The role of working hours in the differences among portuguese, spanish and german cultural patterns in predicting work and wellbeing related variables

Abstract

Recently there has been a trend regarding the reduction of working hours among developed countries (Cygan-Rehm & Wunder, 2018). This because over the years multiple studies on the effect of long average weekly working hours on a variety of work and wellbeing related variables have proven that, in fact working long hours can have negatives effects on one’s wellbeing, satisfaction and productivity (Collewet, & Sauerann, 2017), and reductions in working hours generate robust and significant increases in job and leisure satisfaction (Lepinteur, 2018).Furthermore, the reason for some countries not to implement significant working hours reductions are still yet to be known. In the present study culture is thought to be the reason.For that same purpose The Hofstede Model (Hofstede, 1980), suggests that cultures can be characterized from the following six Cultural Dimensions: Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism/Collectivism, Masculinity/Femininity, Long/ Short Term Orientation, and Indulgence/Restraint.In order to test the hypothesis that working hours have an effect on the relation between culture and some work and wellbeing related variables. A cross-sectional with a non-probabilistic sampling method study was carried out, using an online based questionnaire with 118 participants from Portugal, Germany and Spain. The data was statistically analyzed through correlations and a mediation model using PROCESS (Hays, 2020) in SPSS, where Portugal’s, Spain’s and Germany’s cultural patterns were introduced as the predictor variables, working hours as the mediator and the multiple work and wellbeing related variables as the outcome.Contrarily, to what was sought the mediation did not occur as there were no statistically significant results in the indirect effects of working hours. Despite this, cultural patterns do seem to have an effect on how working hours regimes are implemented differently in each of the mentioned countries according to their own cultural pattern.

Date of Award	12 Jan 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Maria Francisca Saldanha (Supervisor)