Blog Assignment #3

MSMC Blog Assignment #3
Organizational Behavior MGT 505.0-D1 Chapter 3:Ethical Dilemma
Professor Cynthia L. Krom By May Lee
10/6/07


“Are Americans overworked?”

Why do you think quality of life is lower in the United States compared to many European nations? Do you think quality of life in the United States would increase if the government required a minimum number of vacation days or limited workweek hours?

I think that United States differs from European countries in our spirit of the pioneer and in our sense of achievement, and entitlement. Historically the United States is a much younger country than any European country and certainly than those of Asia. We are only a little over 200 years old compared to the thousands of year old Europeans and Asians. In those 200 years we have only experienced growth, wealth, and success. Recession, poverty, and failure are mostly foreign to us. In 1776 we beat the English and won our independence. In 1940’s we bounced back from the tragedy of Pearl Harbor and through the Industrial Revolution won the last Great War. Our standard of living has always been higher than those of the European and Asian nations. We seem to know no limits to our growth and success. We “supersize” everything; our homes, our cars, our appetites for excess. In short, our quest for excess has superseded our desire for limits and vacations. The majority of the “Baby Boomers” still make up the majority of our work force and their work ethics prevail.

By comparison the major European and Asian countries have a longer history, and have memories of or still know rule by monarchies, feudal states, wars, shortages, and making do without the aid of a central government due to the nature of its history. As the Chinese say, “Beijing is very far away”, meaning the central government and its laws and wealth do not reach the common man. Europeans have had to make do with a lot less for a lot longer. Europeans typically have a much higher unemployment rate.
The difference between American and European culture can be cited as one of the reasons for the discrepancies measured in quality of life. I would agree with the some of the critics of the worldwide analysis of quality of life that life-satisfaction responses reflect the dominant view on life, rather than actual quality of life in a country. Life satisfaction is seen as a judgment that depends on social and culturally specific frames of reference. The results would seem to reflect how satisfied they are with their how their life turned out than with a standard quality of life. Most differences in life satisfaction across countries can be explained by differences in objective circumstances (The Economist, 2005)

As an American, I define quality of life as the ability to enjoy the fruits of my labor. If I labor too much, I can argue that my quality of life is diminished. But if I labor too little, as in Europe’s high unemployment rate, I can also argue that I have no fruits from my labor, too much leisure time on my hands, and my quality of life is also diminished. I would say that the quality of life in the United States would not increase if the government required a minimum number of vacation days or limited workweek hours. The fruits of my reduced labor would not allow me to obtain the “excesses” that I think I need to improve my quality of life. Lower working hours do not seem to have made French workers happier than other European citizens whose countries have not introduced workweek reduction legislation
in the period (Estevão, M., & Sá1, F. 2006).

References
1 Robbins, S.P., & Judge, T.A. (2007). Organizational Behavior ,Upper Saddle River, NJ : Prentice Hall
2 “The Economist intelligence unit’s Quality-of-Life Index,” The Economist, 2005 (http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/Quality_of_life.pdf)
3 Estevão, M., & Sá1, F. (2006). “Are the French Happy with the 35-Hour Workweek?” IMF Working Paper, Western Hemisphere Department+++