Job Preferences in Europe: Tests for scale invariance and examining cross-national variation using EVS

In this article we answered the research question to what extent variation in extrinsic and intrinsic job preference orientations can be attributed to and explained by differences between individuals and between countries.

We argued that socialization in school, economic deprivation, and job quality influence job preferences, and formulated testable hypotheses on the individual and country level. After first testing for cross-national equivalence of the latent constructs and assuring that factor solutions were satisfactory, we employed multiple response multilevel models on a subset of 22 countries in the European Values Study 1999/2000.

The findings indicate that higher educational attainment, a high income, working in managerial and higher professional jobs, and having autonomy in one's job stimulate intrinsic job preference orientations, while particularly educational attainment and autonomy temper extrinsic work values. Workers in semi- and unskilled manual jobs have the highest extrinsic job preferences.

On top of individual characteristics, living in a nation that invests much in human capital or has a high quality labour market is associated with lower levels of extrinsic job preferences. Moreover, countries with socio-economic features that reduce the risk of economic deprivation have a more intrinsically motivated workforce.