Work Related Values and Attitudes in Central and Eastern Europe

Zusammenfassung

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After the shift from centrally planned to market economies, CEE countries experienced significant changes in the world of work. Full employment was replaced by a distortion in labour markets, a rapid rise in unemployment and intensive labour emigration. The following questions are discussed: (1) Can the people in CEE countries be characterized by similar work-related values? (2) Is there any diversity in attitudes towards superiors in the transition countries? To answer these questions, findings of the European Values Study are used. The comparison of data from fourteen CEE countries shows that, concerning workrelated values, two groups of countries can be differentiated. The analysis attitudes towards one's superior also suggests the lack of a homogenous Eastern European cluster. Nach dem Beginn des Übergangs von der Zentralverwaltungs- zur Marktwirtschaft hat sich die Arbeitswelt in den MOE-Ländern dramatisch verändert. Die frühere Vollbeschäftigung wurde durch den Zusammenbruch des Arbeitsmarktes abgelöst, was zu hohen Arbeitslosenraten und nachher zu einer Arbeitsmigration geführt hat. In diesem Beitrag wir die Antwort auf folgende Frage gesucht: Haben die Arbeitnehmer in den untersuchten vierzehn MOELändern nach den Wertänderungen gleiche arbeitsbezogene Werte und gleiche Attitüden zu ihren Vorgesetzten? Um diese Fragen beantworten zu können, stützen sich die Verfasser auf die Datei der internationalen Erhebung European Values Study. Auf Grund der arbeits bezogenen Werte konnten zwei Gruppen unterschieden werden. Die Analyse der Attitüde zum Vorgesetzten hat zum Vorschein gebracht, dass die untersuchten MOE-Länder in dieser Hinsicht nicht homogen sind.

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Auszug

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Work Related Values and Attitudes in Central and Eastern Europe

Changes in the world of work in the transition countries

Back in the 1990's, textbooks on intercultural cooperation and communication, which set the standard for that time, painted a simplified picture of the macroeconomic, national, business and organizational culture of CEE countries. Harris and Moran, for example, wrote the following in a book published in 1996: "After decades under rigid Communist control, East Germany (now united with Germany), Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the disintegrating Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania, as well as the CIS itself ... are left with exhausted labour reserves and high unemployment, ill-prepared and unproductive workers, out-of-date machinery and plants. In addition to the severe shortage of food and consumer goods, these nations are devastated by a frightful legacy of environmental pollution, ecological and economic ruin, as well as a collapsing infrastructure." (Harris/Moran 1996:326-327). Such an observation is not surprising: in the 1990's there were few thorough analyses on the business culture of the former Eastern Block, also known as the COMECON countries.

After the transition from centrally planned to market-based economies, CEE countries experienced significant changes in the world of work. Full employment, a fundamental feature of centrally planned economies, disappeared. The transition led to a distortion in labour markets. Over the 1990's labour market trends showed a high rate of long-...

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