Work, Social Values, and Vocational Motivation in America

Traditional Social Values and the Merit of Work

In the United States, one of the most pervasive moral beliefs concerns the inherent value of work — as much for its own sake as for any specific value of its actual product or purpose. Critics of the so-called "Protestant Work Ethic" remind us that the roots of this belief can be traced back to British aristocracy and the need to placate the working poor, distracting them from their miserable existence of perpetual backbreaking labor performed merely to feed their families.

Bertrand Russell captured this tension plainly: "I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached" (Russell, 1992). In the United States, work has become one of the primary elements of individual psychological identity, and it derives far more often from the concept of relative social status and income associated with occupations than from any pleasure or satisfaction inherent in the work itself, or from the objective value of its product to society. Psychologists warn that this is a recipe for perpetual unhappiness, and the subprime mortgage crisis illustrates the pitfalls of a cultural fixation on upward mobility "measured by consumption and the impulse to increase earning in order to display acquisitive wealth" (Stanley & Danko, 1996).

According to Albert Einstein, this motivation for professional achievement also poisons the educational system, by virtue of the underlying reasons students choose their courses of study and devote their efforts to them: "The crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career" (Einstein, 1954).

The Psychological Bases of Vocational Motivation

In primitive times, the purpose of work within the human community was straightforward: one worked to provide oneself and one's family with the necessities of life and whatever extra comforts one could find, build, grow, or barter. Specialization evolved as a natural function of different people perfecting different tasks or the manufacture of different products. Instead of everyone smelting their own horseshoes, knitting cotton fibers into clothing, or raising their own agricultural crops, people contributed the product of their particular labor and bartered it for the products of others.

The monetary system replaced direct trade, and the natural dynamics of supply and demand provided a means of quantifying the relative value of one's work in relation to others' — establishing a basis for fair exchange. In principle, everyone contributes to the welfare of society by providing the product of their labor. In contemporary society, however, the psychological value attached to work has completely overtaken this underlying principle, as illustrated by Bertrand Russell's famous thought experiment:

"Suppose that, at a given moment, a certain number of people are engaged in the manufacture of pins. They make as many pins as the world needs, working (say) eight hours a day. Someone makes an invention by which the same number of men can make twice as many pins: pins are already so cheap that hardly any more will be bought at a lower price. In a sensible world, everybody concerned in the manufacturing of pins would take to working four hours instead of eight, and everything else would go on as before. But in the actual world this would be thought demoralizing. The men still work eight hours, there are too many pins, some employers go bankrupt, and half the men previously concerned in making pins are thrown out of work." (Russell, 1992)

Conclusion: The Need for a Shift in Values

Deriving personal satisfaction from the value of one's vocational efforts to society, or from the inherent enjoyment of the work, should be sufficient motivation for professional achievement and success. However, in many respects, both the psychological health of the individual and the financial health of the U.S. economy will require a fundamental shift in the values and motivations that most commonly drive professional achievement in the United States. As Nathaniel Branden (1985) argues, the foundation of that shift must be rooted in a healthier basis for self-esteem — one grounded in genuine competence and personal integrity rather than in the consumption-driven display of social status.