Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This dataset is the result of a cross-national study, carried out in 2000-2001. The purpose of the research was to undertake a comparative study of recent changes in professionalised work in Britain and Germany. The aims of the research were to:investigate how different modes of controlling professional occupations in the two countries have mediated the impact on professional work of changes in technology, regulatory policy, the organisation of public services, competition and the system of education and trainingexamine the effects of such changes on the market, work and status situation of professional workersassess the effect of these changes for performance in the knowledge-intensive sectors of the service economyto consider the policy implications of the two divergent processes of professionalisation and the scope for mutual learningThe professions studied in both countries were pharmacy and law. Human resource management was also surveyed in Britain but cannot be precisely matched in Germany where the traditions of training, industrial relations and work organisation are different. Human resource management practices are becoming increasingly important in Germany, and advice on their use is provided by business or human resources management specialists who serve as consultants. British counselling psychology also has no exact counterpart in Germany and the closest match there was psychological psychotherapy.

Main Topics:

The questionnaire covered the following topics:job satisfaction and loyalty, including effort and work demandsbasic information on employmentqualifications and continuing developmentlevels of discretion (regulation in work)impact of change, including work satisfaction and moraleoccupational relationships, including competitionemployment securityprofessional associationsgeneral demographic informationfurther comments

Simple random sample

Postal survey