME, SIBS, T2-LEAP, TEC, WES
Related Research Themes
Incomes, Industry and Firm Analysis, International, Labour Markets