Productivity and work culture in southern Europe

Abstract

Sociology suggested –from Max Weber’s contribution- the existence of differences between north and south in terms of the valuation of work as a cultural value, presenting northern countries more consistency in this aspect. Consequently, this paper aims to compare a group of classic Northern European countries (Germany, Sweden, Netherlands and Finland) with other southern countries: (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece; recently called PIGS) -and both groups with EU-27-, focusing the strength of the work as a cultural value and its potential impact on productivity levels. For such purpose, this will use different variables analyzed by the European Work Conditions Survey (EWCS 2010): working speed, orientation to deadlines, dependency on targets and work time; then I´ll test if these can predict productivity levels of countries. As a result, the group of northern countries appears above the EU average in the first three indicators analyzed and South is above in work time although, as can be seen, with lower productivity.