It seems fitting to begin by pondering the reasons why people work and the various roles that work can play in their lives. At first glance, the question of why people work may hardly seem worth asking. People work because they have to, don't they? They need the money that work provides to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. True, work is certainly a means of survival. But this does not tell the whole story. As the old saying goes, people do not live by bread alone.
WORKING TO LIVE OR LIVING TO WORK? THE DIFFERING ROLES OF WORK IN PEOPLE'S LIVES
In this section, we briefly consider the why of work behavior, or the various sources of work motivation (also see Blustein & Duffy, Chapter 7, this volume).
Work as need fulfillment. One way to view the question of why people work is through the lens of Abraham Maslow's (1943) famous hierarchy, where human needs range from those that focus on basic survival (e.g., the need for food) all the way to selfâactualization (e.g., the need to realize one's inner potential). Maslow's hierarchy is often pictured as a pyramid, with more basic needs (e.g., food, safety, security) at the bottom. In this view, the satisfaction of basic needs provides a foundation for meeting higherâorder social and psychological needs, such as friendship, intimacy, selfâesteem, and personal growth.
One of the problems in applying such a needs hierarchy to work motivation is that it may be used to imply that some reasons to work are somehow nobler or loftier than others or that poor people work only because they have to (i.e., to survive), while those who are wealthier work because they want to (i.e., to satisfy higherâorder needs). To avoid such a bind, one can simply view Maslow's needs as reflecting a range of work motivators, without imposing the added assumptions that they are ordered in importance or merely reflect social class differences. Thus, in addition to meeting basic survival needs, work can provide the context for fulfilling (at least a portion of) one's needs for security (e.g., enhancing the material comfort of one's family), social belonging and intimacy, personal esteem (e.g., providing a sense of personal worth and accomplishment), purpose, and selfâactualization. People may be motivated to work for any combination of these reasons; they are not mutually exclusive or necessarily hierarchical, except to the extent that basic survival is obviously a prerequisite for fulfilling other needs. Swanson and Schneider (Chapter 2, this volume) and Rounds and Leuty (Chapter 16, this volume) provide a more complete consideration of work needs and values, including the roles they play in career choice and work adjustment.
Work as an individual's public identity. Moving beyond Maslow's hierarchy and the issue of need fulfillment per se, work may also serve other personally and culturally important roles in people's lives. For example, tied to the esteem and selfâactualization bases of work is the issue of identity, which can have both public and private significance. Perhaps particularly in individualistic or Western societies, work can be seen as an expression of one's public image. Note how often people in the United States ask each other, âWhat do you do?â (i.e., what form of work do you do?) when meeting a new acquaintance. One's occupation can be a shorthand way of announcing one's social address (e.g., education, social class, prestige). Fair or not, what one does for a living is often viewed as an essential part of who one is as a person.
Work as personal identity or selfâconstruction. Work as identity can also be an expression of selfâimage, a means through which people âimplement a selfâconcept,â in the view of Donald Super (see Hartung, Chapter 4, this volume). This may be most obvious in artistic forms of work. For example, we typically think of artists as expressing themselves through their creations or performances. But selfâexpression or, more broadly, using work to become the sort of person one imaginesâto construct a selfâcan be a potent source of motivation for many persons and in virtually any form of work. Taking Super's thoughts about work motivation a step further, Edward Bordin, another influential career scholar, emphasized people's capacity to seek work that they find intrinsically interesting or from which they can derive pleasure. To illustrate his point, Bordin (1994, p. 54) asked, âIs a professional athlete working or playing?â
Such views of work motivation are sometimes criticized with the argument that many people are not free to choose work that expresses anything more than the need for a paycheck, or that not everyone is lucky enough to be able to do work that is pleasurable. One may ask whether those who work for a minimum wage, in unskilled jobs, in fast food restaurants, on assembly lines, or in coal mines, have the luxury of âplayingâ at, or implementing their selfâconcepts through, work? There is little question that lack of economic resources can limit one's choice of work or that jobs may differ in their obvious outlets for selfâexpression. At the same time, it is not hard to think of lessâaffluent persons who find meaning, dignity, and enjoyment in their work. Thus, it seems unfair to equate the prestige or external trappings of a job with its personal significance to the individual without exploring his or her own perspective on their work and what they derive from doing it.
The notions of work as an opportunity to construct and tell one's life story (Savickas, Chapter 6, this volume), or to respond to a âcallingâ beyond oneself (e.g., a way to help others or to serve a higher power; Dik, Steger, & Autin, Chapter 8, this volume), capture the sense that work can play extremely valuable, selfâdefining roles in people's lives, regardless of social class and even when performed under difficult or harsh conditions. It is possible to view someone else's life story as mundane, boring, or marked only by exploitation. However, that same story may be far more intriguing and meaningful to the person who is living it.
Work as normative expectation, group identity, and social contribution. Particularly in collectivist cultures, work may be seen as an expression of group as well as personal identity. For example, choice of work may be made less on a personal basis and more in collaboration with members of one's family, tribe, or community. Consideration may be given to the needs of the collective, to selecting work that serves (and reflects positively on) the group, and that preserves relational harmony. Such functions of work may be seen as extensions of Maslow's (1943) focus on security, social esteem, and actualization needsâbut with the focus on benefits for the group rather than for the individual alone.
Of course, prevailing social norms in most societies maintain that one must work if one is able to do so. It is a strong expectation conveyed by social agents in the family, school, and other social institutions. This norm is wellâcaptured in the early rock n roll hit, Get a Job, in which the singer comically bemoans the social pressure to find work. Indeed, those who fail to find work are often derided with labels such as bum, shirker, lazy, goodâforânothing, or couch potatoâespecially if their failure to find work is attributed to their cha...