Resumo

The third sector economy includes various organizations, businesses, and different legal entities. They are also known as social economy or yet mission-driven organizations compared to those that are profit-driven (Akingbola, 2013; Akingbola et al., 2019). Its goal is to systematically put people first, meeting human needs, impacting local communities, and pursuing the social cause. The institutions in this sector are usually understaffed and do not pay well.

The current study aims to study the relationship between Decent Work (DW) and Knowledge Sharing (KS) and the interaction between DW and Stress among third sector employees in Portugal. It also hopes to contribute a better understanding of the working conditions faced by Social economy employees.

Caeiro (2008) defines the Social Economy as an interval between the State and the market (dominated by the private sector). This applies to the implementation of actions that government entities cannot resolve and to actions that private sector companies do not see lucrative interests that justify their investments and realization. These non-State organizations produce goods and services of general interest and being private, do not have the individual appropriation of profit as their primary objective (Sá, 2016).

The sample is made up of 313 participants from Portuguese social economy organizations. The Decent Work Questionnaire (DWQ), the Knowledge Sharing Scale (KSS) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) were applied. Confirmatory factor analyses and multiple linear regression were conducted for this research. At a second moment, considering the sample' woman concentration, we ran a multiple linear regression only with women.

We found that DW impacts Knowledge Sharing positively, and a lack of DW is associated with the presence of Stress. The female role in our set of variables proved to be significant, bringing curious results when focusing on this difference in our sample.

The results suggest that seeking ways to bring a more dignified working environment into the workplace is essential for both the organization and the worker. In an environment that provides decent working conditions, there is more knowledge exchange, which can help from the individual to the macro level of the organization. The improvement of DW in organizations contributes to the avoidance of stress for workers.

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