Social attitudes towards professional work of the 55+ generation. Comparative analysis of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to diagnose social attitudes towards professional work of the 55+ generation of Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The analysis is based on the research carried out in Katowice, Ostrava and Debrecen among the 55-65 age group. The research was conducted in April – June 2019. The resulting discussion concerns the cognitive, affective and behavioural attitudes towards professional work. Three national groups are compared. The research findings indicate that taking into account all components of the overall attitude, it is the Poles who achieve the highest value of a positive attitude towards work, then the Hungarians, and finally the Czechs. The Poles demonstrate a consistent attitude towards work, with the individual components displaying similar results. The Czechs exhibit an inconsistent attitude. The highest value is achieved by the affective component and the lowest - by the behavioural one. The Hungarians also show an inconsistent attitude. The cognitive component achieves the same values as in the Czech Republic, however, the affective component achieves a very low value and the behavioural component is high. In Conclusions, the author shows that the economic activity of the 55+ generation is influenced by objective factors, in particular the state policy in the field of obtaining retirement rights and employment opportunities.