Economic Downturn and Work Motivation

This chapter examines whether job insecurity and unemployment are corrosive of employment commitment. In policy circles, unemployment is thought to lead to an erosion of the work ethic. Among researchers, however, the implications of experiences of job loss for employment commitment are still a matter of considerable controversy. The analysis finds no support for the belief that unemployment undermines peoples’ employment commitment – not even for relatively long spells of unemployment. In fact, the unemployed tend to show higher commitment than those in paid work, especially in those countries that had experienced persistently high unemployment in the 2000s. Job insecurity among employees – that is particularly high in Southern and Central-Eastern Europe – is found to depress employment commitment. In conclusion, the study suggests that the crisis is likely to have negative implications for intrinsic work motivation in those regions of Europe where employees are strongly exposed to job insecurity.