Quality of Working Life and the Self-Employed Manager

This study investigated quality of working life differences between self-employed and salaried managers. Based on data collected in a national survey of employees from various demographic and industry groupings, the results indicate that self-employed managers tended to report higher levels of job satisfaction and job autonomy than the salaried managers despite spending significantly more hours in their jobs. The results are interpreted as supporting, in part, a “role accumulation” theory of work behavior in that the gains from the small business manager's job outweigh its costs. Further, no differences in psychosomatic illnesses, life and free time satisfaction were found for the two groups of managers. These results suggest that life-style problems often associated with small business managers may be overstated to some degree.