Attitudes Towards Work and the Market Economy in the Czech and Slovak Republics

[Excerpt] This report is the final in a series of four reports whose main purpose is to present a preliminary overview of attitudes towards work and the market economy in four Eastern and Central European countries (actually five by now, following the division of Czechoslovakia into the Czech and the Slovak republics). The project was initiated by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs of the U.S. Department of Labor in mid-1991 in order to gather information which might assist in designing technical assistance programs appropriate for the new political and economic situation in these countries. Thus, the starting point was to develop a survey design and instrument which could illuminate the transition phase and how it is perceived in the population to conduct the surveys and to report their findings, as soon as possible, so as to allow for modifications in programs being planed or in operation

Attitudes Towards Work and the Market Economy in Hungary

[Excerpt] A common approach in describing countries in Eastern and Central Europe is to focus on similarities among them currently and in their past but to neglect differences. This approach utilizes broad categories as in seeing their economic systems as copies of the soviet model versus a Western free-market model . The principal focus is on delineating East-West differences. But to help Eastern and Central European countries overcome obstacles in this transition era, we need to understand distinctive country-characteristics and idiosyncrasies

Attitudes Towards Work And The Market Economy In Bulgaria

[Excerpt] As in the reports on Poland (Ruiz Quintanilla 1992a) and Hungary (Ruiz Quintanilla 1992b), this summary will center on how life has changed in Bulgaria as evaluated by the Bulgarian people. The domain of interest are attitudes and values related to the economy, work and political issues. The focus will be on where progress has been made and where, there has been regression. What are the hopes, intentions and plans for the future? How is the role of the West perceived? What kind of Western Assistance is wanted

Attitudes Towards Work and the Market Economy in Poland

[Excerpt] The results of the June, 1989 elections demonstrated the willingness of a majority of the Polish people to initiate the change from a one-party regime to political pluralism. While the past has been rejected, replacing a centrally planned economy with a market economy can neither be achieved overnight nor by simply by voting for it. The traces of the previous centrally planned economy as well as those of the autocratic political system still remain embedded in Polish work-organizations and institutions. Fragments of the former system have survived in the structure of the institutions, in daily routines and habits, and in the minds and conventions of the people

Open Door Policies: Measuring Impact Using Attitude Surveys

This study examines employee perceptions of an Open Door Complaint System from both those who have filed claims and those who have not. Our sample includes over 4000 employees working in a Fortune 100 company. We examine these perceptions through an organization wide employee attitude survey. Analyzing situation specific perceptions, we examine their relationship with overall fairness, satisfaction and intent to remain with the organization. Results suggest that a positive Open Door incident raises both distributive and procedural justice perceptions. In turn, fairness perceptions influence satisfaction levels. Finally, results indicate that satisfaction has a strong effect on the intent to remain with the organization. Implications are discussed for both complaint systems and employee opinion surveys

Work Meaning Patterns in Early Career

Work meaning patterns combine dimensions such as work centrality, expressive versus economic work goals, entitlement versus obligation societal norms into a holistic picture of the over time evolution of the meaning of work. Data from a longitudinal study in eight European countries are used to empirically establish major work meaning patterns and to study their stability during the early career. Further, some potential determinants of these work meaning patterns are analyzed and their consequences for the later career are considered. Statistical analyses include: cluster analysis, multiple discriminant analysis, analysis of covariance combined with multiple classification analysis, analysis of variance, and chi square analysis. Five cross-national work meaning patterns are identified for machine operators in their third year of labour market participation. One third of the sample remain in the same work meaning pattern over a time period of two years, while two third change their pattern membership. Respondents\u27 age, country, prior work environment, and their prior work socialization behaviours and outcomes have an impact on work meanings held two years later. In addition the work meaning pattern shared by the respondent allows to predict subsequent career enhancing strategies and effort expenditure at the job

The Work Ethic

[Excerpt] In everyday usage of the term \u27Work Ethic\u27 is almost indistinguishable from work satisfaction or simply attitudes to work. Do people value work or not, or are they in various degrees indifferent to it? Since most adults are expected to work and most do in order to make a living, the work ethic in this popular use of the term is, on average, positive for most people. Nevertheless there are bound to be variations in this average and in the distribution around the average for different groups of people

The Impact of Early Career Experiences on Youth’s Proactive Work Socialization Behavior

Little is known about the impact of individual characteristics, historical factors, and situational characteristics on youth\u27s proactive work socialization behavior (career planning, skill development, consultation, and networking). Data from a longitudinal cross-national study (Belgium, England, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain) on career starters from two occupational groups, are used to test the hypothesized impact of predictor sets. Results confirm the positive impact of early career experience on the skill development proactive behavior; the dominant impact of the broader socioeconomic political and cultural country context on all four aspects of proactive behavior; and the sporadic effect of occupation, gender, and educational history on some proactive behavior dimensions

Determinants of Underemployment During the Early Career: A Longitudinal Multi-country Study

This paper explores the relative effects of individual, organizational, labor market, and societal components on underemployment of young adults during their early career. Quantitative underemployment, defined as periods of unemployment, temporary employment, and part-time employment is of psychological importance, because it delays or hinders the integration of career starters into the world of work by excluding them from the experience needed to develop competencies and knowledge essential for functional participation in the labor force. A first step to decrease the occurrence of underemployment for career starters involves a better understanding of the relative importance of contributing factors. This paper used a longitudinal multi-country study to explore the relative weight of individual, organizational, and macro level factors on the occurrence of underemployment. From a sample of career starters in two occupational groups with relatively good employment prospects in six European countries, the results confirmed the relationships of underemployment to gender, education, initial experience, labor market outlook, and the socio-economic and socio-political situation of the country. The country specific variance in underemployment proved to be the most important predictor of youngsters later probability to be underemployed: its effect was about 2.5 times as large as the variance explained by the initial labor market experience and 10 times as large as the effect of the educational level

Initial Career and Work Meanings in Seven European Countries

The study explores the initial careers of two target groups of youngsters in seven European countries. Career patterns are constructed through cluster analysis on data gathered from the youngsters through a retrospective self-report procedure covering a period of 2;5 years. Six career patterns are identified across countries by the activities taking place (employment, various educational preparations, unemployment, military or civil service) and further described by personal and work-related variables as well as by work meanings and psychological well-being in the second year on the labor market. Some suggestions are given for further research and implications for career counseling, career education, organizational career guidance and development