The Value Added of Studying Work Attitudes and Values: Some Lessons to Learn

• Author: Jale Tosun,Zeynep Cemalcilar,Gerbert Kraaykamp
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716219831656
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• Date: 01 March 2019
• Subject Matter: Reflections

831656ANN
THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYTHE VALUE ADDED OF STUDYING WORK ATTITUDES AND VALUES
research-article2019
Work is one of the most valued activities of individuals’
lives. Attitudes toward work not only influence work-
related outcomes, such as income, but also hold sway
over personal well-being and satisfaction with politico-
administrative institutions. Consequently, country-
comparative research aimed at learning about the
determinants of individuals’ work attitudes and values
and their consequences is worthwhile and offers
insights that are relevant for many disciplines. In this
The Value
epilogue, we summarize the main insights produced by
the contributions to this volume on the antecedents
Added of
and consequences of work attitudes and values as well
as draw some broader conclusions.
Studying Work Keywords: comparative analysis; mechanisms; effects;
transmission; work attitudes; work values
Attitudes and
Values: Some Individuals spend a considerable share of
their lives at their workplaces, where they
Lessons to
not only fulfill their tasks but learn new skills,
receive feedback on their performance, and
Learn
socialize with coworkers. Therefore, it is not
surprising that work attitudes and values have
been the subject of sustained research interest
across the behavioral and social sciences. Initial
research concentrated on the impact of work
attitudes and values on economic development,
By
but contemporary research has shifted focus.
JALe TOSuN,
As of this writing, much of it centers on how
GerberT KrAAyKAMp,
attitudes and values account for employee

and
well-being and job satisfaction and how the rise
ZeyNep CeMALCILAr
Jale Tosun is a professor at the Institute of Political
Science at Heidelberg University, Germany. Her
research focuses on comparative public policy, interna-
tional political economy, and public administration.
Gerbert Kraaykamp is a professor of empirical sociology
in the Department of Sociology at Radboud University
in the Netherlands. His major research interests include
educational inequality, intergenerational transmission,
and health inequality. He has published widely on these
subjects in international scientific journals.
Correspondence: jale.tosun@ipw.uni-heidelberg.de
DOI: 10.1177/0002716219831656
234
ANNALS, AAPSS, 682, March 2019

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THe VALue ADDeD OF STuDyING WOrK ATTITuDeS AND VALueS
235
in female labor force participation affected work values as well as the economic
and social implications of these values. The contribution by Duncan Gallie (this
volume) gives a comprehensive overview of the state and development of
research, which connects the study of work values to broader themes in political
and social sciences, such as postmaterialism (Inglehart 1977), the “new politics”
paradigm (Inglehart and Welzel 2005), and individualism versus collectivism
(Hofstede 1984). recent empirical research has concentrated on the determi-
nants of work attitudes and values (e.g., Cemalcilar, Secinti, and Sumer 2018);
changes in work attitudes and values (e.g., Lechner et al. 2017); and the effects
of work values on various outcomes, such as career choices and career develop-
ment (e.g., Sortheix, Chow, and Salmela-Aro 2015). In short, we draw from and
contribute to a rich body of research on work values.
With this volume, we advance understandings of how work attitudes and val-
ues are formed and what their implications are in different countries. When
selecting this specific analytical focus, we relied on both established (e.g.,
european Social Survey, General Social Survey, International Social Survey
programme, and World Value Survey) and new (e.g., the Cultural pathways to
economic Self-Sufficiency and entrepreneurship [CupeSSe] dataset; Tosun
et al. 2018) country-comparative measurements of work attitudes and values and
the factors potentially determining them. As a result, this volume is characterized
by a diversity in empirical sources offering an extensive analysis of work attitudes
and values.
Three research questions guide the contributions to this volume: (1) To what
extent are parental qualities, individual traits, and individual resources relevant
for the explanation of a person’s work values? (2) To what extent do work values
have consequences in the political, economic, and well-being domains? and (3)
To what extent do economic and cultural qualities of countries condition (a) the
determinants of work values and (b) the impact of work values on self-employ-
ment, political engagement, and well-being? Having considered the research
findings reported in the contributions, we now answer those questions as best we
can, summarizing and discussing the main insights produced by the individual
articles. We also draw some general conclusions about the policy relevance of the
Zeynep Cemalcılar is an associate professor of social psychology at Koc University, Istanbul,
Turkey. Her most recent research focuses on youth autonomy and self-sufficiency, subjective
socioeconomic status, brief social psychological interventions, and technology in the social life.
NOTe: We thank all external reviewers who contributed to this volume of The ANNALS with
thoughtful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of the articles: Nazli baydar, romain
boitard, Michael Gebel, Marjan Gorgievski-Duijvesteijn, Nadia Granato, rick Hoyle, G.
Tarcan Kumkale, Markus Tausendpfund, Tom van der Meer, ellen Verbakel, Georg
Wenzelburger, and Maarten Wolbers. Likewise, we acknowledge the valuable comments
provided on the draft articles by the internal reviewers. This volume benefited from financial
support by the collaborative research project Cultural pathways to economic Self-Sufficiency
and entrepreneurship (CupeSSe; Seventh Framework programme; Grant Agreement No.
61325), the Field of Focus 3 “Cultural Dynamics in Globalised Worlds,” and the Field of Focus
4 Self-regulation and regulation: Individuals and Organisations at Heidelberg university.

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THe ANNALS OF THe AMerICAN ACADeMy
study of work attitudes and values—these may not be obvious at first glance, but
we argue that the study of work attitudes and values does offer valuable insights
for advancing policy studies and can be beneficial for producing better-designed
public policies and bringing about policies’ intended outcomes.
The remainder of this piece unfolds as follows: First, we present the empirical
characteristics of work attitudes and values identified in the contributions. Then,
we turn to the determinants of work attitudes and values, which is followed by a
discussion of their implications for a diverse set of outcomes. Subsequently, we
allude to the value added of adopting a country-comparative perspective. We
conclude by discussing how our findings on work attitudes and values may inform
policy studies and policymaking. Overall, we are confident that the insights pre-
sented in this volume speak to established research perspectives in different
(sub)disciplines of the behavioral and social sciences. And we think that we have
paved the way for novel approaches to and investigations of the study of work
attitudes from a country-comparative perspective.
empirical Characteristics of Work Attitudes and Values
We begin our integrated discussion of the individual contributions by concentrat-
ing on three articles that place great emphasis on the illustration of the empirical
characteristics of work values.
First is the extensive review of the pertinent literature by Duncan Gallie, in
which he points out the multidimensional nature of work attitudes and values.
Gallie suggests that varied facets of work values develop differently in response
to social and economic changes and consequently affect individuals and their
work-related behaviors differently. The selection of studies in this volume,
indeed, seeks to illuminate the dynamic nature of work attitudes and values and
attempts to showcase...