work values of students in mostar schools

Cities, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 75–83, 1998 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reservedPergamon

Printed in Great Britain0264-2751/98 $19.00+ 0.00

PII: S0264-2751(97)10015-4

Work values of students in Mostarschools

Mladen Knezevic*Faculty of Law, Department for Social Work, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Research on Work value differences in students of primary and secondary schools has beenconducted in Mostar: a city that is deeply divided by the conflicts between the Croatian andthe Bosniacs ethnic communities. Although, in several areas, statistically significant differencesbetween students that belong to the two different ethnic communities were been found, itappears that these results are more different between the urban and the rural populationsthan those differences between Work values of the different ethnic communities. 1998Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Keywords:Work values, students, ethnic groups, cultural identity, Mostar, urban population, rural population

Introduction

Mostar is a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, an urbancentre in the region of Herzegovina, and surroundedby many village settlements that gravitate towards it.In those settlements lived members of all the threeethnic communities that populated this territory priorto the war: the Croatian, the Muslim (this ethnic grouphas obtained a new name during the war, Bosniacs)and Serbian. Prior to the war the Bosniacs ethniccommunity was the majority in the city, but in thevillages closest to the city, the majority was the Croa-tian population. The Serbian ethnic corpus did notexceed 20% of the population. The part of the Serbianpopulation living in the surrounding rural areas gravi-tated more to the urban communities outside of Bos-nia and Herzegovina than to the city of Mostar.

The Serbian aggression on Croatian and Bosniacsvillages in the Mostar surroundings during 1992caused massive evacuation of the of these villages tothe city of Mostar. Mostar was attacked by Serbianaggressors, but the city defence was strong andefficient and the city meant salvation to the rural

*Correspondence to: Vidrica 29, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia. E-mail:[email protected]

75

population. The Bosniacs and the Croats together haddefended the city from Serbian aggression.

However, in the spring of 1993, war conflictsbetween Bosniacs and Croats began. After bitter waroperations in which there was much human andmaterial loss on both sides, the city was divided intoa part governed by the Croatian ethnic community(west bank), and a part governed by the Bosniacs eth-nic community (east bank). The Serbian ethnic com-munity, of which one part joined the aggressor at thebeginning of the war and the other part moved outin fear, does not represent a substantial part of thepopulation any more. The interests of the two domi-nant ethnic groups have been opposed in many ways,and the more serious attempt at integration of thesetwo sides of the city into one urban whole has beenmore of a ‘cosmetic’ than of an authentic nature.

This situation has lead to a number of conse-quences: one of them a result of the traumatic experi-ences that the city inhabitants experienced during thewar. The other consequences were in the sudden, dra-matic change in demographic structure of the city.According to some estimations, almost 60% of thepresent population is new, and from a formerly ruralpopulation who had to flee from their villages aheadof the war operations. They found shelter by settlingin the city, in the part that ‘belonged’ to their own

Work values of students in Mostar schools: M Knezˇevic

ethnic community. That population had no experienceof urban life and they completely changed the imageof the city.

Work values

Values are generally defined as a cluster of generalbeliefs, opinions and attitudes about what is correct,valid or desirable. Therefore, they represent a set ofideas that largely determines the activities that aredirected towards satisfying a number of needs. Manyscientific studies have shown that this set developsrelatively early in the process of primary socializ-ation, and that it is somewhat rigid and nearlyunchangeable (Super and Sverko, 1995).

The questionnaire on values, the V-questionnaire,had been developed as a part of an international pro-ject, the Work Importance Study, which was createdand coordinated by D.E. Super. Experts from 12 dif-ferent countries around the world participated in thestudy, and the major part of the research was perfor-med by investigators from Australia, Italy, Canada,Poland, Portugal, USA and Spain. The Croatian team,which participated in this project from the very begin-ning, was headed by Professor Branimir Sverko.There was a total of 30 000 subjects from these coun-tries.

The result of the study was a questionnaire with 20scales of values. Each scale was represented in thequestionnaire with five values. The scales were thefollowing:

(1) Ability Utilization—represents the ability tofully express one’s own abilities, skills andknowledge in a particular activity;

(2) Achievement—a high level of performance anda satisfaction with the results;

(3) Advancement—the ability to improve one’sown position;

(4) Aesthetics—the ability to design aesthetically,and the pleasure found in the beauty of theenvironment;

(5) Altruism—the ability to assist others in solvingtheir problems and to contribute to globalwell-being;

(6) Authority—to be able to influence the opinionsand behaviour of the others;

(7) Autonomy—independence of action, self-initiat-ive in solving problems and the independence ofdecision-making;

(8) Creativity—the ability to create new actionsand ideas;

(9) Economics—a satisfactory income, permanentemployment, high and a stable life standard;

(10) Life Style—freedom of behaviour on the basisof own standards and values;

(11) Personal Development—the ability of personalgrowth and self-actualization;

76

(12) Physical Activity—the ability to act physicallyand to develop physically;

(13) Prestige—one’s status in society and theappreciation of personal qualities and achieve-ments;

(14) Risk—the ability to challenge danger, the feel-ing of excitement at uncertain enterprises ofall kinds;

(15) Social Interaction—contact with others, socializ-ing;

(16) Social Relations—friendly relationships andunderstanding among persons one works with;

(17) Variety—change and variety in work and life;(18) Working Conditions—good physical conditions

of work and life;(19) Cultural Identity—the close relationship

between persons of ones own ethnic and cul-tural background;

(20) Participation in Decisions—the ability to partici-pate in the process of decision-making withinthe community, which includes importantdecisions.

The factor analyses of the scales showed that onthe basis of the scale results there are five areas ofvalues, which the authors called ‘orientation values’:

(1) Orientation towards self-actualization to whichthe following items are included: Ability Utiliz-tion, Achievement, Personal Development andAesthetics, and to a smaller degree, the partici-pation in Decisions and Creativity;

(2) Individual orientation includes the items Life-style and Autonomy, which highly project them-selves, and to a lesser extent the item, Variety;

(3) Social orientation, which applies to the itemsSocial Interaction, Social Relations and Altruism;

(4) Utility orientation, which is mostly determined bythe items of Economics, Advancement, Authorityand Prestige and to a smaller degree to the itemsCultural Identity and Working Conditions;

(5) Adventure orientation, which is determined bythe items of Risk and Physical Activity(Kulenovic et al., 1984; Sverko, 1987).

The survey

Work values have been considered as a relativelystable collection of views and opinions on what iscorrect, valuable and desirable. However, what wewant to achieve with our work, varies with differentcultural environments and is attributed individualvalues and different characteristics (Super andSverko, 1995). Since the Work values determinemany aspects of interpersonal communications, theyalso determine the possibilities of conjoint actions ofpeople in a specific community. Super and Sverko(1995) observed three different clusters. One was


called a ‘New World’, and consisted of examineesfrom the USA, Australia, Canada and South Africa.Examinees from the cluster marked as among themost important values: Achievement, Economics andAdvancement. More than in the other two clusters,they marked values such as Prestige and Authority asmore important. Examinees who formed the Europeancluster, valued Social Relations, Lyfe Style and Auto-nomy. Japanese examinees, who formed third cluster,marked values of Aesthetics and Creativity as moreimportant than the other two clusters.

Mostar is a deeply divided city. Political interestsof the two dominant ethnic communities are still verystrongly opposed. The idea of reunification of the cityfor the time-being exists only in the heads of the poli-ticians outside Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in theheads of a few residents of ‘former’ Mostar, who,however, do not dare to publicly voice such an ideawithin their own ethnic communities.

Both sides of the divided city have experienceddramatic demographic changes, which, however, havenot affected both sides equally. The east side, popu-lated predominantly by the Bosniacs during the wholeperiod of war as well as presently, has been far moreisolated than the west side, which has had a relativelyeasy approach from the direction of Croatia, wherethe mother nation lives in the neighbouring countryof Croatia. For the Bosniacs population from the sur-rounding villages, Mostar was the only option for sal-vation.

This research was aimed at establishing which setof Work values characterize the young people ofMostar, and if there are differences in the set of valuesbetween the two sides of the divided city. At the verybeginning of the project implementation, in the springof 1995, there was a ban on crossing the Neretvariver, which divides the city into two parts. Membersof our team were transported across the bridge, withspecial permission, by drivers of the EuropeanAdministration Office in Mostar.

As the survey was carried out, many of the edu-cational staff–teachers were frightened, depressed andbitter; some of whom were driven out either from theeast or from the west bank of the city, for allegedlybelonging to an unsuitable ethnic group. A teacherwas forced out of her house in a night-gown under aburst of bullets. Another teacher, who was teachingduring the day at school, later in the night, had to stayin a bunker on the defence lines of a ’his’ part of thecity. Besides being responsible for the education oftheir students, teachers had to take be aware of theconditions their pupils were living in. Some humani-tarian aid intended for the population of Mostar wasdelivered through the school. Additional feeding ofpupils, especially on the eastern bank of the city, wasorganized by the distribution of extra meals at school.A grave conflict between the two peoples wasreflected in the educational system and this becameclearly visible. Since the educational system rep-resented an important link of socialization, the polit-

77

ical structure of both the ethnic groups engaged in theconflict, focused their attention on school activities,particularly on the activities of teachers in schools.

The project we executed in Mostar was acceptedby teachers with great appreciation. For them, beingintellectuals, it meant an opportunity to escape froma grim reality that was a depressing and bleak every-day life situation. As a part of the project was realizedoutside of the war-torn city, in a hotel on the Adriaticcoast, these extraordinary people who had taken veryspecial care of their students during a bombardment,regarded the opportunity as a gift, particularly thoseteachers from east Mostar, for whom it was the firsttime out of the city since the war had broken out.

The fact that the authors and executors of the pro-gramme were professionals from the Croatian psychi-atric association did not cause any problems withregard to work and cooperation with Bosniacs col-leagues from east Mostar. But the same attitude wasnot shared by Bosniacs political and administrativestructures, who expressed a great deal of suspiciontoward the sincerity of the professional association,who they saw as coming from an enemy side. Mean-while, political and administrative structures on theCroatian part of the city were very suspicious towardsprofessionals from their own ethnic group, who withno prejudices and no fear, had gone to east Mostarand had cooperated with their Bosniac colleagues,who were regarded by the Croatian politicalopponents, as enemies.

The introduction of this research, particularly theapplication of the V-questionnaire, provoked a para-noid situation within official circles on either side.However, the project was precisely approved and dis-cussed beforehand with the educational board execu-tives of both parties in Mostar. Nevertheless, it wasperceived on either side as a very dangerous step,which could disclose important data on populationfigures to alleged enemies.

MethodSampleThe survey was carried out as a part of the HumanResources Reconstruction Project in the city, which,during the war, suffered a great human loss. Exam-inees were invited by their teachers, to be participantsin the project, and to have their views, interests anddesires assessed in order to further future education.The V-questionnaire was only one of the instrumentsused. After research had been completed, pupils wereinterviewed and then informed of the results, andwere told of the possibilities of potential educationalprogress. Access to the survey was based upon freewill, and therefore no students refused to answerquestions required by questionnaire. The examineeswere a representative sample of Mostar students.

Examinee youths from primary schools come fromtwo schools from west Mostar and two from the east.All the schools involved were situated in the city pro-


per. The survey did not cover schools in outlyinghousing developments. Four schools, whose pupilswere examined in the survey, were located on prem-ises shared with other schools in Mostar, that had notbeen school property prior to the war.

Pre-war school premises had been almost entirelydestroyed, or badly damaged, and at the time our sur-vey was carried out, the schools were not appropriatefor teaching in. Schools were operating underextremely difficult conditions. In buildings that wouldnormally only provide space for one school, therewere often two or even three schools using a shorterform of teaching. At the time of the survey, no schoolhad sufficient number of teachers to deliver therequired amount of work to meet those standards ach-ieved prior to the war. School equipment was moreor less reduced to chalk and a blackboard, as therewere nothing else, not even in teaching laboratories.At one school, who were included in the survey, therewas no running water because of destroyed water util-ities in that part of the city. One primary school anda grammar school were situated in buildings that wereon the first front-line positions.

The survey covered grammar school students fromboth parts of the city, students from secondary medi-cal school from both parts of the city, and studentsfrom secondary mechanical and electromechanicalschool. The research involved grammar school stu-dents who were receiving preparation for universitylevel, and students of secondary technical schools,who were gaining a profession that would give themwork opportunities. Both forms of educational systemwere represented in the samples from both sides ofthe city.

Students from east Mostar.A total of 79 studentsfrom primary schools and 85 students from secondaryschools took part in the survey. Primary schoolspupils were attending the 7th or 8th classes (they were12–14 years, 36 boys and 43 girls). Of the total, 60(75.9%) were residents of Mostar before the war, and19 (24.1%) were farmers’ children, whose families,under the threat of war, had fled their homes andattempted to find a safe refuge in Mostar.

Secondary school students from the first threeclasses, were included in the survey. Students whoattended the final classes were not included, becausethe survey was conducted just before the end of theschool year and completion of their education. It wasthought that the survey might be an unnecessaryaggravating factor in the final phase of their edu-cation. The age of the surveyed students at the timewas 15–17 years, with 53 boys and 66 girls. Of thetotal, 52 (43.7%) had come to Mostar from neigh-bouring rural areas because of war activities, and 67(56.3%) belonged to urban town populations beforethe war.

Examinees from west Mostar.A total of 142 primaryschool students took part in the survey, out of which

78

52 were boys and 90 were girls. Of all the examinedstudents from west bank, 121 (85.2%) were urbanchildren and 21 (14.8%) were from rural areas.

Among secondary school students, 85 came fromwest bank, out of these, 19 were boys and 66 girls.Only 12 students from the group (14.1%) came fromrural areas, while the other 73 examinees (84.9%)were urban children and natives of Mostar.

Instrument

The instrument consists of 100 questions preceded bythe phrase ‘...it is important or would be important tome...’ and the items are simple statements such as‘that I am able to use my skills and knowledge’.

The instrument is a Lickert 4-item scale, from 1’very important’ to 4 ’mostly unimportant’. Sinceeach scale is represented by five items, the highestpossible score is 20 and the lowest is 5.

Results and discussion

As can be seen from Table 1three of the items thatincorporated the orientation values towards Self-real-ization, have taken the first three positions in rank.Self-actualization represented a specific Work valuethat was marked with ‘the need to grow’ (Vizek-Vidovic et al., 1984: 169), and was aimed at achiev-ing ‘higher’ life goals and better quality of life. Theeducation in Mostar, where the curriculum wasmostly performed in the shelters, and where theschools were often near rounds of shelling, and wherethere was an uncertainty of reaching school orreturning home safely, probably affected the surveyresults. Orientation towards Self-realization remainedof greatest importance to this population, because itapplied to their place of residence or shelter, in spiteof the painful and, without exception, dangerous liv-ing conditions. It is interesting that the students ofsecondary schools gave lower results to the Achieve-ment scale than primary school students: these arestatistically significant. This difference is probablybecause of the age difference between the groups andto the interactions between the important persons inthe lives of primary school children, to whomAchievement is extraordinarily important. In the ageof adolescence, the lower scores of this Work valueare most probably linked to the resistance towards thevalues of adults.

The following two items, Altruism and SocialRelations, were very high on the scale of values. Theitem, Social Relations, was of similar importance tothe study performed in Croatia in 1984 (Vizek-Vidovic et al., 1984). In addition, the older studentsin the Croatian study gave more importance to thisitem than younger students, which is probablybecause of the greater socialization of students at sec-ondary level schools. It is probable that the youngerage group was more oriented to the family environ-ment than secondary school students. A similar situ-


Table 1 Differences in work values between primary and secondary education school students, both sides of the city

Elementary schools High schools

Work value Mean SD Mean SD t-test

Personal development 18.73 1.65 18.71 1.55 0.15Ability utilization 18.66 1.70 18.46 1.71 1.21Achievement 18.57 1.69 18.16 1.69 2.52Social relations 18.50 1.82 18.25 1.87 1.41Altruism 18.14 2.09 17.90 2.33 1.11Advancement 18.02 2.04 17.28 2.15 3.63Economics 17.90 2.18 17.54 2.09 1.74Working conditions 17.66 2.32 17.39 2.32 1.19Participation in decisions 17.57 2.10 16.69 2.51 3.90Creativity 17.52 2.28 16.42 2.78 4.45Life style 17.42 2.34 16.70 2.42 3.12Cultural identity 17.38 2.54 16.14 3.04 4.57Aesthetics 17.19 2.15 16.76 2.05 2.13Autonomy 17.05 2.54 15.83 2.75 4.74Physical activity 16.97 2.81 15.48 3.18 5.12Prestige 16.88 2.88 15.13 3.06 6.04Variety 16.55 2.53 15.75 2.59 3.21Social interaction 16.54 2.73 15.89 2.83 2.42Authority 15.48 2.96 13.53 3.34 6.37Risk 14.60 3.33 13.69 3.58 2.71

Data in bold are statistically significantly different,P , 0.05

ation occurred with Social Interactions, where pri-mary school students valued this far less than olderstudents. Secondary school students put this valuealmost four places higher than primary school stu-dents. What is encouraging is that the young peoplewho had experienced extraordinarily difficult warsituations, were able to rate this item to almost thesame extent as a group of young people who weretested more than 10 years ago, and who had not hadsuch experiences.

Altruism occupied a higher rank position comparedwith the study from 1984 (Vizek-Vidovicet al.,1984), and where a statistically significant differencewas found between the younger and the older stu-dents. This could probably be ascribed to the moreimportant significance of this value in the current lifesituation of Mostar children.

The item, Economics, was almost at the same rankas that for Zagreb children (Vizek-Vidovicet al.,1984), and both age groups gave it the same impor-tance. Secondary school students placed Advance-ment statistically significantly lower than younger stu-dents. The items Authority and Prestige, which also‘belong’ to this orientation, were placed in the lowerpart of the scale and shared the same positions as theydid in the Croatian study (Vizek-Vidovicet al., 1984).The large difference for the item, Authority, betweenthe primary and secondary school students was mostprobably because secondary school students tend torevolt against authority more than primary school stu-dents. On the other hand, Authority was the item thatwas the main difference between the rural and urbanpopulations. Out of 425 examinees, some 104 had fledto the city because of war threats, mainly from rural

79

vicinity of Mostar. The remaining examinees (321)were urban children whose socialization, up to thisstudy, had taken place in the town in which thisresearch was conducted. For the item, Authority,young native people had a mean value of 14.34 (SD= 3.303), while young settlers from rural areas had15.25 (SD= 3.262; t-test = 2.45, P , 0.05). There-fore, the rural population significantly valued theitem, Authority, more than the urban students. Theitems, Adventure Orientation, Risk and PhysicalActivity were at the bottom of the scale, which issimilar to the results from the 1984 study (Vizek-Vidovic et al., 1984). The value of Cultural Identitywas in a significantly higher in rank than in the earlierstudies, it ‘jumped’ almost five positions, in what isvery probably a reflection of the situation the childrenlived in.

It appears that the primary school students of Mos-tar gave much more significance to the scale of Cul-tural Identity, which was concerned with closerelationships to persons of ones own ethnic and cul-tural background. Table 1 presents the Work valuesof the city as a whole, where the age of the studentswas the only variable that discriminated our exam-inees. Since the city is divided in two ethnic com-munities, it was interesting to establish if there weredifferences in the importance of the Work values ofthose two groups. As an earlier study had alreadyshown that age differences were important, this wastaken into consideration in the analyses.

Table 2 indicates that Social Orientation and orien-tation towards Self-actualization were still the highestvalues for both sets of young people; however, theirorder was different. The first three items for the stu-


Table 2 Differences in work values between east and west side students, primary schools

West side East side

Work value Mean SD Rank Mean SD Rank t-test

Personal development 18.65 1.75 2 18.86 1.45 1 0.94Ability utilization 18.82 1.46 1 18.35 2.03 5 1.81Achievement 18.63 1.56 3 18.46 1.89 4 0.71Social relations 18.43 1.88 4 18.62 1.70 2 0.77Altruism 17.90 2.21 6 18.56 1.80 3 2.39Advancement 17.97 2.02 5 18.11 2.09 7 0.49Economics 17.73 2.22 7 18.22 2.10 6 1.6Working conditions 17.44 2.30 9 18.04 2.32 8 1.81Participation in decisions 17.39 2.26 10 17.89 1.75 10 1.82Creativity 17.59 2.18 8 17.41 2.45 14 1.56Life style 17.18 2.51 11 17.85 1.92 11 2.22Cultural identity 17.08 2.62 12 17.92 2.30 9 2.47Aesthetics 17.06 2.28 13 17.44 1.88 13 1.36Autonomy 16.96 2.61 14 17.22 2.44 16 0.73Physical activity 16.77 2.77 15 17.33 2.86 15 1.40Prestige 16.51 2.96 16 17.53 2.64 12 2.62Variety 16.33 2.67 18 16.95 2.21 17 1.85Social interaction 16.45 2.85 17 16.71 2.52 18 0.70Authority 15.13 2.98 19 16.13 2.83 19 2.47Risk 14.23 3.48 20 15.28 2.96 20 2.38


dents of the west side were values of Self-actualiz-ation, whereas for the east side students, the first itembelonged to the Self-actualization Orientation, and theother two were from the field of Social Orientation,which lead to the item, Altruism, being statisticallydifferent. It was three positions higher in rank for thestudents of the east side. It is probable that this differ-ence was caused primarily by the more difficult cur-rent experiences of the Bosniacs population of the eastside of Mostar. That side of the city was very severelyattacked in the Croatian–Bosniacs war and, what iseven more important, it was much more isolated. Theeast side of the town accepted many more displacedpersons from the surroundings than did the west side.According to the local authorities, east side accepted29 779 persons that were expelled, while west sideexcepted 14 280 persons. According to the UNHCRreports, east side accepted 20 000 persons, and westside accepted 12 000 persons. Although we have notresearched this in depth, there is a possibility that thisdifference was because of the different life experi-ences of this population. Students from the east bankhad, during the war, harsher life experiences. The waron the east bank lasted longer and was more brutal,and so we hypothesis that it left severer psychologicalconsequences, which are reflected in our survey.

All our examinees had suffered some type of trau-matic experience. During the survey, we asked themto name which of typical set of 17 experiences theyhad endured in the war. We received answers from364 examinees. Examinees from the west bank suf-fered approximately 5.49 (SD= 2.68) trauma experi-ences, and examinees from the east Bank approxi-mately 8.40 (SD= 2.64) such experiences (t-test =

80

10.39, P = 0.0). Therfore, examinees from the eastbank endured significantly more traumatic experi-ences than those from the west bank of the city. Com-parison of the rural population with the urban popu-lation showed that urban students sufferedapproximately 6.26 (SD= 2.86) traumatic experi-ences, whereas rural students suffered approximately8.27 (SD= 3.03) traumatic experiences (t-test= 5.61,P = 000). The rural population examinees from differ-ent parts of the city were singled out from the resultsand it was found that students who came from a vil-lage to the west bank (31 answered this question) hadapproximately 6.81 (SD= 2.97) traumatic experience,and students who came to the east Bank (63 answeredthis question) had approximately 8.98 (SD= 2.81)traumatic experiences (t-test = 3.40, P = 000). Thisvalue indicated a difference between the groups thatwas logical. Students from rural areas had experi-enced at least one more traumatic experience, and thisforced them to flee from their villages to the city, toan environment where their lives were entirely differ-ent.

This study was not meant to focus on traumatism,and these conclusions are probably not permissiblein trauma analysis; however, it seems significant toillustrate the situation of our examinees during thesewar-time operations.

The rural population from the vicinity around Mos-tar had mostly experienced a relatively primitivefarming system that required considerable physicallabour. They were able to survive with productionbeing mainly targeted to meet family needs, with thecooperation of fellow farmers in the village, and littlewas sent to market. Thus, mutual help and


cooperation enabled farming production and survival.Therefore, the differences our examinees demon-strated in the Work value system during Socialization,do make sense.

Table 3 shows that most of the differences shownwhen the Work values for the both sides of the cityare compared, are most probably because of the sec-ondary school students. Namely, while we found stat-istically significant differences for the primary schoolstudents for six of the items, there were 10 signifi-cantly different values for the secondary school stu-dents, which is half of the total values in the V-ques-tionnaire. Statistical differences between secondaryschools students were higher than those between pri-mary school students.

There were no differences between the values fororientation towards Self-actualization among the sec-ondary school students of the east and west side ofMostar. Secondary school students from both sides ofthe city put this orientation, and the items that belongwith it, at almost the same position. There was a dif-ference in rank for the value of Aesthetics, but thiswas not statistically significant. The greater similaritybetween Self-realization between secondary pupilscompared with primary school students is most prob-ably because higher education leads to a greater needfor self-actualization, as education level is animportant channel for vertical social mobility. Thisis probably why there was no significant differencesbetween the young Bosniacs and young Croats. In thearea of Social Orientation there were also no signifi-cant differences. In the area of Utility Orientation,secondary school students had differences in thevalues for Economics and Authority. The students of

Table 3 Differences in work values between east and west side students, secondary schools

West side West side


Personal development 18.59 1.76 1 18.79 1.38 1 0.88Ability utilization 18.41 1.79 2 18.49 1.66 2 0.31Achievement 17.99 1.71 3 18.28 1.67 4 1.20Social relations 17.94 1.98 4 18.46 1.76 3 1.94*Altruism 17.52 2.72 5 18.17 1.98 5 1.88Advancement 16.98 2.17 7 17.50 2.12 8 1.73Economics 17.06 2.23 6 17.89 1.93 7 2.78*Working conditions 16.59 2.66 8 17.96 1.86 6 4.09*Participation is decisions 16.02 2.67 12 17.16 2.28 9 3.18*Creativity 16.13 2.96 10 16.63 2.64 13 1.25Life style 16.13 2.56 11 17.10 2.24 10 2.82*Cultural identity 14.84 3.02 17 17.07 2.71 11 5.42*Aesthetics 16.59 2.24 9 16.88 1.91 12 0.38Autonomy 15.24 2.92 15 16.25 2.56 14 2.58*Physical activity 14.94 3.36 16 15.86 3.00 17 2.00*Prestige 14.72 3.22 18 15.43 2.91 18 1.62Variety 15.45 2.85 14 15.97 2.37 16 1.48Social interaction 15.53 2.86 13 16.14 2.80 15 1.52Authority 12.49 3.17 20 14.27 3.26 19 3.89*Risk 13.07 3.63 19 14.13 3.49 20 2.10*


81

the east side put both values at significantly higherpositions than their colleagues from the west side.Economic circumstances are dramatically different onthe two sides. At the time when this study was con-ducted, a large part of the east side of the city wasliterally starving. Because of its good traffic connec-tion to Croatia, the west bank was excellently suppliedand generously helped by the Croatian government.The few who could find employment on the east bankrarely received their pay-checks. However, in spite ofthese facts, it is very probable that the traditions ofthe rural population have a much greater significancein these differences. Economics, Working Conditionsand Authority were much more deeply connected andintegrated in the family structure of the rural families.Precisely because of that, it is probable that the sec-ondary school students, whose family-origin wasrural, had much higher scores on Participation inDecisions.

There were significant differences for the itemAdventure Orientation. The secondary school studentsof east Mostar gave more importance to Risk and toPhysical Activity. It could be presumed that the largerrural population that was situated on the east side pro-duced this difference. On the Altruism scale, therewere no significant differences for secondary schoolstudents. This may be because maturity increased per-ception, or the experience, of this value, and this maybe where the disappearance of the difference betweenthe ethnic groups originates.

By far the most significant difference was foundwith the Cultural Identity value. The secondary schoolstudents of the east side gave a greater importanceto this value than students from the west side. This


difference was due to the female secondary schoolstudents (east side, girls, MV= 16.53, SD= 2.59,west side, girls, MV= 14.71, SD= 3.03). Femalesecondary school students of the east side differedalso from their male colleagues, and from theiryounger female colleagues. The males of the sameage did not show significant differences for this value.This difference in opinion between the sexes is prob-ably because more of the Bosniacs subjects were fromrural areas compared with Croatian subjects. It isclear, that girls who came from primitive ruralenvironments felt much better in their own circlerather than in any other cultural circles (Tasic andZizak, 1995; Zizak, 1993). These girls, in particular,were responsible for the largest differences betweenthe secondary school students from the east and westsides of the city. If the difference in the value systemhad been because of the deep differences between thetwo ethnic groups, it is probable that both males andfemales of Bosniacs ethnicity would have felt, in thesame way, the importance of belonging to a ethnicgroup. Finally, what is probably even more important,is that the males, in the context of their socializationand where they were viewed as male-warriors, wouldprobably have felt a greater need to belong to a cul-tural circle, which is not confirmed by our results.

For part of the analyses we excluded all those sec-ondary school students who belonged to rural popu-lations, and therefore looked at the results of 73 stu-dents from the west bank and 67 students from theeast bank, who had socialized in an urban environ-ment. Results are presented in Table 4. It can be seenthat only four items are significant. This reduces thenumber of significant items by 50% when the rural

Table 4 Differences in work values between east and west side students, secondary schools, urban students only

West side East side


Personal development 18.78 1.51 1 18.93 1.28 1 0.62Ability utilization 18.34 1.88 2 18.40 1.69 3 0.21Social relations 18.03 1.90 3 18.63 1.77 2 1.93Achievement 18.01 1.68 4 18.16 1.76 4 0.51Altruism 17.53 2.73 5 18.03 2.05 5 1.22Economics 17.26 2.12 6 18.00 1.74 6 2.28Advancement 17.03 2.18 7 17.38 2.22 8 0.95Working Conditions 16.90 2.44 8 17.84 1.94 7 2.53Aesthetics 16.58 2.23 9 17.03 1.82 9 1.33Creativity 16.16 3.06 10 16.56 2.69 13 0.84Life style 16.12 2.62 11 16.99 2.13 10 2.15Participation in decisions 16.00 2.78 12 16.87 2.32 12 2.00Social interaction 15.69 2.69 13 16.03 2.82 15 0.72Variety 15.54 2.81 14 16.06 2.37 14 1.18Autonomy 15.27 3.03 15 15.94 2.41 16 1.43Physical activity 15.00 3.26 16 15.56 2.99 17 1.06Prestige 14.88 3.22 17 15.40 2.72 18 1.04Cultural identity 14.85 3.15 18 16.94 2.698 11 4.22Risk 13.06 3.741 19 13.76 3.21 19 1.18Authority 12.64 3.24 20 13.68 3.35 20 1.86


82

students are excluded. Statistical differences vanishedfor the following items between young Bosnians andyoung Croats: Social Relations, Autonomy, Physicalactivity, Authority and Risk.

The item, Cultural Identity, gave the greatest differ-ence when students from rural areas were excluded.Students from the east bank, continued to merit theitem at far higher in their system of values than stu-dents from the west bank. For Cultural Identity, therewas a certain consistency between the east and westbank, for age group and for place of origin.

The item, Authority, gave results that were signifi-cantly different between secondary students. Therewas a ranking difference of three between studentsfrom the east and west bank, and when students froma rural background were excluded, this statistical dif-ference was removed. Therefore, young Bosnians andyoung Croats, as far as Authority is concerned, sharedthe same opinions and placed it at the lowest positionon the Work values ladder. Our analysis reaffirms ourformer views, which suggest that a lot of the differ-ences between the groups was a result of the influenceof coming from a rural population, and not becauseof different socializing patterns between the twoopposed ethnic groups in Mostar.

Conclusion

It is concluded that the largest differences noted inthis study are a result of differences among the dis-placed population that found shelter in Mostar, ratherthan to differences in the set of Work values betweenthe two ethnic communities in the city.


ReferencesKulenovic, A, Jerneic, Z, Sverko, B and Vizek-Vidovic, V (1984)

Faktorska struktura radnih vrijednosti ucenika, studenata izaposlenih [Factor structure of Work values among high schoolstudents, university students and employees].Primijenjena psi-hologija 5, 158–165.

Super, D E and Sverko, B (Eds) (1995)Life Roles, Values andCareers, San Francisco, Jossey–Bass Publishers.

Sverko, B (1987)Prirucnik za V-upitnik[Manual for Values Scale],Zagreb, Savez samoupravnih zajednica za zaposljavanje.

Tasic, D and Zizak, A (1995) Analysis of differences and connec-

83

tions of ‘self-concept’ and concept of ‘once-owns child’ withregard to child sex.Criminology and Social Integration3,137–150.

Vizek-Vidovic, V, Kulenovic, A, Jerneic, Z and Sverko, B (1984)Hijerarhija radnih vrijednosti ucenika, studenata i zaposlenih[Hierarchies of work values among pupils, students andemployees].Primijenjena psihologija5, 166–173.

Zizak, A (1993) Relacije roditeljskog odgojnog stila i socioekon-omskog statusa djece [Relations between parental educationalstyle and socioeconomic status of children].Criminology andSocial Integration1, 107–117.

work values of students in mostar schools

Documents