Open Access Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington
Browse

Work ethic in formerly socialist economies

Download (1.21 MB)
Version 2 2023-03-29, 19:00
Version 1 2023-03-29, 03:59
journal contribution
posted on 2023-03-29, 19:00 authored by S Linz, Yu-Wei ChuYu-Wei Chu
Do younger workers in transition economies have a different work ethic from those who were trained and employed in the former socialist economy? Is there a positive link between work ethic and earnings among workers in transition economies? We address these questions using data collected from employee surveys conducted in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Serbia. Employing a composite measure, we find that younger workers tend to adhere more strongly, and older workers less strongly. This result is obtained in the majority of cases for the individual work ethic components, as well. We also find work ethic adherence is stronger among men than women, among supervisors, and among participants who exhibit an internal locus of control. The link between work ethic and earnings is positive: participants who scored highest on the work ethic measure earn 15% more than those who scored lowest. Commonalities across these six culturally and economically diverse countries provide a foundation for developing a more global perspective of work ethic and worker performance. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

History

Preferred citation

Linz, S. & Chu, Y. W. (2013). Work ethic in formerly socialist economies. Journal of Economic Psychology, 39, 185-203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2013.07.010

Journal title

Journal of Economic Psychology

Volume

39

Publication date

2013-12-01

Pagination

185-203

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Publication status

Published

Contribution type

Article

Online publication date

2013-08-14

ISSN

0167-4870

eISSN

1872-7719

Language

en