Work Values and the Value of Work: Different Implications for Young Adults’ Self-Employment in Europe

• DOI: 10.1177/0002716219828976
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• Date: 01 March 2019
• Subject Matter: What are the Effects of Attitudes Toward Work?

156 ANNALS, AAPSS, 682, March 2019

DOI: 10.1177/0002716219828976

Work Values

and the Value

of Work:

Different

Implications for

Young Adults’

Self-

Employment in

Europe

By

MARTIN LUKEŠ,

MANUEL FELDMANN,

and

FEDERICO VEGETTI

828976ANN The Annals of The American AcademyWork Values and The Value of Work

research-article2019

In this study, we ask how work values impact different

forms of labor market participation of young adults

across Europe. We define work values as individuals’

intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to work and the value

of work as the importance or centrality of work in indi-

viduals’ lives. We use data gathered from young adults

in eleven European countries in the CUPESSE project

to investigate the role of the two sets of values regard-

ing employment and self-employment. We then repli-

cate our analysis on a larger sample using data from the

European Social Survey (ESS). Our findings suggest a

high importance of nonpecuniary benefits for self-

employment. Analyses based on both CUPESSE and

ESS datasets clearly showed the high, positive impact

that independence and creativity have on self-

employment. We also show that extrinsic values, such

as job security, are more important for employees than

they are for the self-employed. Additionally, we find

that the value of work in life does not differ between

the employed and the self-employed. In sum, these

findings suggest that values related to self-employment

are not rooted in a general value of work, as Max Weber

postulated in his Protestant Work Ethic nearly one

hundred years ago, as much as in the aim to achieve

personal satisfaction.

Keywords: employment; self-employment; career

choice; work values; work centrality;

young adults

Almost a decade after the onset of the Great

Recession, labor markets in industrialized

countries are going through a substantial

change. The growing degree of flexibility

required by the markets, coupled with the

decrease in work protection set by policy-

makers, is putting more and more workers in a

Correspondence: lukesm@vse.cz

Martin Lukeš is head of the entrepreneurship depart-

ment and vice-dean for research and PhD studies at the

Faculty of Business Administration, University of

Economics, Prague. His research focuses on psychology

of entrepreneurship, evaluation of entrepreneurship

policies, and entry into self-employment.

WORK VALUES AND THE VALUE OF WORK 157

permanent state of training and reinvention. This is particularly salient for

younger generations, who are often outsiders to the system of social protections

(Skedinger 2010) and are confronted at the same time with a growing range of

potential opportunities brought on by new technologies. In this scenario, entre-

preneurship and self-employment are gaining centrality in the labor markets.

First, entrepreneurship has been found to have a positive impact on innovation,

employment, and growth (Dvouletý and Lukeš 2016). Second, labor markets are

changing in such a way that some characteristics typical of self-employed work,

such as independence, are becoming increasingly common (Manyika et al. 2016).

Hence, because of both policy incentives and market changes, self-employment

might become more the norm than the exception in future labor markets.

At the same time, studies on work values across generations show that younger

individuals are less intrinsically motivated to work and see work as less central in

their lives (Twenge et al. 2010); this is despite previous research suggesting that

the most important motivational factors for entrepreneurs are intrinsic, nonpecu-

niary rewards (Burke, FitzRoy, and Nolan 2002; Schjoedt 2009). Thus, today’s

young adults may be less apt than their predecessors to engage in entrepreneurial

activities that require time and effort (Gorgievski, Ascalon, and Stephan 2011) in

a moment when labor markets appear to be more in need for them to do so.

As prior studies do not give a final answer to the question of what motivates

young entrepreneurs, we suggest the following approach to bridge this gap. On

one hand, work values are the aspects of work that individuals find desirable, the

motivating factors for people to prefer one job over another (Fayolle, Liñán, and

Moriano 2014; Twenge et al. 2010). Both intrinsic and extrinsic values have been

found to motivate entrepreneurial careers (e.g., Douglas and Shepherd 2000; van

Gelderen 2016; Stephan, Hart, and Drews 2015). On the other hand, there is the

centrality that people attribute to work in their lives, a trait that we may call value

of work (Bal and Kooij 2011; Diefendorff et al. 2002; Gallie, this volume). In his

seminal work, Weber (1905) postulates that entrepreneurs have a strong work

ethic, that is, they consider work as more central in their lives. We indeed see that

entrepreneurs spend more hours at work than wage employees (Cardon and

Patel 2015), but the answer to the “why” question is not conclusive. Moreover,

research has found that both work values and centrality differ between today’s

young people and previous generations (Cogin 2012; Twenge et al. 2010).

Manuel Feldmann is a doctoral researcher at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, in the

Department of Political Science. His research is directed at the connection of entrepreneurial

psychology and policy with a focus on quantitative analyses.

Federico Vegetti is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Milan in Italy. His

research interests lie at the intersection of political science, sociology, and psychology, which

he investigates using mostly quantitative methods.

NOTE: We recognize financial support by the project Cultural Pathways to Economic Self-

Sufficiency and Entrepreneurship (CUPESSE; Seventh Framework Program of the European

Union; Grant Agreement No. 613257). We thank Fabian Kalleitner and one anonymous

reviewer for their guidance and support, which improved this research endeavor in many ways.