ISSP1997: Work Orientations II

The seventh of 20 years of International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) surveys in New Zealand by Professor Philip Gendall, Department of Marketing, Massey University.

A verbose rundown on topics covered follows.

Attitudes towards work. Work orientation and description of work responsibilities. Desired distribution of time for selected activities such as work, leisure time, etc.; work orientation (scale); carrying out work in household; importance of selected demands of a job; most important criteria for determination of amount of salary; influence of new technologies on job offerings and on quality of job; preference for work in service area or industry as well as in private economy or public sector.

Preference for employee status or occupational self-employment as well as for working in a large concern or in a small company; part-time employment; interest in full-time work; expected difficulties in looking for a job; payment of work; description of personal commitment to work; preference for more work and more pay or for more leisure time; certainty of one’s own job; significance of career opportunities and structuring of flexible working hours; characterization of work as hard physical activity and description of the extent of stress on the job; physical exhaustion after work; dangerous and unhealthy job situations; personal opportunity to influence the structuring of the work day or work processes.

General job description; benefit of skills learned during time in school or university; judgement on the relationship between management and employees; atmosphere at work; work satisfaction; absence in the last 6 months; search for new job in the next 12 months. Those not employed were asked: work for more than one year and time of end of last paid job; reasons for the end of employment; expected difficulties in the job search; current search for work; manner of search for work; primary income source.

Demography: sex; age; marital status; living together with a partner; education and duration of education; current employment status; employment in private or public sector; self-employment or employee; personal employees; time worked each week; superior function and span of control; company size; income; religious denomination; religiousness; union member; self-assessment of social class; self-assessment on a left-right continuum; party preference; size of household and composition; city size; region; original country of origin or ethnic group affiliation.