Effect of Economic Crises on Work Orientations Among European Countries

An extensive body of research in social sciences has analyzed the change of values in developed societies, assuming that as populations experience higher levels of wealth and security there will be a shift in their goals to show an increasing interest for self-actualization and quality of life. Concerning to work, it will be expected a relative decrease of extrinsic work orientations -those related to external aspects of work and based on the notion that work is mainly a means of obtaining instrumental resources- in favor of intrinsic work orientations -those linked to working tasks and based on the supposition that work in itself is an enriching experience that allows one to enhance their personal development and self-expression-.

The current context of economic crisis has brought up a new scenario that could alter the direction of the predicted change in work orientations, producing a return to the instrumental views in detriment of the expressive work orientations, as a response to the uncertain and risky labor conditions.

 The aim of this paper is to compare work orientations in several European countries in two moments of time, analyzing the differences among countries as well as the evolution of work orientations in order to test the impact of the economic crises on such evolution. Data analysis will consider the impact of the economic crisis on work orientations at a double level –aggregated and individual-, and will be based on relevant data from the European Social Survey (2004 and 2010).