The Impact of Education on Work Attitudes in Hungary

Over the past few decades examination of work attitudes has become one of the central themes of scientific research in the field of economics, psychology and sociology. The importance of measuring work attitudes lies in their close interdependency with various fields of social and labor market behaviour. In addition, the transition from industrial society to post-industrial society conveyed several changes in world economy, in labor market, and in the meaning of work. This transition have started later in CEE countries and shows significant differentials compared to Western countries. For this reason, this research studies the work attitudes in Hungary in the context of this transition.

Based on the results of several empirical studies, Hungary has a particular position among European countries: compered to other European countries, the impact of educational level on work attitudes is much higher. On this basis, the aim of the research is to explore how the level of education of employees affects their organizational commitment and job satisfaction, which I regard as two aspects of work attitude, and how it changed over time. Another important part of the research is the examination of the impact of work values and job attributes on work attitudes. Job attributes consist of position, task characteristics, job rewards and social bonds, which are embedded in organizational structure. 

The International Social Survey Programme Work Orientation Module ( from 1997, 2005 and 2015) data are used for the analysis. The main methodological steps are the analysis of the interaction between work values and job attributes over time, their effect on work attitudes, and finally, the determination of education on them.

The main societal relevance of the research is that it not only examines the imapct of education on work attitudes, but also embeds it the transition from industrial society to post-industrial society.