Attitudes To Jobs

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31922, 25 February 1969, Page 16

Attitudes To Jobs

The significant differences in attitudes to their work of American and New Zealand workers, noted in a study reported today, will not surprise anyone who has worked in America. Opportunities for promotion and the reputation of his employer influence more than most things the United States worker’s attitude to his job. The less ambitious New’ Zealander is more interested in pay and conditions of work. Security of employment and the type of work are both rated highly by New Zealanders and Americans —a comforting finding, in view of frequent assertions that the Welfare State has undermined the New Zealander’s interest in his work. Of more relevance for most employers—since they have not the choice of employing New Zealanders or Americans—is the section of the survey devoted to shift work. Although more than half the workers surveyed declared shift work to be “ un- “ acceptable ”, the analysis of various categories of workers exposes some interesting differences in attitudes. Most significant of all is the response of the 776 workers employed by firms which practise shift work: 42J per pent found shift work acceptable, 421 per cent found it unacceptable, and the remainder offered no opinion.

The authors of the study had expected to find workers’ attitudes to their jobs similar throughout the country. They were not disappointed, and, indeed, found a “ homogeneity of attitudes ” even more marked than was expected. But the differences in attitudes to their work of male and female workers, of young and old, of married and single, are sufficient to call into question many accepted practices in this country. The survey, published by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, will repay study by employers and trade union officials alike.