Work as a value: from the recent past to the near future

Abstract

The article analyses populations’ attitudes to «work» as a basic value in Belarus, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. The empirical database used for the analysis is the results of the European Values Study, conducted in 2008. The author describes the structure of populations’ work values for the abovementioned countries. The analysis focuses on coincidences and differences when determining the importance of major features of work. The author concludes that, firstly, basic, «materialistic» needs dominate in the system of values in the four countries under study, along with two strategies of their satisfaction — graduated efforts and energetic, effective actions; secondly, the systems of work values were quite close, when comparing the residents of Belarus, Poland, Russia and Ukraine in 2008. The information gained in the course of the fifth wave of the European Values Study, will make it possible to determine new formation and development mechanisms in the system of values in Belarus, Poland, Russia and Ukraine.