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The Dynamics of the Core Values

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Sociological Research, vol. 50, no. 6, November–December 2011, pp. 17–31. © 2011 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 1061–0154/2011 $9.50 + 0.00. DOI 10.2753/SOR1061-0154500602

G.P. Bessokirnaia

The Dynamics of Workers’ Values and Labor Motives (2003–2007)
Research on workers in Russia shows that attitudes toward work are strongly influenced by conditions in the workplace, and that this is the case for both males and females.

The dynamics of the core values of everyday activities and labor motives of Moscow workers in the 1990s [1], and changes in the basic life values and motives of workers in the period 1990–2003 [2], were the subject of studies the author conducted in collaboration with V.D. Patrushev [3, pp. 77–99], to whose memory I dedicate this article. The present author carried out a comparative analysis of the basic life values and labor motives of workers in Pskov in 1995–2007 [4]. This article presents the results of the analysis of the dynamics of the values and labor motives of workers during a relatively stable period of the development of Russian society, during a period of economic growth. The surveys of workers were carried out in the same machine-building plants in Briansk, Pskov, and Kirov in 2003 and 2007.1 All three cities are oblast centers of regions that, according to the classification devised
English translation © 2011 M.E. Sharpe, Inc., from the Russian text © 2010 the author. “Dinamika tsennosti i motivov truda rabochikh (2003–7 gg.),” Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia, 2010, no. 2, pp. 56–63. A publication of the Russian Academy of Sciences; the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, and Law, Russian Academy of Sciences; and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. Galina Petrovna Bessokirnaia is a candidate of economic sciences and a senior science associate in the Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences. Translated by Kim Braithwaite.
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by the Independent Institute for Social Policy, are included in one type designated “Medium,” subtype A “Developed Zone,” and the groups “More urbanized regions of the Center, the Northwest, and the Volga Area” (see http://atlas.socpol.ru/typology/table_types.shtml). To a certain extent, the similarity of position makes it possible to eliminate the influence of any external factors. A target sample was used in both surveys. A poll was conducted of all workers on the job in their workplaces in one of the shops of the main production facility. The aggregate sample in all of the surveyed enterprises totaled 451 people in 2003 (198 males and 253 females); in 2007 the figure was 438 people (232 males and 206 females). A comparative analysis was carried out for working-age workers (males age eighteen to fifty-nine and females age eighteen to fifty-four). In both 2003 and 2007 the total number was 417 people. The objective of this article is to analyze the dynamics of the workers’ values and specific labor motives in their enterprise. The basic life values of workers were determined by their answers to the question “Which life values are most important to you at present?” Respondents were asked to select two or three options from the list or give their own answer. The structure of the respondents’ labor motives was studied by analyzing their answers to the question “Different people have different motives to work. What is very important to you personally, and what is not?” A five-point scale was used to rate the importance of each labor motive: 1—not important at all; 2—mostly unimportant; 3—somewhat important, somewhat unimportant; 4—mostly important; 5—very important. The scale was used to calculate an index that represents the arithmetic mean. The option “hard to say” was also taken into account. In 2003, the list that was presented to the respondents consisted of eleven labor motives; in 2007 the figure was sixteen. These motives also included items used in previous surveys conducted by the sector to study everyday activities and time budgeting of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences; these surveys were carried out in industrial enterprises in the 1990s. In addition, they included questions about work values used in the World Values Survey (coordinated by Ronald Inglehart [5]) as well as in surveys focused on studying the population’s assessments and opinions concerning various aspects of their work activity; these were carried out in the context of the International Program for Comparative Research [6]. For workers, the importance of their work in the enterprise continued to decline even during the country’s period of economic growth (see Table 1).

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For all of the females who were surveyed it declined in 2003–7 in three enterprises; for males, its importance declined in two of the three enterprises. The proportion of answers designating this value as the most important went down by a factor of 2.3 in Briansk, by 1.4 in Pskov, and 1.7 in Kirov. In 2003 work in the enterprise was ranked solidly in third place among the hierarchy of life values in Kirov and Pskov, while in Briansk it shared third and fourth place with the value rest, entertainment, and association with friends and relatives; in 2007, however, it had fallen to fourth place ranking in Briansk, while in Kirov and Pskov it shared third and fourth places with the aforementioned value relating to the sphere of leisure. Judging by the rankings, the value of work in the enterprise went down in all three enterprises both in the case of the males and the females. In the hierarchy of the most important life values, as before, both males and females assigned first and second place to the family and its material well-being, childrearing, and health. Moreover, judging from the proportion of the answers, the former value [i.e., family] had even risen slightly in value in all of the cities; for females this happened in two of the three cities. The gap between the values family and work, which in 1991 differentiated Russia from other countries [7], continued to increased: among workers in Briansk by a factor of 1.9, in Pskov by a factor of 1.5, and in Kirov by a factor of 3.2. These facts indicate overall trends in the dynamics of workers’ basic life values, in particular, work. An analysis of labor motives as a function of workers’ gender2 (see Table 2) in 2003 showed that in all three cities, female workers consider the following values to be slightly more important: a guarantee of employment (4.4 points vs. 4.2 points on the whole), the opportunity to associate with people (4.3 points vs. 3.8 points on the whole), the opportunity to be of more benefit to other people (3.9 points vs. to 3.7 points on the whole), and social recognition for one’s work (3.9 points vs. 3.5 points on the whole). However, judging from the results of the Smirnov-Kolmogorov nonparametric test, the differences between the males and females are statistically significant for the entire data set only on the following motives: social recognition for one’s labor, the opportunity to associate with people, relations with colleagues on the job, and relations with management. Moreover, all four turned out to be more important to females. At the same time, no statistically significant differences between the labor motives of males and females were recorded in the three subsets of data. The data from the analysis suggest that on the whole, all of the workers

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Table 1

Basic Life Values of Workers Depending on Gender, 2003 and 2007 (%/rank)
Briansk 2003 2007 2003 2007 Pskov 2003 Kirov 2007

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Basic life values

The family and its material well-being, childrearing Health Work in the enterprise Rest, entertainment, association with friends and relatives Schooling, upgrading of general and specialized education Total number of answers 40 (1) 31 (2) 8 (4) 18 (3) 3 (5) 122 38 (1) 30 (2) 19 (3) 8 (4.5) 5 (4.5) 230

36 (1.5) 35 (1.5) 7 (4.5) 15 (3) 6 (4.5) 162

21 (2.5) 39 (1) 21 (2.5) 12 (4) 6 (5) 33

34 (1.5) 30 (1.5) 21 (3) 11 (4) 3 (5) 92 43 (1) 26 (2) 11 (3.5) 14 (3.5) 6 (5) 174

29 (2) 29 (2) 27 (2) 12 (4) 3 (5) 176 37 (1) 31 (2) 26 (3) 3 (4.5) 3 (4.5) 148

33 (1) 24 (2) 16 (3.5) 19 (3.5) 8 (5) 178 29 (1.5) 28 (1.5) 16 (3.5) 15 (3.5) 11 (5) 92

The family and its material well-being, childrearing Health Work in the enterprise Rest, entertainment, association with friends and relatives Schooling, upgrading of general and specialized education Total number of answers

Males 32 (1) 23 (2.5) 18 (4) 22 (2.5) 4 (5) 180 Females 36 (1) 31 (2) 17 (3) 13 (4) 3 (5) 102

The family and its material well-being, childrearing Health Work in the enterprise Rest, entertainment, associations with friends and relatives Schooling, upgrading of general and specialized education Total number of answers

All respondents 34 (1) 38 (1) 26 (2) 34 (2) 18 (3.5) 8 (4) 18 (3.5) 16 (3) 4 (5) 4 (5) 282 284 36 (1) 32 (2) 19 (3) 8 (4) 5 (5) 263 40 (1) 27 (2) 14 (3.5) 13 (3.5) 5 (5) 266 32 (1.5) 30 (1.5) 27 (3) 8 (4) 3 (5) 324 32 (1) 25 (2) 16 (3.5) 17 (3.5) 9 (5) 270

notes: Answers may not equal 100 percent because other answer options were not presented in the table. Connected ranks are also indicated; a connected rank arises if the differences between the numerical values of the variables are not statistically significant. In this case, the ranks that these items should have been given are summarized and divided by the number of items.

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Table 2

Workers’ Labor Motives as a Function of Their Gender in Machine-Building Plants in Oblast Centers of the Russian Federation in 2003 (indexes)
Pskov Males (n = 17) 4.9 4.4 4.3 4.4 4.4 4.2 4.4 3.9 3.9 3.4 3.4 3.4 4.1 3.5 3.4 3.4 2.7 4.1 3.4 4.2 3.9 4.6 3.8 4.0 3.8 3.6 3.5 3.3 2.6 3.8 4.0 3.7 3.5 3.5 3.0 4.6 4.4 4.3 4.4 4.3 4.4 4.1 4.1 4.5 4.5 4.1 4.2 4.1 4.2 4.1 4.0 5.0 4.9 4.9 4.9 4.9 4.4 4.4 4.2 4.2 4.3 4.1 3.9 3.9 3.5 3.1 Females (n = 125) Males (n = 76) Females (n = 65) Males (n = 178) Females (n = 235) Kirov Overall All (n = 413) 4.9 4.3 4.3 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.0 3.8 3.7 3.5 3.1

Briansk Females (n = 45) 4.8 3.9 4.1 4.0 3.9 3.9 4.0 3.9 3.7 3.6 2.9

Labor motives

Males (n = 85)

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4.8

4.0 4.0 4.1 3.8

3.7

4.1

3.8

To earn good pay Relations with colleagues on the job A guarantee of employment Independence Relations with management The opportunity to associate with people To realize one’s abilities and knowledge To be of as much benefit to other people as possible To have social recognition of one’s work Upgrading of qualifications To take active part in the management of production

3.5 3.7

3.2

notes: The list of labor motives is presented in their diminishing order of importance for all workers as a whole. The indexes were obtained as the arithmetical mean calculated on a five-point scale.

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rated seven out of the eleven labor motives as being the most important (indexes of 4 points or more). Among these labor motives, in addition to good pay (4.9 points), relations with colleagues on the job and a guarantee of employment (4.3 points each), independence, relations with management, the opportunity to associate with people (4.1 points each), and the realization of one’s abilities and knowledge (4 points). Motives that were less important to the workers during that period were: to be of as much benefit to other people as possible (3.8 points), to have social recognition for one’s work (3.7 points), to raise one’s qualifications constantly (3.5 points), and to take active part in the management of production (3.1 points). An analysis of the labor motives as a function of the workers’ gender in 2007 (see Table 3), showed that in the entire data set and in each of the three cities, the following motives were more important to females than to males: convenient work schedule (4.5 points vs. 4.3 points), the opportunity to associate with people (4.1 points vs. 4.0 points), and participation in the discussion, formulation, and making of decisions about the activity of the collective (3.4 points vs. 3.1 points). Using the Smirnov-Kolmogorov nonparametric test it was found that on the whole, for males and females in 2007, the following differences in labor motives were statistically significant: constant upgrading of qualifications, realization of abilities, guarantee of employment, and convenient work schedule. Moreover, the first three motives were more important to males, and the last motive was more important to females. At the same time, no statistically significant differences were found between males and females in each of the enterprises (as determined using the aforementioned test). The only exception consisted of differences in the importance of the motive constant upgrading of qualifications for males and females in Pskov. All of the workers who were surveyed rated nine out of the sixteen labor motives as being the most important (indexes of 4 points or more). These included: good pay (4.8 points), work safety and normal conditions of sanitation and hygiene (4.6 points each), a convenient work schedule and relations and association with colleagues on the job (4.4 points each), interesting work (4.3 points), a guarantee of employment (4.1 points), the opportunity to associate with people and independence (4.0 points each). The motives rated as least important by the workers included the benefit that the work gives to other people (3.9 points), relations with the management, and the realization of abilities (3.8 points each),

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Table 3

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Workers’ Labor Motives as a Function of Their Gender in Machine-Building Plants in Oblast Centers of the Russian Federation in 2007 (indexes)
Pskov Males (n = 51) 4.7 4.3 4.2 4.2 4.1 4.0 4.2 3.7 3.7 3.8 3.4 4.2 4.0 3.9 4.5 4.4 4.1 4.1 4.2 4.4 4.4 4.6 4.2 4.6 4.4 4.8 4.5 4.9 4.8 4.8 4.4 4.6 4.5 4.1 4.3 4.5 Females (n = 93) Males (n = 84) Females (n = 38) Kirov Overall Males Females All (n = 214) (n = 192) (n = 406) 4.8 4.6 4.6 4.3 4.4 4.3 4.2 4.0 4.1 4.8 4.6 4.6 4.5 4.4 4.2 4.0 4.1 3.9 4.8 4.6 4.6 4.4 4.4 4.3 4.1 4.0 4.0

Briansk Females (n = 61) 5.0 4.7 4.7 4.7 4.6 4.4 4.2 4.4 4.2

Labor motives

Males (n = 79)

4.9 4.8

4.8 4.4

Good pay Work safety Normal conditions of sanitation and hygiene at work Convenient work schedule Relations with colleagues at work Interesting work A guarantee of employment Opportunity to associate with people Independence

4.4 4.3 4.3

4.1 4.1

3.9 3.5 3.6 3.5 3.6 3.2 3.6 2.7 3.7 3.0 3.5 2.9 3.2

4.1 4.1 3.6 3.7 3.7

3.6 3.9 4.1 3.9 3.5

3.5 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.2

4.1 3.8 4.1 3.8 4.1

4.4 4.2 3.7 3.8 4.3

3.9 3.7 3.9 3.7 3.7

3.9 3.9 3.6 3.7 3.6

3.9 3.8 3.8 3.7 3.7

Work that is of benefit to other people Relations with management Realization of abilities Social recognition of one’s work Responsible work Constant upgrading of qualifications Participation in discussion, formulation, and making of decisions about the collective’s activity 3.0 3.4 3.5 3.4 3.8 3.1 3.4 3.2

3.1

2.7

notes: The list of labor motives is presented in their diminishing order of importance for all workers as a whole. The indexes were obtained as the arithmetical mean calculated on a five-point scale.

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social recognition for one’s work and a responsible job (3.7 points each), constant upgrading of qualifications and participation in the discussion, formulation, and making of decisions concerning the activity of the collective (3.2 points each). The assessments of the importance of most of the labor motives, as determined in both surveys, had either not changed, or changed only slightly. These motives include the following: good pay, relations with colleagues on the job, independence, the opportunity to associate with people, the opportunity to be of benefit to other people, social recognition of one’s work, and active participation in the management of production. In the four years, however, there was a decline in the importance of upgrading of qualifications and relations with management (by 0.3 points), a guarantee of employment and the realization of one’s abilities and knowledge (by 0.2 points). It must be noted that in 2007 the realization of one’s abilities was no longer included among the group of the most important labor motives of workers, just as for the motive relations with management. And while the decline in the importance of the motives relations with management and a guarantee of employment can be linked to the improvement in the labor market situation, and can be rated as positive shifts in the structure of the motives, the decline in importance of motives such as upgrading of qualifications and realization of one’s abilities and knowledge, in our opinion, must be rated as negative shifts in the structure of labor motives. Another thing that can hardly be rated as positive is that because of the expansion of the list of motives, in addition to the motive of good pay, the motives work safety, normal conditions of sanitation and hygiene at work, and convenient work schedule were advanced to leading rankings. The addition of interesting work to the list showed that this is an important motive at present. On the other hand, the addition of responsible work to the list showed that the workers do not include it among the group of most important labor motives. It should be noted that with respect to the labor motives being compared here, significant differences were found in both surveys between enterprises, using the Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test (see Table 4). The dynamics of the labor motives are not the same in the three cities. In Briansk, during the four years, there was a substantial decline in the importance of labor motives such as realization of one’s abilities and knowledge, upgrading of qualifications, and active participation in the management of production. And, on the other hand, there was an increase

Table 4

Workers’ Labor Motives in Machine-Building Plants in Oblast Centers of the Russian Federation, 2003 and 2007 (indexes)
2003 Pskov –0.3 –0.4 –0.4 –0.8 –0.6 –0.7 –0.4 4.2 3.8 3.5 2.8 3.5 3.5 +0.1 0.0 –0.5 –0.3 –0.5 –0.4 –0.4 +0.1 2007 2007 compared to 2003 (+ –) Kirov 0.0 +0.1 –0.3 +0.3 –0.1 +0.2 +0.2 +0.7 +0.3 +0.1 +0.8

Labor motives 4.8 3.9 4.0 4.0 3.8 3.8 4.1 3.9 3.6 3.6 3.1 3.4 2.7 4.1 4.1 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.4 4.0 3.6 3.1 3.6 3.7 3.1 5.0 4.6 4.4 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.2 4.9 4.4 4.4 4.0 4.1 4.0 3.8 4.9 4.5 4.2 4.1 3.8 4.2 3.6 4.7 4.2 4.0 3.5 3.8 3.8 3.8 4.9 4.5 4.1 4.3 4.0 4.2 4.0 +0.1 +0.6 +0.2 +0.1 0.0 +0.4 –0.5

Briansk Pskov Kirov Briansk Pskov Kirov (n = 130) (n = 142) (n = 141) (n = 140) (n = 144) (n = 122) Briansk

To earn good pay Relations with colleagues on the job A guarantee of employment Independence Relations with management The opportunity to associate with people To realize one’s abilities and knowledge To be of as much benefit to other people as possible To have social recognition for one’s work Upgrading of qualifications To take active part in management of production

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notes: The motives have been designated according to the wording in 2007; designations of motives similar in content to 2003 are presented in Table 3. The indexes were obtained as the arithmetical mean calculated on a five-point scale.

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in the importance of relations with colleagues on the job, the opportunity to associate with other people, and a guarantee of employment. In Pskov during the period in question there was an observable decline in the importance of almost all of the labor motives. In particular, these included independence, the opportunity to associate with people, relations with management, the opportunity to be of more benefit to other people, and also relations with colleagues on the job, a guarantee of employment, the realization of one’s abilities and knowledge, social recognition of one’s work, and upgrading of qualifications. In Kirov, on the other hand, an absolute majority of the motives in question became more important to the workers. These included, in particular: active participation in the management of production, social recognition of one’s work, independence, and also the realization of one’s abilities and knowledge and the opportunity to associate with people. In Kirov the only motive that declined substantially in importance was a guarantee of employment. How can these diverse tendencies be explained? From our point of view, the dynamics of the labor motives depends on the extent to which workers are realizing the motives that are important to them in their work activity, and, accordingly, the extent to which they are satisfied with their work in the enterprise. In both surveys (2003 and 2007), the latter consideration (satisfaction with the work) is higher in Kirov than in the other two cities. In Kirov, that rating rose from 3.6 points to 4 points in the four years, while in Pskov and Briansk it declined from 3.4 points to 3.3 points and from 3 points to 2.8 points, respectively. In Kirov more often than in Pskov and, especially, in Briansk, workers expressed the opinion that their personal attitudes toward the work and their work colleagues’ attitudes toward the work had improved in the past four years (35 percent, 17 percent, and 14 percent, and 23 percent, 16 percent, and 9 percent, respectively). As mentioned above, in Kirov the importance of the majority of the labor motives increased in that period. On the other hand, the decline in the level of satisfaction with work in the enterprise, and the lower pace of improvements in attitudes toward the work in Pskov and Briansk were accompanied by a substantial decline in the importance of a number of the motives, including upgrading of qualifications. It was found that work today demands constant upgrading of qualifications for 47 percent of workers in Kirov, 42 percent in Pskov, and 36 percent in Briansk. Over the four years, this assessment rose by 7 percent in Kirov, while in Pskov and Briansk, on the other hand, it went down by 23 percent and 7 percent,

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respectively. It appears that if an enterprise has opportunities for workers to realize significant labor motives, it leads to a rise in the importance of these motives to the workers, while the absence of such opportunities reduces that importance. It is no wonder that in Pskov, where the working conditions of workers are worse than in Kirov, there was a decline in the importance of the majority of the labor motives. In Briansk, where those conditions were essentially the most unfavorable, there was a decline, as in Pskov, in the importance of labor motives such as upgrading of qualifications and realization of one’s abilities and knowledge. Most likely, the increase in the importance of labor motives such as relations with colleagues on the job and the opportunity to associate with people is linked, in Briansk, with the fact that the enterprise lacks the conditions necessary for realizing other labor motives. Thus: 1. The value of work in an enterprise continued to decline even under the conditions of economic growth. This was a trend common to males and females in all three cities. 2. On the whole, the workers rated all of the labor motives presented to them as being important (with indexes of more than 3 points in both surveys). From our perspective, the list of motives that have been tested in practice can be recommended for use in future surveys of workers’ labor motives. 3. A majority of the motives (seven out of eleven in the first survey and nine out of sixteen in the second survey) were designated by workers as being the most important (with indexes of 4 points or more). Evidently, the time in which good pay was the only very important labor motive has passed, and at present, along with it, the motives that are important to workers also include working conditions, relations with colleagues on the job, and interesting work. In effect, the structure of labor motives has returned to what it was among workers back in the 1970s. 4. The importance of the motive of a guarantee of employment, which was ranked in second place (after the motive to earn good pay) in surveys carried out in the 1990s, has declined in the first years of the new century. In 2007, it was ranked only in seventh place out of sixteen items in the hierarchy of labor motives. 5. There are observable differences in the ratings given to the importance of certain labor motives by males and females in the data sets of both surveys. The motives are different, however: in

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2003, they were social recognition of one’s work, the opportunity to associate with people, relations with colleagues on the job, and relations with the management, while in 2007 they were constant upgrading of qualifications, the realization of abilities, a guarantee of employment, and a convenient work schedule. From our point of view, in a society that is going through transformations it is not reasonable to speak of any firmly established specifics of the labor motives held by males and females but, instead, of the specifics of the labor motives of males and females as a function of the labor market situation. 6. With rare exceptions, no differences were recorded in the labor motives of males and females in the three enterprises in both surveys, which made it possible to study the dynamics of these motives, on the whole, on the enterprise level. 7. The analysis that was carried out showed that the dynamics of labor motives are linked to the working conditions in an enterprise. An improvement in the working conditions can lead not only to an improvement in the workers’ level of satisfaction with their work and an improvement in their attitudes toward the work, but also to more complexity in the structure of the labor motives and the increased importance of motives such as active participation in the management of production, benefits to other people, social recognition for one’s work, and independence. Notes
1. The program and set of instruments of the first survey were developed by the present author in collaboration with V.D. Patrushev, and were largely repeated in the second survey. 2. In the opinion of V.D. Patrushev, this analysis is important, inasmuch as the labor motives of males and females are specific.

References
1. Patrushev, V.D., and G.P. Bessokirnaia. “Dinamika osnovnykh tsennostei povsednevnoi deiatel’nosti i motivov truda moskovskikh rabochikh v 1990-e gody.” Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia, 2003, no. 5, pp. 72–84. 2. Patrushev, V.D., and G.P. Bessokirnaia. “Osnovnye zhiznennye tsennosti, motivy truda rabochikh v period 1990–2003 gg. i ikh izmeneniia.” In Tsennosti povsednevnoi deiatel’nosti gorozhan, ed. T.M. Karakhanova, pp. 29–45. Moscow: Institut sotsiologii RAN, 2004.

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3. Patrushev, V.D. Trud i dosug rabochikh (biudzhet vremeni, tsennosti, motivy). Moscow: Institut sotsiologii RAN, 2006. 4. Karakhanova, T.M., and G.P. Bessokirnaia. “Povsednevnoe ispol’zovanie vremeni i zhiznennye tsennosti rabochikh v gody reform.” In Rossiia reformiruiushchaiasia. Ezhegodnik, ed. M.K. Gorshkov. Vyp. 7, pp. 202–5. Moscow: Institut sotsiologii RAN, 2008. 5. Magun, V.S. dinamika trudovykh tsennostei ekonomicheski aktivnogo naseleniia Rossii, 1991–2004 gg. Preprint WP3/2006/09. Moscow: GU VShE, 2006. 6. Khakhulina, L. “Trud v sisteme zhiznennykh orientatsii rossiiskogo naseleniia.” vestnik obshchestvennogo mneniia: dannye. Analiz. diskussii, 2006, no. 5, pp. 27–37. 7. Magun, V.S. “Sub”ektivnaia znachimost’ raboty i ee dinamika v 1990-e gody.” In Puti Rossii: sushchestvuiushchie ogranicheniia i vozmozhnye varianty, ed. T.E. Vorozheikina. Moscow: MVShSEN, 2004.

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...Applied Economics Letters, 2011, 18, 1121–1124 Management innovation, corporation core competence and corporate culture: the impact of relatedness Chich-Jen Shieh Department of International Business, Chang Jung Christian University, Kway Jen, Sector 1, 396 Chang Jung Road, Tainan, 71101 Taiwan E-mail: charles@mail.cjcu.edu.tw This study reports the results of a study of Management Innovation of Taiwanese businesses in China. Over 800 questionnaires were sent out to the Taiwanese owners/managers in Kun-Shan City, China, with 260 valid responses included in the study. Four relationships were examined in the study: the correlation between management innovation and corporation core competence, between management innovation and the corporate culture, between corporation core competence and the corporate culture and finally the effect of the corporate culture on the relationship between management innovation and corporation core competence. Findings and conclusions are discussed. I. Introduction Management innovations are processes such as new distribution methods or novel applications of technology in the management process, which enable organizations to reach their goals, and include object management, environmental research and judgment, coordination, integration and schedule control (Van de Ven, 2003; Van Ark et al., 2003b). Van Ark et al. (2003a) defined management innovation as a management product or management process that is based on some technology...

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Establishing Advantage from the Resources and Internal Activities of the Organisation

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Drawing on the Resource Based View Literature, Evaluate Whether and How Zara Generates Sustainable Competitive Advantage

...conclusion as to whether Zara have been able to create a sustainable competitive advantage, focussing primarily on their core competences developed over time. The resource based view stems from the idea that today’s market environments are so unpredictable and fast moving that it is wiser to form a base for strategy on the internal resources and capabilities of a company, rather than focussing on the external market (Grant, 2008). To gain a competitive advantage a firm must implement a strategy consisting of valuable and rare resources not being employed by current or potential competitors. To create a sustainable competitive advantage a firm must have unique resources that are non-imitable and non-substitutable (Barney, 1991). Competences derive from the integration of resources, assets, routines and values (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990). They become ‘core’ competences when they strategically differentiate themselves from other organizations (Leonard-Barton, 1992), helping them build a sustainable competitive advantage. Prahalad and Hamel (1990) state that a world leading company is unlikely to have more than five or six core competences and it is crucial to note that, while they can be discussed individually, it is when they are combined in a mutually reinforcing way that a sustainable competitive advantage can be obtained (Stacey, 2003). Zara’s primary core competency comes in their manufacturing process. From their beginning Zara exhibited a distinctive business strategy in...

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Pepsico

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Strategic Management, C Orporate Responsibility and S Takeholder Management Integrating Corporate Responsibility Principles and Stakeholder Approaches I Nto Mainstream Strategy: a Stakeholder-Oriented and I Ntegrative Strategic M Anagement Framework

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Google Business Strategies

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Bringing the Best of Everybody

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4 Characteristic

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Nanananananannanananananannanannaaa

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