Research project Motivation and labor market inequality

Many small-scale empirical studies in organizational psychology and related fields have shown that factors tied to work motivation strongly affect central features of working life such as skill growth, job mobility and work performance. Yet, the role of motivation has been largely neglected in research on labor market inequality at the societal level. The project proposed here aims at establishing a link between these areas of inquiry. Current social change tied to skill upgrading – the upward shift in educational and occupational structures – further increases the relevance of considering motivational factors.

While skill upgrading is beneficial for many or even most individuals, it also introduces new inequalities. The motivation to learn and engage with new work tasks is fundamental for career mobility and continuing work-life learning. As skill upgrading expands development opportunities, personal motivation to pursue them grows in importance.

We aim at revealing how motivation interacts with generic skills, work experience, on-the-job training and job mobility in determining variation in labor market outcomes by socio-economic background, gender, ethnicity, age, and education. The proposed project will provide important knowledge as input to public debate and policy formation on issues related to life-long learning and work-life mobility, often highlighted as crucial to avoid growing inequalities as competence requirements continue to rise in contemporary labor markets. Examining the role of motivation in these processes at the societal level is urgent and has, as far as we know, rarely been attempted.