Do preferences for job attributes provide evidence of 'hierarchy of needs'?

• Published in: Social indicators research Vol. 111; no. 2; pp. 549 - 560
• Main Authors: Baslevent, Cem, Kirmanoglu, Hasan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.04.2013; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Abhängig Beschäftigter; Academic Achievement; Age Differences; Alter; Altersstruktur; Arbeit; Arbeitsmotivation; Arbeitsplatz; Arbeitsplatzsicherheit; Arbeitsqualität; Attitudes; Belgien; Beruf; Bulgarien; Conformity; Correlation; Cultural values; Culture; Demographic change; Demographics; Deutschland; Dänemark; Econometrics; Economic models; Economic value; Educational Opportunities; Employee attitude; Employees; Employment Patterns; Employment Potential; Employment security; Estland; Europe; Evidence; Familie; Family Work Relationship; Females; Finnland; Foreign Countries; Frankreich; Geschlechtsspezifik; Großbritannien; Hierarchy; High income; Human Geography; Individual Characteristics; Internationaler Vergleich; Israel; Job analysis; Job satisfaction; Job Security; Lohnhöhe; Macroeconomics; Microeconomics; Needs; Niederlande; Norwegen; Personality Traits; Personality. Social role; Persönlichkeitsmerkmal; Polen; Portugal; Power; Preferences; Präferenz; Psychological attitudes; Public Health; Quality of Life Research; Russland; Schweden; Schweiz; Self Actualization; Slowenien; Social Behavior; Social Indicators; Social psychology; Social research; Social Sciences; Social Status; Social surveys; Socialization; Sociodemographic Factors; Sociodemographics; Socioeconomic factors; Sociology; Sociology of work; Sociology of work and sociology of organizations; Sozialer Faktor; Sozialer Wert; Spanien; Studies; Surveys; Tschechische Republik; Tätigkeitsmerkmal; Unemployment; Ungarn; Union Members; Union membership; Universalism; Values; Weiterbildungsangebot; Wertorientierung; Work Attitudes; Work Values; Working population. Employment. Women's work; Zufriedenheit; Europe; Hierarchy of needs; Basic personal values; European Social Survey; Preferred job attributes; Hierarchy; Attitude towards; Working life; Employment; Socio-demographic factor; Family Life; Security of employment
• ISSN: 0303-8300; 1573-0921; 1573-0921
• DOI: 10.1007/s11205-012-0019-7

We examine whether employees' preferences for various job attributes are associated with their individual characteristics in ways that are in line with 'hierarchy of needs' theories. Using data from the fifth round of the European Social Survey, we observe the influence of socio-demographic and dispositional characteristics as well as socialization experiences on opinions regarding the importance of five different desirable job attributes. An item-by-item examination of the attributes (including 'security' and 'offering a high income') reveals that dispositional factors (measured using the battery of items in Schwartz's theory of basic personal values) influence job attitudes in expected ways, but employees also tend to place more importance on attributes that concern them more directly. For example, while female employees care more about being able to combine work and family responsibilities, younger workers value training opportunities more highly than older ones. Regarding socialization experiences, we find that job security is more important for those who have been unemployed in the past. We interpret our findings to mean that 'hierarchy of needs' theories are valid in the context of job attitudes in the sense that the ranking of preferred job attributes is quite predictable once individual characteristics are accounted for.