Zwischen Flexibilität und Sicherheit – zur aktuellen Entwicklung von Werten in der Arbeitswelt

Abstract

Against the background of changes in the organization of work and the advance of flexible forms of employment which are accompanied by increasing employment instability, the status quo of value orientations at the workplace is analysed in this paper. In this vein, the current discussion in the literature is introduced and subsequently confronted with recent empirical data. It becomes apparent that the theory of increasing normative subjectivation cannot be upheld in its stringent form. Due to increasing risks or uncertainty, the attention of a large number of employees is primarily focused on the security of their job, as well as on additional qualifications to secure their employability. Based on employees' high security interest and depending on their individual employment opportunities and risks, however, the picture of the value orientations, in which material and immaterial orientations of self-determination and self-realization at work are important, remains heterogeneous and complex.