IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wdi/papers/1998-206.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why Do People Work if They Are Not Paid? An Example from Eastern Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Irina l. Zinovieva

Abstract

The phenomenon of non-paid work on a massive scale is discussed. Research is done in a textile firm in Eastern Europe, which withheld payment for the performed work for more than a half a year. The following questions were studied: (a) what are the perceptions of work and work results in this highly unusual situation, (b) what kind of other incentives are available to substitute for lack of payment, (c) how do people explain their behavior under such circumstances. Results show that lack of payment is not a barrier for a high level of effort spent in work, relatively good performance, and organizational commitment. The reasons lye mainly in a high level of need for sense, i.e. tendency to search for the meaning of one's actions and the meaning of life, as well as in perceptions of the work situation as opportunities to satisfy higher order (Maslow type of) needs (self-actualization, esteem from others, and belongingness).

Suggested Citation

  • Irina l. Zinovieva, 1998. "Why Do People Work if They Are Not Paid? An Example from Eastern Europe," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 206, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    • Handle: RePEc:wdi:papers:1998-206
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39593/3/wp206.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Walsh, Patrick Paul & Whelan, Ciara, 2001. "Firm performance and the political economy of corporate governance: survey evidence for Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 85-112, June.
    2. Nadja Damij & Zoran Levnajić & Vesna Rejec Skrt & Jana Suklan, 2015. "What Motivates Us for Work? Intricate Web of Factors beyond Money and Prestige," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-13, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wdi:papers:1998-206. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: WDI (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wdumius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.