Generational differences in attitudes towards work

A recent international study set out to explore the generational aspect of people’s relationship to work in six EU countries, including Hungary. Interviews and focus groups were used to examine the differences between age groups in their attitude towards work through identifying various types of participation in the world of work. A research team attempted to highlight changes that have occurred as a result of Hungary’s transition to a market economy.

An EU-funded research project, called the ‘Generational approach to the social patterns of the relation to work’ (SPReW), focuses on the factors leading to either solidarity or tensions in intergenerational relations in the area of work. The research attempts to provide a better understanding of the evolving relations that the different generations have towards work. Such changes are believed to have important consequences for the relevance of specific work and employment policies, as well as for other public policies. The research established a link between the relationship to work and other correlated issues, such as family formation, and took into consideration the gender dimension as well.

Results for Hungary

Methodology

In the first phase of the qualitative research, 27 people were interviewed from various regions in Hungary by a research team from the Institute for Political Science of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Politikai Tudományok Intézete, MTA PTI). Employees from the information technology (IT), manufacturing and agriculture sectors were selected, as Hungary’s transition to the market economy has affected these sectors differently. The selection of interviewees also aimed to ensure maximum variance regarding gender, age, qualifications, parental status and occupation, as well as in relation to the type of management and structure of the company for which the interviewee works.

A ‘narrative-biographic’ approach to the interviews was taken in an effort to provide a more in-depth understanding of issues indicated in relevant quantitative research that SPReW also reviewed. Moreover, a review of age-related policies at national, regional and company levels was carried out, while ‘best practices’ addressing problem areas were identified.

Individual interviews

The importance of work in identity development was found to be a highly important factor in determining individuals’ attitude to work, which may be expressed through: a willingness to learn more and to invest time and effort in increasing knowledge; the framing of work as a vocation or as a central dimension for self-development; or integrating private and working lives.

On a societal level, different historical contexts seem to imply different working conditions as a result of varying institutional frameworks. Not surprisingly, therefore, the change of regime in Hungary – which has brought about fundamental changes in all domains of life – also greatly affected the world of work due to the economic changes, including major changes in the Hungarian labour market.

Based on the combination of individual and societal factors, three main types of approach to work were identified in the course of the interview analysis:

• the first type comprises people who see work as a source of self-fulfilment, with working life integrating well with their private life. Subtypes were also identified among older generations on the basis of how their experience of the communist regime affected their life course;

• the second type consists of those for whom work is an obligation, but also a meaningful activity;

• the third type encompasses people who only view work negatively and who would be much happier if they could avoid it.

The influence of historical differences is apparent in the subtypes within the first group for whom work is an important part of their identity. In the second and third types, where work plays a more peripheral role in one’s identity, political changes are less likely to cause significant changes.

Group interviews

Selection criteria for the group interviews were similar to those used in the individual interviews. Mixed groups were formed on the basis of age, and an attempt was made to ensure the even distribution of participants by age and gender.

The most striking outcome of the group interviews was the difference in how women and men are perceived in the world of work. In the view of people aged over 35 years – whose ‘socialisation’ took place, at least partly, under socialism – successful younger workers, particularly women, are not deemed as ‘positive actors’; it appears, therefore, that the older age group’s fears and unease with regard to the new era are projected onto the younger age group. Although the employment of women is not a new occurrence in Hungary, the proportion of career-building and ‘self-realising’ women has increased significantly in Hungarian society over the last 10 years. This group, according to the researchers, has undergone far more dramatic changes than any other in the face of the predominantly conservative values that Hungarian society has maintained up until the present day, which takes a negative view of young, successful women pursuing careers.

Commentary

Although the research did not find intergenerational conflicts at work, generational differences in work attitudes were observed. A notable difference in relation to the Hungarian results, compared with those of other countries, is the impact that the country’s transition is continuing to have on the working lives of older generations.

Orsolya Polyacskó, Institute for Political Science, Hungarian Academy of Sciences