Tijdschrift voor Arbeidsvraagstukken

Samenvatting

New labour market policies in western countries aiming to extend work years and work hours per worker meet strong resistance. A prominent thesis in the literature is that the increase of affluence causes decline in work ethics; another thesis is that in affluent societies work motivation is less extrinsic and more intrinsic. In the article, we test these thesis in an international comparative research design. Using the World Values Survey 2000, we test whether and how GDP affects work ethics. The results of the tests show decreasing work centrality with increasing GDP, but not a significant change in work orientations. These results support the thesis of declining work ethics, and do not support the thesis of increasing intrinsic motivation.
Key words: work ethic, work motivation, welfare state