Italian Culture and Work Ethics
Innovation, Vol. 12, No. 4, 1999
583
Working Values and the Italian Family
MASSIMO BELLOTTO and ALBERTO ZATTI
A B S T R A C T History teaches us that it is through the family that new generations are equipped with ethics and values regarding work. The advent of bourgeois society, with its characteristic openness towards other social classes, appears to have relegated the promotion of working values by families to the background. This study sets out to test the hypothesis according to which the family continues to maintain an important role in the transmission of working values. Based on data from the Work Importance Study (Super and Sverko, 1995: Life Roles, Values, a n d Careers, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass), two subgroups were compared (working adults, and high school and university students), considered as representing two different generations (youths vs adults). Some results from cluster anatysis show how substantial similarity exists between adults and youths in terms of ideal values, expressing 'what would be important in an ideal world'. The difference between the subgroups lies in expectations (termed 'expected values') relating to 'what would be important in my actual work environment'. Here, relatively more important values for young people are relatively less important for working adults. Another result presented concerns the relationship existing betiveen value typobgies (classed into six categories) and personal character associated with birth order. What emerges is that the only children are prevalently the 'tough type', while the first bom, considered by some to be custodians of family traditions, tum out to be more independent than the second or third bom, identified above all by their calm and sociable characters.
Introduction: the work ethic and the family ethic This study presents the results of a survey conducted nationaUy in 1995 on a sample of 1523 subjects (represendng the three main geo-cultural areas of Italy: North, Centre and
583
Working Values and the Italian Family
MASSIMO BELLOTTO and ALBERTO ZATTI
A B S T R A C T History teaches us that it is through the family that new generations are equipped with ethics and values regarding work. The advent of bourgeois society, with its characteristic openness towards other social classes, appears to have relegated the promotion of working values by families to the background. This study sets out to test the hypothesis according to which the family continues to maintain an important role in the transmission of working values. Based on data from the Work Importance Study (Super and Sverko, 1995: Life Roles, Values, a n d Careers, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass), two subgroups were compared (working adults, and high school and university students), considered as representing two different generations (youths vs adults). Some results from cluster anatysis show how substantial similarity exists between adults and youths in terms of ideal values, expressing 'what would be important in an ideal world'. The difference between the subgroups lies in expectations (termed 'expected values') relating to 'what would be important in my actual work environment'. Here, relatively more important values for young people are relatively less important for working adults. Another result presented concerns the relationship existing betiveen value typobgies (classed into six categories) and personal character associated with birth order. What emerges is that the only children are prevalently the 'tough type', while the first bom, considered by some to be custodians of family traditions, tum out to be more independent than the second or third bom, identified above all by their calm and sociable characters.
Introduction: the work ethic and the family ethic This study presents the results of a survey conducted nationaUy in 1995 on a sample of 1523 subjects (represendng the three main geo-cultural areas of Italy: North, Centre and
References: Aries, P. (1960), L 'erifant et la vie familiale sous I 'ancien regime, Paris, Plon. Cigoli, V. (1992), // corpo familiare. Lanziano, la malattia, Vintrecdo generazionale, Milan, F. Cacciaguerra, F. (1990), // secondo sangue. La drcolazione dei valori nella famiglia, Troina (EN) Angeli Working Values and the Italian Family 595 ISTAT (1994), Indagine multiscopo suite famiglie italiane, anni 1987-1991, Rome, Isdtuto Poligrafico e Zecca deUo Stato