EDUCATION AND FUTURE WORK ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Authors

  • Vilmante Kumpikaite - Valiūniene Kaunas University of Technology, Faculty of Management (LT)
  • Ewa Rollnik-Sadowska Bialystok University of Technology, Faculty of Management (PL)
  • Ewa Glińska Bialystok University of Technology, Faculty of Management (PL)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17770/sie2016vol4.1564

Keywords:

education and future work attitudes, education and work motivation, skills' assessment, youth's employment, comparative analysis

Abstract

Increasing the employment among young people is one of the main objectives of the European Union labour market policy. On the one hand, labour market indicators of youths are worse than the ones for the population as a whole. Moreover, the EU countries face NEETs phenomena when young people are not in education, employment and training. Simultaneously, the strong aging process in Europe and demographic changes determine the need for a particular focus on young people who are an important part of future labour force. It is crucial to equip young people with the skills and competencies tailored to the needs of employers, which also would be consistent with the attitudes and expectations of young people. That is why the authors of the paper decided to take into consideration the work and education attitudes of students in two European countries - Poland and Lithuania. These neighbouring EU member states went through comparable historical and political conditions, which influenced their economic situations also in the area of labour market. However, those countries followed different educational reforms. Lithuania implemented basic dual learning and Poland still represents more theoretical orientation in tertiary education.

The research aim of the paper is to identify the differences in education and future work attitudes of Polish and Lithuanian students. Those differences were diagnosed taking into account: an assessment of own skills for a 'dream' job, perceptions of the impact of environmental factors on a future career, as well as a diagnosis of motivators to work.

The chosen research methods were both secondary data analysis as well as realisation of the primary quantitative research among Polish and Lithuanian students. The survey was conducted among 500 students - roughly in half from each country. The comparison showed large similarities in the factors affecting the motivation of students to work as well as some differences in the perception of the impact of the environment on the future career. The biggest differences among students from two countries were identified in the evaluation of skills needed to find employment.

 

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Analoui, F. (1993). Skills of management. In J.W.Cusworth & T.F. Franks (Eds), Managing Projects in Developing Countries. Longman.

Breckler, S. J. (1984). Empirical Validation of Affect, Behavior, and Cognition as Distinct Components of Attitude,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1191–1205.

Bryner, J. (2010). Big Generation Gaps in Work Attitudes Revealed, Live Science http://www.livescience.com/6195-big-generation-gaps-work-attitudes-revealed.html.

Daft R. L., Sormunen J. and Parks D. (1988) Chief executive scanning, environmental characteristics, and company performance: an empirical study, Strategic Management Journal 9, pp.123-l39.

European Commission. (2014). Population ageing in Europe: facts, implications and policies, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, doi:10.2777/60452.

Eurostat. (2015). Fertility statistics, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Fertility_statistics.

Eurostat. (2016). Annual expenditure on public and private educational institutions compared to GDP per capita, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database.

Hirschi, A., Lee, B., Porfeli, E. J., Vondracek, F. W. (2013). Proactive motivation and engagement in career behaviors: Investigating direct, mediated, and moderated effects. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(1), 31-40. doi:10.1016/J.Jvb.2013.02.003.

Fulton, O., Santiago, P., Edquist,Ch., El-Khawas, E., Hackl, E. (2007). OECD Reviews of Tertiary Education. Poland. OECD Publishing.Kanfer, R., Chen, G., & Pritchard, R. D. (2008). The three C’s of work motivation: Content, context, and change. In R. Kanfer, G. Chen, & R. D. Pritchard (Eds.), Work motivation: Past, present, and future. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Kumpikaite–Valiūniene V., Aslan I., Glinska E., Ramirez A. M., (2016). Students’ Attitude to Job Performance: Intercultural Study, Engeenering Economics 27 (2) (in print).

Maslow, A. H., (1967). A theory of metamotivation: the biological rooting of the value-life. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 7, 143-153.

Parker, S. K., Bindl, U. K., & Strauss, K. (2010). Making things happen: A model of proactive motivation. Journal of Management, 36(4), pp. 827–856. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206310363732

Parker, S.; Bindl, U.K. (2010). Feeling good and performing well? Psychological engagement and positive behaviors at work. Handbook of Employee Engagement: Perspectives, Issues, Research and Practice. ed. / Simon L. Albrecht. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 385-398.

Robbins S. P., Judge T. A. (2009). Organizational Behavior. Prentice Hall Inc.,New Jersey.

Valero, D. & Hirschi, A. (2016). Latent profiles of work motivation in adolescents in relation to work expectations; goal engagement; and changes in work experiences, Journal of Vocational Behavior. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2016.01.003.

Wahba, M.A & Bridwell, L.G. (1976). Maslow Reconsidered: A Review of Research on the Need Hierarchy Theory. Organisational Behaviour and Human Performance, 15, 212 – 240.

Wołkonowski, J. (2015). Szkolnictwo wyższe na Litwie w okresie 1989 - 2014 - od interwencjonizmu do liberalizmu. Optimum. Studia Ekonomiczne nr 3 (75) 2015. doi: 10.15290/ose.2015.03.75.13

Downloads

Published

2016-05-26

How to Cite

Kumpikaite - Valiūniene, V., Rollnik-Sadowska, E., & Glińska, E. (2016). EDUCATION AND FUTURE WORK ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS. SOCIETY. INTEGRATION. EDUCATION. Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference, 4, 345-354. https://doi.org/10.17770/sie2016vol4.1564