Oh dear - several of my colleagues who have made very successful
academic careers out of investigating the changing nature of work
through the analysis of such cross sectional surveys (which are of
course primarily qualitative because they ask for people's opinions and
self reports about their current status) linked to theorising about the
intensification of work processes will be dismayed to find that they
have been asking completely the wrong sorts of questions in the wrong
sort of way. I don't think they would see themselves as purveyors of
soap powder but as serious sociologists and economists struggling to
understand a phenomenon that deeply affects people's lives. Andy is of
course right in at least one respect - such questions could be answered
better through longitudinal data sets that examine the choices people
actually make. Some problems though - extremely expensive, drop out of
the panels is non-random and they all rely on self report to the sorts
of questions Andy does not like. An interesting set of methodological
problems arise when we try to get at the actual reasons for the choices
people make - you can't do that even with the best constructed
interview. More experimental approaches could be useful, either in the
long social psychology tradition or as in the emerging field of
experimental economics.
A little background might help in interpreting the results of Taylor's
report. Robert Taylor is a journalist who was attached to an ESRC
project on the Future of Work. The project collected data using surveys
from those in employment (that was the target population) in order to
understand more about the notions of a flexible labour force. The bulk
of Taylor's report is concerned with examining that issue and the
continuing importance of social class an explanatory variable. A minor
part is concerned with notions of 'enjoyment'. For those interested the
report, entitled Britain's World of Work - Myths and Realities can be
accessed at
http://www.esrc.ac.uk/esrccontent/connect/indexpub.asp. There are other
reports there to under the Future of Work heading for anyone interested
in this area.
Geoff
Dr Geoff Hayward
Associate Director SKOPE
OUDES
15 Norham Gardens
Oxford
OX2 6PY UK
Phone: +44 (0)1865 274007
Fax: + 44 (0)1865 274027
e-mail: geoff.hayward@edstud.ox.ac.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Blunden [mailto:ablunden@mira.net]
Sent: 15 December 2003 05:22
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: RE: Jobs and motivation: Help is needed
Eugene was kind enough to send me a PDF of the British "survey" about
why people work, and my fears were confirmed. Only people who were in
employment were questioned. They were asked for multiple-choice answers
to questions about their feelings and their situation, and compared with
a period of recession 10 years earlier. Altogether, the kind of
information useful only for selling soap powder.
The original proposition was
"95% working people in US do not like their jobs, i.e., do their job
ONLY out of necessity to earn money."
It is obvious to me that if you want to get an answer to the question of
whether people really only work in order to earn money, you have to talk
to people who do have a choice about whether to do a paying-job, half of
whom presumably would be people who had decided not to work, and the
rest would be only a small proportion of the workforce. Secondly, it
seems to me that the data you would be looking for would be actual
choices people make in their lives. Such constraints would make it very
difficult if not impossible to get good statistical samples, but at
least you would get relevant information. :-)
Andy
At 12:10 AM 13/12/2003 +1100, you wrote:
Well, my experience makes me think that a survey will have to be very
clever to get to the truth here. The answer that people give to things
like "Why do you work?" more often than not are code for "I don't know".
Also it is entirely tied up with the alternatives people have to "work".
Andy
At 06:52 AM 12/12/2003 -0500, you wrote:
Geoff kindly sent me Taylor's report on 2000 survey in UK about quality
of
jobs (of 2466 diverse employees participated in the survey). On the
question
of "Why to work?" only 16% of higher professionals and 2% of
semi-skilled
workers (the other in-between) referred to "enjoyment". Other responses
were
"for money", "career", "being with others" and so on. However, when
asked "A
job is just means for a living?" only 21% of higher professionals and
54% of
semi-skilled workers said "yes". The picture is complex but "enjoyment"
of
jobs does not seem very high.
What do you think?
Eugene
PS Thanks Geoff for the report!
PSS I wish similar survey existed in US! Does anybody know about such
study?
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andy Blunden [mailto:ablunden@mira.net]
> Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 8:22 PM
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: RE: Jobs and motivation: Help is needed
>
> When I retired last year I had a lot of discussions with colleagues
about
> whether they could do the same. The response I got was very very
uniform,
> from the lowest maintenance worker up to professors running big
research
> programs: "OK I'm over 55 and my superannuation entitlements are
already
> much bigger than yours and yes my kids have left home but ...." where
> followed all sorts of excuses, like the need to buy a holiday house or
> something. I found that people are very very reluctant to separate
> themselves from their job even if they hate their job and even if they
> don't need the money, but the need for money was invariably 'used' as
the
> reason for going on working.
>
> (doesn't count as scientific research I know, but the message was very
clear)
>
> Andy
>
>
> At 03:17 PM 11/12/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >Dear Mark-
> >
> >Sorry for the delay - I was busy hosting my friend and colleague from
South
> >Africa...
> >
> >Thanks a lot for the reference that seems to contradict to the
statement
in
> >the Russian immigrant newspaper "Despite our occasional temptation to
call
> >it quits, most Americans (70%) are saying that even if they won a
large
> >enough amount of money in the lottery, they would still continue to
work.
> >
> >These are the findings of a recent study conducted by Opinion
Research
> >Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCI). According to the study, only 28% of
Americans
> >would quit their jobs if they won the lottery."
> >http://www.orcinternational.com/caravan-053102.htm
> >
> >However, everything depends how the questions were asked which I
could
not
> >find. Also, it is not clear that whether these cited 70% of
respondents
want
> >to work in general or they want to stay at the work that they are
currently
> >employed. I wish I could find their full report...
> >
> >Interesting...
> >
> >Eugene
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Mark P Smith [mailto:mpsmith@UDel.Edu]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 11:11 PM
> > > To: Eugene Matusov
> > > Subject: Re: Jobs and motivation: Help is needed
> > >
> > > Hi Eugene,
> > >
> > > I doubt this is the resarch you're looking for. It's conducted by
a
> > > telephone sampling company. But it contradicts what you wrote, I
think.
> > >
> > > My question: who do "consumer sampling companies" ask questions
to?
> > >
> > > Mark
> > >
> > > http://www.orcinternational.com/caravan-053102.htm
> > >
> > > On Wed, 3 Dec 2003, Eugene Matusov wrote:
> > >
> > > > Dear everybody-
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > When I was in California, I read in a Russian immigrant
newspaper
about
> >an
> > > > US study, according to which 95% working people in US do not
like
their
> >jobs
> > > > ("zanimayutsya ne lyubimym delom" in Russian). The choice of
words
in
> > > > Russian indicates that these people do their job ONLY out of
necessity
> >to
> > > > earn money but if they have enough money (e.g., won lottery)
they
would
> >stop
> > > > doing their jobs.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Have anybody heard about such study? If so, can you provide
reference,
> > > > please?
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Eugene
> > > >
> > > >
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