Young people's work motivation and value orientation

Swedish studies of young people's values and attitudes toward work indicate that internal or postmaterialistic values as well as the intrinsic work goals are important. Intrinsic work goals are ranked higher than economic work goals by groups, especially girls, attending theoretical high school courses. The attitudes to work also express different kinds of internal and external values and seem to reflect different patterns of socialization. The value structure as a whole, however, seems rather unaffected by the economic recession experienced in Sweden. The present paper focuses on the relationship between work attitudes, values and background variables.