Contemporary Work Values in Africa and Europe

Abstract

In this article, two work orientations are compared in European and African countries. These continents differ in many respects and thus differences in work orientations were to be expected. We argue that people’s work orientations will be dependent upon a number of individual and contextual characteristics and we formulated some hypotheses that were empirically tested using the survey data from the recent EVS and WVS projects. The most important conclusion from these analyses is that there is no clear and obvious pattern, neither at the country nor at the regional level, that would explain the varieties and similarities in work orientations of populations. Although some explanations could be found on an individual level we were, however, surprised that the explanations found were not stronger. Thus, we should continue our efforts for finding explanations for differences and similarities in work orientations both at a structural and cultural level.

Work values and hybrid careers in the gig economy: The evidence from an online labor market

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Gender Role Attitudes in the International Social Survey Programme: Cross-National Comparability and Relationships to Cultural Values

“…However, at the same time, it represents a methodological and substantive challenge. Observing and measuring human values directly is impossible and leads to a speculative theoretical approach (Halman, 1995, p. 3). Because of this difficulty, rooted in the very nature of values, values in social research can only be inferred or postulated.…”

Economic and Non-economic Returns to Higher Education during a Period of Educational Expansion in the Czech Republic

“…Ze sociologických výzkumů je známo, že vzdělanější lidé jsou nejen zdravější, ale mají také vyšší naději dožití [Ross, Wu 1995]. Práci berou jako formu seberealizace, nikoli jako rutinní činnost nezbytnou k získání finančních prostředků [Halman, Müller 2006]. Liší se vzorci manželského párování [Katrňák, Kreidl, Fónadová 2004;Katrňák 2008aKatrňák , 2008b, jejich politické názory jsou poměrně stabilní, bez výkyvů k extrémistickým stranám [Kam, Palmer 2008] a subjektivně jsou také šťastnější než lidé s nižším vzdě-láním [Stevenson, Wolfers 2008].…”