Meaning of Work? LO13186

JULIEN Denyse (JULIEN@imd.ch)
Fri, 11 Apr 97 14:33:00 PDT

A study on "The Meaning and Motivation of Work into the next Millennium"
was conducted by the International Institute for Management Development
(IMD). IMD is a business school in Switzerland that specialises in
executive education.

The database includes responses from more than 300 managers across Europe,
with good representation from several industries - notably Food,
chemicals, Telecom., and Instruments.

Our results have raised several questions that we have difficulty
explaining. We would like to put them to the group for discussion.

Question 1.
We developed a measure of how central work is in your life, Now and in the
Future. There was a drop in this work centrality rating (from now to the
future) across all industries. Additionally, the British sub-sample has a
significantly lower value for work centrality in the future, as compared to
the other nationalities. Any thoughts about either of these findings????

Question 2.
We developed four dimensions of work Economic, Expressive, Learning and
Comfort, and measured their importance now and in the future. The comfort
dimension which includes issues relating to working hours and good physical
working conditions, was the only dimension that increased in the future.
Any thoughts about this finding????

Question 3.
Throughout the sample there seems to be a generally pessimistic outlook for
work in the future. Any thoughts about this finding????

Thanks for all you input.
Denyse Julien
julien@imd.ch

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JULIEN Denyse <JULIEN@imd.ch>
 


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