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Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach

School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies

Cornell University

16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky

New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau

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European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Dublin Foundation)

 

Data report on work attitudes - Background paper [22 March 2012]

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/htmlfiles/ef1210.htm

or

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2012/10/en/1/EF1210EN.pdf

[full-text, 53 pages]



Author: Lucidi, Federico; Ruiu, Gabriele; Lisi, Gaetano

 

Summary: This report aimed to assess the main dimensions of work attitudes in the European Union and in a selected sample of extra-EU countries, by analysing several data sources in a comparative way. Some preliminary conclusions can be drawn. It seems that countries at different stages of industrial development experience different combinations of preference for work, job characteristics, work ethics and life satisfaction. Developing countries seem to put work before family and leisure time, while assigning a lower overall importance to social life and relational goods. On the other hand, advanced, post-industrial economies seem to assign a higher relevance to social life, while showing a preference for intangible job characteristics, higher levels of life satisfaction and weaker work ethics.

Includes numerous CHARTS & TABLES....

 

Contents

1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4

2. Macroeconomic background ........................................................................................................ 5

2.1. GDP per capita ........................................................................................... 6

2.2. Employment ............................................................................................... 8

2.3. Unemployment ......................................................................................... 11

2.4. Shadow economy ..................................................................................... 13

2.5. Labour force per level of education .......................................................... 15

2.6. Labour productivity, unit labour cost and labour income share ................. 16

2.7. Working Hours .......................................................................................... 20

2.8. Appendix. Recent trend of the main macroeconomic variables ................ 21

3. Data sources on work attitudes ................................................................................................... 22

4. Aspects of work attitudes: an overview ...................................................................................... 23

4.1 Work-life preferences ................................................................................ 23

4.2. Preferences over job characteristics ........................................................ 28

4.3. Work ethic ................................................................................................ 31

4.4. Job and Life satisfaction ........................................................................... 34

4.5. Attitude toward female work ..................................................................... 36

4.6. Entrepreneurship ...................................................................................... 39

5. Concluding remarks .................................................................................................................... 43

Data sources ................................................................................................................................... 45

Appendix 1. List of work attitudes variables .................................................................................. 46

Appendix 2. Data summary ............................................................................................................ 48

Appendix 3. Variables transformations ..................

 

 

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