237.2
Social Class, and Leisure and Paid Work Need Satisfaction, in Hong Kong
A Chinese-language telephone survey was conducted in Hong Kong. Potential participants had to work at least 20 hours per week in one job. Those who qualified reported: (a) their occupation and total working hours; and (b) how well their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Deci & Ryan, 2000) were satisfied during leisure and paid work
Class was determined using Florida’s (2012) scheme; specifically: “super-creative” (n=99), creative professional (n=110), working (n=83), and service and sales (n=281). An ANOVA indicated that working class participants were employed significantly more hours (M=52.1) than super-creative (M=46.7), creative professional (M=47.5), or service and sales (M=45.7), employees. Dependent t-tests examined the discrepancy between each of the three needs during leisure and work, by class. Results indicated that autonomy was significantly greater during leisure regardless of class; competence was significantly greater during work regardless of class; and belongingness did not differ by class. A second series of dependent t-tests examined differences between the three needs during leisure, and during work, by class. Results indicated that: (a) during leisure, autonomy was significantly greater than belonging except for working class Chinese, and belonging was greater than competence for creative professionals and sales and service workers; and (b) during work, belonging and competence were both greater than autonomy, regardless of class.
These results are noteworthy because they: (a) do not support Florida’s (2012) contention that the super-creative class’s leisure and work overlap; (b) suggest that while autonomy is the primary need satisfied during leisure, it is tertiary to competence and belongingness satisfaction during work, regardless of class; and (c) are not always congruent with findings from a comparable study conducted in Canada (Walker, & Glover, 2013).