Identities, conflicting behavioural norms and the importance of job attributes

The paper empirically expounds the richness of the identity approach to labour-market behaviour by allowing individuals to experience identity conflict. Specifically, it investigates the relationship between the importance individuals attach to labour-market activities – which is influenced by the identity to which they adhere – and their preferences for job attributes. The analysis shows that individuals who consider labour-market success as instrumental for achieving their life goals tend to attach importance to job characteristics such as pay level and career and training opportunities. Individuals for whom non-labour-market activities are important and in conflict with labour-market activities are found to attach importance to the possibility of working on a convenient time schedule. Moreover, consistently with the identity approach to labour-market behaviour, men appear to resolve the conflict between career and non-work activities in favor of the former.Finally, unobserved factors that increase the desire to work part-time have a negative impact on the likelihood of attaching importance to the training and career opportunities offered by the job.