Changes in Work Orientations in Postsocialist Serbia

Abstract

The subject of this study is work orientations, their change over time, as well as their distribution among the economically active citizens of Serbia. Particular attention is paid to work-motivated spatial mobility. The aim of this study is twofold: firstly, to determine which work orientations have been the most important for economically active individuals in the period of consolidation of the capitalist system in Serbia and to explore and explain the changes in their choices that have occurred since 2000; and secondly, to examine whether there are differences in prioritizing work orientations among actors with various social characteristics. The method of comparative analysis used in this paper was possible due to survey data collected during longitudinal research conducted by the Institute for Sociological Research in Belgrade over the last twenty years.

Full text

CHANGES IN SOCIAL RELATIONS IN SERBIA, 2000–2020
DU NJA POLETI ĆOSIĆ
Changes in Work Orientations in Postsocialist Serbia
Abstract. The subject of this study is work orientations, their change over time, as well as
their distribution among the economically active citizens of Serbia. Particular aention is paid
to work-motivated spatial mobility. The aim of this study is twofold: rstly, to determine
which work orientations have been the most important for economically active individuals
in the period of consolidation of the capitalist system in Serbia and to explore and explain
the changes in their choices that have occurred since 2000; and secondly, to examine wheth-
er there are dierences in prioritizing work orientations among actors with various social
characteristics. The method of comparative analysis used in this paper was possible due to
survey data collected during longitudinal research conducted by the Institute for Sociological
Research in Belgrade over the last twenty years.
Dunja Poleti Ćosić is a Research Assistant at the Institute for Sociological Research in the
Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade.
Introduction
This study provides a comparative perspective on work orientations, that is,
their distribution among the economically active citizens of Serbia, with a spe-
cial focus on general work-motivated spatial mobility. Although there is no
single denition of work orientations, they are mostly viewed from the per-
spective of contemporary rational choice theories and dened as preferences
or preferred values in relation to work arrangements.
On a global level, the domain of labor has experienced numerous changes in
the past several decades, spanning from the sectoral and territorial distribution
of the workforce to the transformation of modes of working time, working con-
ditions, and also labor content. The transformation of modes of working time
refers to the exibilization of employment in all its forms, from the externali-
zation of business processes (outsourcing) to the reduction of working hours.
The transformation of working conditions refers to the creation of an ecosystem
for innovation and creativity and the deformation of space. Finally, the trans-
formation of labor content includes a rise in requirements for the intellectual
Südosteuropa 68 (2020), no. 3, pp. 343–364

344 Dunja Poleti Ćosić
component and access to knowledge bases.1 In postsocialist countries, changes
in the domain of labor have been even more turbulent, given that they result-
ed from the collapse of state socialism and its inherent career stability on the
one hand, and the inclusion of these countries in the global, dynamic, and
post-Fordist economy on the other. Hence, studying the readiness of citizens to
adapt to changes is highly important in order to gain insight into the capacity
of a society to successfully maintain a balance in its labor market.
During the 1990s, Serbia was a society of ‘blocked transformation’, which,
among other factors, was characterized by the fact that a part of the state so-
cialist nomenclature successfully replaced its social monopoly with an inter-
connected economic and political dominance, thus postponing the introduc-
tion of market economy and political competition.2 In the domain of labor, the
distinctive characteristics of Serbia’s ‘blocked transformation’ included insu-
cient ownership and sector restructuring, a rise in unemployment, an increased
scope of the informal economy, but also a rise in entrepreneurship.3 After 2000,
the year in which Slobodan Milošević’s regime came to an end, transformation
processes were ‘deblocked’, and the labor market was aected by two distinct
groups of factors. The rst group refers to the restructuring of enterprises,
which coincided with wider social reforms. The second group refers to the
impact of the economic crisis following the last quarter of 2008, which also led
to a deep systemic crisis and new recessions. Both groups of factors compelled
the workforce to adapt to new conditions and adjust their economic strategies
to t the altered opportunity structures in order to nd or retain employment.
After the Serbian economy emerged from the last recession, a period of rela-
tively moderate economic growth and increased employment rates ensued.
The aim of this study is to explore the readiness of actors to adapt to the
aforementioned changes in the labor market in Serbia. The method of compar-
ative analysis used was made possible due to the survey data collected during
longitudinal research conducted by the Institute for Sociological Research of
the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade. The previous cycles
1 Ulyana Antolyevna Nazarova / Aigul Sharifovna Galimonova / Albina Eduartovna Gali-
na, Transformation of Labour and Labour Values. A System of Social-Labour Relations and
Its System Features, in: Proceedings of the International Scientic Conference ‘Far East Con’
(ISCFEC 2018), Vladivostok 2019 (Advances in Economics, Business and Management Re-
search 47), 1149–1154, DOI: 10.2991/iscfec-18.2019.259. All internet references were accessed
on 6 August 2020.
2 Mladen Lazić / Slobodan Cvejić, Promene društvene strukture u Srbiji. Slučaj blokirane
post-socijalističke transformacije, in: Anđelka Milić, ed, Društvena transformacija i strategije
društvenih grupa. Svakodnevica Srbije na početku trećeg milenijuma, Belgrade 2004, 39–70.
3 Marija Babović, Post-socijalistička transformacija i socio-ekonomske strategije domaćin-
stava i pojedinaca u Srbiji, Belgrade 2009.

345
Changes in Work Orientations in Postsocialist Serbia
were carried out after the ‘deblocking’ of the transformation, in 2003,4 and dur-
ing the period of large economic recession in 2012.5 My goal is to establish
whether and how the work orientations of economically active individuals in
Serbia have changed since 2000. The study is motivated by my desire to contin-
uously monitor changes in the value orientations in the labor market, which are
important not only from an academic but also an economic policy standpoint
and can answer questions about labor market development. The specicity
of this article is reected in the fact that internal and international mobility,
a very important cause of both labor market development and depopulation,
is observed in a wider value-oriented context.
Theoretical Framework
Approaching Work Orientations
Work orientations became the subject of studies in industrial sociology during
the 1970s and 1980s. Empirical studies have shown the extent to which motiva-
tions, values, and aitudes are important for determining labor market behav-
ior, occupational status, and even earnings.6 The reason why subjective factors
were taken into consideration was the fact that scholars acknowledged the im-
pact that elements of the cultural system have on shaping economic action.7
Although there is no single denition of work orientations, a common view is
that they ‘reect individuals’ prioritizations of dierent rewards from employ-
ment which shape their work aitudes and behavior by providing meaning
to their responses to work situations’.8 Such an understanding stems from the
classic rational choice theory, whereby preferences are perceived as hard-wired
mental dispositions. Critics of this approach believe that if preferences are
viewed as rooted dispositions, reason, rational thinking, and choices become
mere instruments for realizing the states assumed by our permanent mental
preferences. This would mean that all our choices are essentially preconceived.
According to contemporary theoreticians of rational choice, a well-arranged set
4 Silvano Bolčić, Post-socijalistička transformacija i nove radne orijentacije. Srbija 1990–
2003. godine, in: Anđelka Milić, ed, Društvena transformacija i strategija društvenih grupa,
110–150.
5 Marija Babović / Irena Petrović, Povezanost radnih i vrednosnih orijentacija društvenih
aktera u uslovima ekonomske krize u Srbiji, Teme. Časopis za društvene nauke 38, no. 1 (2014),
151–176.
6 Catherine Hakim, Grateful Slaves and Self-Made Women. Fact and Fantasy in Wom-
en’s Work Orientations, European Sociological Review 7, no. 2 (1991), 101–121, DOI: 10.1093/
oxfordjournals.esr.a036590.
7 Slobodan Cvejić, Društvena određenost ekonomskih pojava, Belgrade 2011.
8 Min Zou, Gender, Work Orientation and Job Satisfaction, Work, Employment and Society
29, no. 1 (2015), 3–22, 4, DOI: 10.1177/0950017014559267.

346 Dunja Poleti Ćosić
of preferences is usually the result of a successful inspection, rather than its pre-
condition. However, even after the redenition of the classical approach, that
is, the inclusion of cultural elements and an altered causality whereby values
precede preferences, the aforementioned theoretical framework has remained
dominant when explaining work orientations.9 So, despite the fact that work
orientations are sometimes equated with work values and work preferences,
in this study I focus on the concept of work orientations precisely so as to em-
phasize the dierence between wider socially dened values and economically
perceived preferences.
Today, the concept of work orientation is used most frequently for the pur-
pose of analyzing and explaining the dierences in job satisfaction expressed
by actors in the labor market. Prior to the introduction of the concept, employ-
ment satisfaction had been explained either through psychological approaches,
which emphasized the personality of a worker, or through economic approach-
es, which focused on the characteristics of the job itself, and predominantly on
income. Catherine Hakim uses the concept of work orientation to explain the
higher job satisfaction of women compared to men, even though their positions
in the labor market are objectively worse. According to Hakim, the answer
to the question why women have higher job satisfaction than men lies in the
‘dispositional’ factors inherent to women and expressed through preferences,
rather than the ‘situational’ factors related to their jobs.10 Although her studies
were subject to much criticism for their neo-traditionalist perspective, essen-
tialization of gender, and a deterministic approach to women’s preferences,
this author was among the rst to conclude that gender dierences in job sat-
isfaction primarily stem from individuals’ job values.11 Consequently, as the
overlap of what workers want and what jobs oer is greater among women,
the perceived tendencies are explainable.
Nowadays, numerous studies on job satisfaction take work orientations as
their starting point. Ma Vidal states that individual orientations are at least
as important for determining employee satisfaction as job descriptions, while
Michael Rose suggests that job satisfaction is the product of both work orien-
tations and real working conditions, such as employment contracts, working
hours, and nancial stimuli.12 In that sense, work orientations are perceived
9 James Doughney / Mary Leahy, Women, Work and Preference Formation. A Critique
of Catherine Hakim’s Preference Theory, Journal of Business Systems, Governance and Ethics 1,
no. 1 (2006), 37–48.
10 Hakim, Grateful Slaves and Self-Made Women, 101.
11 Cf. for example Doughney / Leahy, Women, Work and Preference Formation, 44–46;
Zou, Gender, Work Orientation and Job Satisfaction, 5.
12 Matt Vidal, Lean Production, Worker Empowerment, and Job Satisfaction.
A Qualitative Analysis and Critique, Critical Sociology 33, no. 1–2 (2007), 247–278, 271, DOI:
10.1163/156916307X168656; Michael Rose, Good Deal, Bad Deal? Job Satisfaction in Occupa-

347
Changes in Work Orientations in Postsocialist Serbia
as intermediary variables between comprehensive value orientations and real
economic action. Apart from the fact that the concept is viewed as culturally
dened, it is also linked to the participants’ class, family/marital status, life
cycle stage, as well as to wider structural conditions.13
Work orientation is often operationalized as people’s readiness to accept cer-
tain hypothetical jobs. Studies that do so measure the (im)balances in the labor
market that emerge from inconsistent job vacancies and the (un)willingness
of workers to accept oered jobs. In other words, they measure the exibili-
ty of individuals in the labor market. Moreover, these research projects place
a special focus on people’s readiness to accept spatial mobility for employment
purposes, combining rational choice theories with lessons from the new eco-
nomics of labor migration, human capital theory, and structural approaches.
While rational choice theory is modeled on the subjective expected utility that
perceives migrations as rational actions reached solely if individuals see in
them the maximization of net utility, the new economics of labor migration
has pointed to the fact that individuals often make decisions within the fam-
ily context, rather than independently. Human capital theory has indicated
how individual characteristics such as education, skills, and physical ability
aect migration costs and benets. And nally, structural approaches have
highlighted the fact that social structures signicantly shape actors’ obstacles
and possibilities, thereby, too, surpassing their individual characteristics. As
a consequence, today’s comprehensive models include individual and house-
hold characteristics in their mobility determinants, particularly those related to
demographic and socioeconomic variables, social and cultural norms, person-
ality factors, such as risk appetite or adaptability, but also structural restraints
and opportunities.14
The ndings of previous empirical studies indicate a partial inexibility
of the workforce. For example, quantitative research conducted in Germany
shows that unemployed persons are more likely to accept hypothetical job
oers than their employed counterparts. However, apart from this general
tendency, the authors did not nd any signicant dierences in the manner
in which unemployed persons assess the characteristics of inter-regional job
oers compared to their employed colleagues. The sole statistically important
tions, Work, Employment and Society 17, no. 3 (2003), 503–530, 526, DOI: 10.1177/ 0950017003
0173006.
13 Babović / Petrović, Povezanost radnih i vrednosnih orijentacija društvenih aktera u
uslovima ekonomske krize u Srbiji, 155.
14
Gordon F. De Jong et al., International and Internal Migration Decision Mak
-
ing. A Value- Expectancy Based Analytical Framework of Intentions to Move from
a Rural Philippine Province, International Migration Review 17, no. 3 (1983), 470–484, DOI:
10.1177/019791838301700305; Sonja Haug, Migration Networks and Migration Decision-Making,
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 34, no. 4 (2008), 585–605, DOI: 10.1080/13691830801961605.

348 Dunja Poleti Ćosić
dierence is that unemployed persons accepted short-term contracts more fre-
quently than those who were employed. Similarly, the study failed to conrm
that long-term unemployed persons are more likely to accept jobs with objec-
tively less favorable characteristics. On the contrary, long-term unemployed
people seemed discouraged when oered demanding positions, and the costs
and risks of household moving presented a great obstacle to them.15
A survey conducted in thirty-seven countries by the International Social Sur-
vey Programme (ISSP), which delivers annual surveys on beliefs, aitudes, and
behavior, covering topics relevant to social sciences, also showed a low propen-
sity for spatial mobility among respondents.16 The 2015 survey on work orien-
tations indicated that the lowest percentage of respondents opted for a change
of residence. Respondents were most willing to accept jobs that require the
acquisition of new skills (81 %), followed by a disposition towards temporary
employment (60 %). A longer commute to work (48 %) and lower-level and
lower-paid positions (42 %) received medium-level support, while the low-
est number of respondents expressed willingness to move within the country
(26 %) or abroad (22 %).17
Research on Work Orientations in Serbia
In Serbia, the concept of work orientations was explored in quantitative re-
search conducted by the Institute for Sociological Research in 2003, 2007, 2012,
and 2018.18 The longitudinal approach allowed for the tracking of changes in
work orientations among Serbia’s citizens, starting from the moment of ‘un-
blocking’ the transformation process to the consolidation of the capitalist sys-
tem of social reproduction that is still underway today.19
The initial research from 2003 was conducted after the ‘deblocking’ of the
transformation, with the end of Milošević’s regime in October 2000. This was
a period of intensive reforms.20 In a widely dened economic sense, the changes
15 Martin Abraham et al., Unemployment and Willingness to Accept Job Oers. Results
of a Factorial Survey Experiment, Journal for Labour Market Research 46, no. 4 (2013), 283–305,
DOI: 10.1007/s12651-017-0229-1.
16 Regina Ju et al., The ISSP 2015 Work Orientations IV Module, International Journal of
Sociology 48 (2018), 95–102.
17 Hannah Volk / Markus Hadler, Work Orientations and Perceived Working Conditions
across Countries. Results from the 2015 ISSP Survey, International Journal of Sociology 48, no. 2
(2018), 103–123, DOI: 10.1080/00207659.2018.1446116.
18 Bolčić, Post-socijalistička transformacija i nove radne orijentacije; Babović / Petrović, Pove-
zanost radnih i vrednosnih orijentacija društvenih aktera u uslovima ekonomske krize u Srbiji.
19 Mladen Lazić, Uvod, in: Mladen Lazić, ed, Ekonomska elita u Srbiji u periodu konsol-
idacije kapitalističkog poretka, Belgrade 2014, 9–36.
20 Mladen Lazić, Čekajući kapitalizam. Nastanak novih klasnih odnosa u Srbiji, Belgrade
2011.

349
Changes in Work Orientations in Postsocialist Serbia
brought about transformation of ownership, in the form of devastation of the
public sector and privatization, but also of the distribution of the workforce
across economic sectors. What ensued was a exibilization of production pro-
cesses and work organization within enterprises. The socioeconomic transfor-
mation also had an impact on the domain of labor: it primarily led to the for-
mation of a liberal labor market, and it also aected the scope of employment.
The previous socialist paern of secure and permanent employment managed
by the state transformed into less secure forms of employment. These changes
led to a temporary or permanent removal of actors from the domain of labor,
and increased the rates of unemployment and informal employment.21
These changes required a transformation of values with regard to work ar-
rangements, but actors in the domain of labor did not nd it easy to alter their
work orientations and adapt to the new circumstances. Their ambivalent expec-
tations were the initial motivation for the methodological long-term research
approach. Silvano Bolčić grouped the readiness of Serbia’s citizens to accept
new forms of employment into four categories: 1) readiness to change between
types of employment more frequently, which included readiness to do any
paid work, work simultaneously for multiple companies, work below one’s
qualications, and acquire new qualications, knowledge, and skills; 2) read-
iness to increase work intensity, including working long hours and accepting
additional part-time jobs; 3) readiness to accept less secure employment, such
as leaving permanent employment in order to do contractual work for a higher
compensation; and 4) readiness to accept independent forms of employment,
while accepting greater responsibility for nding, or creating, a job through
self-employment and entrepreneurship.22
The ndings regarding the subsample of employed persons suggest that
employed individuals in the labor market were partially ready to accept the
current changes: they opted to accept increased work intensity and to retain
the regime of secure employment. At the same time, they refused the regimes
of unsteady, exible work or independent forms of employment. Readiness
for a more intensive engagement was shown by employees of all occupations,
employed or unemployed, while younger respondents were more inclined
towards exible forms of employment. Bolčić concludes that the increase in
unemployment in the early years was a result not only of objective reasons,
such as ownership restructuring, the loss of previous markets, and technolog-
ical and organizational modernization, but also subjective factors, that is, the
insucient readiness of actors to change the type and mode of employment
they were used to in the socialist period.23
21 Bolčić, Post-socijalistička transformacija i nove radne orijentacije, 113–115.
22 Bolčić, Post-socijalistička transformacija i nove radne orijentacije, 127.
23 Bolčić, Post-socijalistička transformacija i nove radne orijentacije, 145.

350 Dunja Poleti Ćosić
In the subsequent period, Serbia was marked by contrasting trends in the
economic domain. The period of favorable macroeconomic growth rates be-
tween 2001 and 2008 was accompanied by a decline of indicators in the labor
market, and their subsequent increase. The employment rate dropped from
50.3 % in 2001 to 40.4 % in 2006, after which it subsequently rose to 44.4 % in
2008.24 After the eruption of the world nancial crisis, the eects of which were
evident by late 2008, the rate of employment went into a continuous decline
until 2012, when it reached its lowest point. That year, the employment rate was
35.5 % and the unemployment rate was 23.9 %.25 Despite the fact that recovery
began in that same year, with the employment rate going from 42 % to 47.6 %
between 2014 and 2018,26 this was only partially generated by the reduction
of the percentage of unemployed persons; the second contributing factor was
the increase in the percentage of the inactive population. The analyses for 2015
show that the increase in informal employment in absolute gures was higher
than the drop in unemployment, whereas the share of so-called ‘vulnerable em-
ployment’, which includes self-employment and unpaid work in households,
constantly amounted to around 30 %. Also, the share of temporary workers
within the total number of paid workers in 2016 was 23.6 %, which is signi-
cantly higher than the European Union (EU) average.27
During the same period, two more cycles of longitudinal research were con-
ducted—in 2007 and 2012. Marija Babović and Irena Petrović compared the
results with the aim of examining whether the initial period was followed by
(further) changes in the work orientations of the working-age population. The
results suggested that in all three observed periods—2003, 2007, and 2012—
readiness to do any paid job was the most widely represented work orientation,
yet its frequency as a key option declined even after the breakout of the crisis.
The data show that work orientations follow trends in the economic domain:
when objective indicators improve, citizens’ propensity for work exibiliza-
tion increases. With regard to the dierences between the groups’ sociodemo-
graphic and socioeconomic characteristics, the authors conclude that, ‘to a large
24 Republički zavod za statistiku, Anketa o radnoj snazi u Republici Srbiji, Belgrade 2003,
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. It should be noted that between 2001 and 2008, the methodology
of the Labour Force Survey changed several times, so data comparison needs to be done with
caution. Cf. Gordana Matković et al., Uticaj krize na tržište radne snage i životni standard u
Srbiji, Belgrade 2010, 14.
25 Institut za teritorijalni ekonomski razvoj (InTER), Economic Indicators Infographic,
2017, hp://regionalnirazvoj.org/upload/News/Documents/2017_04/Economic_indicators_
infographic.pdf.
26 Republički zavod za statistiku, Anketa o radnoj snazi u Republici Srbiji, 2012, 2013,
2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.
27 Mario Reljanović et al., Analiza efekata primene izmena i dopuna Zakona o radu, Bel-
grade 2016, 29; Maja Jandrić / Dejan Molnar, Kvalitet zaposlenosti i tržište rada u Srbiji.
Koliko je Srbija daleko od EU?, Belgrade 2017, 11–12.

351
Changes in Work Orientations in Postsocialist Serbia
extent, the participants proled their orientations by taking into account the
circumstances and structural opportunities, linked to their personal character-
istics’.28
Simultaneously, a detailed analysis of the participants’ readiness to accept
spatial mobility indicated that a change of residence for work purposes was
not widely accepted as a exible employment strategy. Given that the number
of economically active respondents open to this option has remained nearly
unchanged since 2003, it is impossible to conclude that there is a linear corre-
lation between the reactions of the working population and economic trends.
The strongest sociodemographic predictors for choosing a mobility strategy
were age and education level, whereas marital status, owner-occupancy, and
local community aachment were identied as important as well, but with
a negative sign—they reduced the probability that a change of residence would
be an acceptable option for the respondents.29
Numerous changes, both in the economic and the normative domain, were
again observed in the period between the two nal research cycles realized in
2012 and 2018. Ocial statistical data since 2014 have indicated that there has
been a continuous upward trend in the employment rate and a continuous
downward trend in the unemployment rate; however, a direct comparison with
the previous period is dicult due to the altered methodology for measuring
these indicators (Table 1).30
Additionally, the 2014 amendments to the Labor Law paved the way for
a dierent normative order. The Labor Law was adopted in 2005. Although
it has since been amended several times, the 2014 amendments represented
the most signicant intervention regarding employment regulation, due to the
eorts to adjust the legal framework to the altered circumstances in the labor
market.31 The changes were announced as a comprehensive project to harmo-
nize Serbian labor law with that of the European Union, the main aim of which
was to increase employment by developing workforce exibilization policies.
However, critics of these changes claimed that such a law would not have a sig-
nicant impact on the increase in employment, as this would require the crea-
tion of new jobs based on the development of crucial industrialization policies,
a more eective public administration, and a reduction of employment costs.
In addition, it was highlighted that the creators of the law were referencing
28 Babović / Petrović, Povezanost radnih i vrednosnih orijentacija društvenih aktera u
uslovima ekonomske krize u Srbiji, 168.
29 Dunja Poleti, Mobilnost radno aktivnog stanovništva u Srbiji, in: Mladen Lazić / Slo-
bodan Cvejić, eds, Promene osnovnih struktura društva Srbije u periodu ubrzane transfor-
macije, Belgrade 2013, 140–157.
30 Republički zavod za statistiku, Anketa o radnoj snazi u Republici Srbiji, 2014, 2015,
2016, 2017, 2018.
31 Reljanović et al., Analiza efekata primene izmena i dopuna Zakona o radu, 6.

352 Dunja Poleti Ćosić
the exibility of labor, fully neglecting the fact that in the European Union this
concept had been replaced by the term ‘exicurity’, which implied ensuring
not only exibility, but also social welfare benets for jobseekers and a highly
dierentiated labor market able to absorb this kind of (exible) uctuation.
The experts’ overall assessment of Serbia’s policy changes emphasized that
not only did they aim to reduce the scope and quality of employee rights, but
the adoption procedure entailed substantial transparency defects and a lack of
social consensus regarding the proposed amendments.32 Taking into account
these objective changes, research on Serbian citizens’ readiness to adapt to them
has become even more signicant. In the following section, I will present the
ndings from the nal research cycle, which will be compared to the results of
the previous cycles.
Data and Methodological Framework of the 2018 Survey
The data were collected through a survey of a nationally representative sample
from April through June 2018. I focus here solely on the economically active
population, aged 15–65, who were employed, self-employed (including agri-
cultural workers), temporarily out of work (due to illness or holiday leave), or
active jobseekers.33 The analysis excludes inactive citizens (pensioners, house-
keepers, students and pupils), given that emphasis is placed on the viewpoints
of those citizens who directly participate in the labor market. The subsample of
the economically active population comprised 1,219 persons. For comparative
purposes, the paper uses the empirical data from the surveys conducted in 2003
32 Reljanović et al., Analiza efekata primene izmena i dopuna Zakona o radu.
33 Silvano Bolčić, Svet rada u transformaciji, Belgrade 2004.
Table 1. Key labor market indicators in Serbia – population over 15 years of age
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Employment rate (%) 42.0 42.5 45.1 46.7 47.6
Unemployment rate (%) 19.2 17.7 15.3 13.5 12.6
Inactivity rate (%) 48.1 48.4 46.7 46.1 45.5
Informal employment rate (%) 21.2 20.4 22.0 20.7 19.5
Self-employed without employees (%) 19.7 18.2 20.2 21.4 19.0
Working more than 48 hours a week (%) 15.0 13.3 10.7 9.1 8.2
Temporary workers (%) 18.7 21.8 23.7 22.8 23.0
Part-time workers (%) 12.2 11.9 13.0 12.5 11.3
Source: Republički zavod za statistiku, Anketa o radnoj snazi u Republici Srbiji, Belgrade 2014,
2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.

353
Changes in Work Orientations in Postsocialist Serbia
and 2012, which included 1,761 and 1,418 members of the economically active
population, respectively.34
Two hypotheses are tested in this study. The rst examines the dynamics of
work orientation changes depending on social circumstances. If the economic
conjuncture in Serbia, which has generated higher employment, is taken into
account alongside the normative restructuring that impacts the quality of em-
ployment through labor market exibilization and reduced employment secu-
rity, as well as the wider value orientations and dominant public discourses,
it can be expected that the economically active population of Serbia has ex-
pressed greater readiness to accept more exible and more independent forms
of employment, such as self-employment, entrepreneurship, and temporary
or part-time jobs. The second hypothesis aims to establish clear dierences in
the preferred orientations of actors categorized by gender, age, education level,
class, nancial situation, employment, and the size of the place and region they
live in. Based on human capital theories and structural approaches, it can be
assumed that the respondents have proled their value orientations by taking
into account the circumstances and structural opportunities related to their
individual characteristics. Specically, this means that readiness to engage in
atypical ventures is higher among the respondents whose costs of moving into
more exible work arrangements are lower, that is, men, young people, re-
spondents with a university degree, employed respondents from the upper
classes, and those who live in more developed regions of Serbia.
Work orientations were measured through the readiness of the respondents
to accept dierent types of work arrangements, which was operationalized by
the following question: ‘In order to provide a beer livelihood for you and your
family, you are ready to …’, after which the respondents were oered eleven
options: change residence for employment purposes; accept any paid job; work
longer hours; work for multiple companies simultaneously; work below one’s
qualications for a higher salary; opt for a high-paying temporary job instead
of permanent employment; do additional part-time work along with a full-time
job; do informal work in the grey economy; acquire new skills and qualica-
tions; be self-employed; be ready to start a business. The respondents gave
a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to each option and were subsequently asked to choose
one preferred option. Apart from descriptive statistical methods and measures
of association (chi-square), the results were obtained by using factor analysis
and binary logistic regression.
34 Although available, the 2007 data will not be included, as the ratio between the results
from the three years 2003, 2007 and 2012 was already described in other studies, and also due
to my focus on wider time periods. Cf. Babović / Petrović, Povezanost radnih i vrednosnih
orijentacija društvenih aktera u uslovima ekonomske krize u Srbiji; Poleti, Mobilnost radno
aktivnog stanovništva u Srbiji.

354 Dunja Poleti Ćosić
Data Analysis and Discussion
The comparison of work orientations in the three research cycles is presented
in Table 2. In 2018, members of the economically active population were mostly
ready to work below their qualications for a higher nancial compensation
(74 %), work longer hours, do additional work, and receive education (both
72 %). However, although all the aforementioned orientations, apart from ed-
ucation, have been dominant, they have nevertheless stagnated or declined
compared to the previous period. The comparative analysis clearly shows the
changed aitudes of the workforce: accepting any paid jobs, working longer
hours, working simultaneously for multiple companies, doing jobs that require
lower qualications for a higher salary, and working informally in the grey
economy were, statistically, less frequently chosen than in 2012. Yet the respons-
es about acquiring new qualications, becoming self-employed, starting a com-
pany, and choosing a high-paying temporary job over permanent employment
are chosen signicantly more often than before. These were, albeit not the most
preferred options, much more frequently chosen by the respondents. These
ndings indicate that, regardless of the fact that exible and atypical types of
employment are still not the main options for the economically active popula-
tion of Serbia, there has been a gradual change of aitude and a dismissal of the
preconceived idea about the normalcy of permanent employment and work in
the same profession and organization throughout one’s lifetime.
Signicantly, over the entire observed period, a particularly low level of re-
spondents’ readiness to work informally, that is, in the grey economy, was
identied. In the nal cycle, this level was additionally reduced by 5 percent-
age points compared to the previous period. These ndings are interesting
given the percentage of work activities taking place in this domain. The latest
estimates indicate a decline in the scope of the grey economy from 21.2 % of
GDP in 2012 to 15.4 % in 2017.35 However, one should take into account that
the analysis solely encompasses registered companies and entrepreneurs. Con-
sequently, these percentages represent merely one form of activity in the grey
zone, namely that which takes place within the formal sector. The share of
unregistered businesses, estimated to be 17.2 %, should be added to the afore-
mentioned indicator. Additionally, informal employment, that is, earnings
paid partially or fully in cash, makes up a signicantly larger share of the grey
economy than undeclared business prot: approximately 62 out of 100 dinars
in the grey economy represent undeclared salaries, while the remaining 38 di-
nars represent undeclared prot.36 Estimates based on the Labour Force Survey
35 Gorana Krstić / Branko Radulović, Siva ekonomija u Srbiji. Procena obima, karakteris-
tike učesnika i determinante, Belgrade 2018, 17–18.
36 Krstić / Radulović, Siva ekonomija u Srbiji, 17–18.

355
Changes in Work Orientations in Postsocialist Serbia
(LFS) data show that the rate of informal employment for the population over
15 years of age was 22 % in 2016, 20.7 % in 2017, and 19 % in 2018.37 As a result,
despite the fact that at least one-fth of Serbia’s citizens conduct their labor ac-
tivities in the grey zone, this work orientation is not widely accepted in society.
Table 3 shows the participants’ answers to the question about the choice of
the most acceptable option. In 2018, starting a company was the most frequent-
ly chosen option. Compared to the previous period, its frequency increased
by 5.8 percentage points, which is a statistically signicant growth. Changing
residence for work purposes was the second most frequently chosen option,
although statistically it was not chosen more often than in the previous period.
Namely, as accepting any paid job completely lost its lead among the options,
and as accepting longer work hours experienced a sharp decline, mobility came
in second place. Self-employment and work intensication through an addi-
tional part-time job were also two prominent options.
The greater acceptance of entrepreneurial work orientations is determined
by several factors. On the one hand, business startups and employment re-
sult from structural changes, that is, fewer vacancies in the industry and
the expansion of the service sector. Additionally, opting for a private busi-
ness could be an answer to inadequate oers in the labor market. As shown
37 The data for 2016 are from Jandrić / Molnar, Kvalitet zaposlenosti i tržište rada u Srbiji,
13.
Table 2. Readiness to accept dierent work orientations (in %)
Readiness to: 2003 2012 2018
Change residence for employment purposes 57 57 59
Accept any paid job 63 61 54
Work longer hours 82 80 72
Work for multiple companies simultaneously 48 55 51
Work below one’s qualications for a higher salary 76 78 74
Opt for a high-paying temporary job instead of permanent
employment 41 42 46
Do additional part-time work along with a full-time job 73 75 72
Do informal work in the grey economy 36 37 32
Acquire new skills and qualications 65 68 72
Be self-employed 58 55 60
Readiness to start a business 46 44 53
The respondents were asked to provide a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to each option.

356 Dunja Poleti Ćosić
in some international studies,38 the readiness of people to accept risk and re-
duced employment security may stem from a high unemployment rate and
strict permanent employment protection regulations. On the other hand, job
individualization through self-employment can be encouraged by a neoliber-
al government aiming to modify norms and values so as to create a national
culture of entrepreneurship by focusing on active citizens, personal indepen-
dence, and the creation of a social, legal, and economic framework designed
to alter individuals’ aitudes and behavior in the labor market. In that case,
reduced business startup costs and greater availability of potential markets
due to globalization as well as the availability of information technology can
contribute to people’s entrepreneurial aspirations. In Serbia, structural changes
have led to reduced jobs in the secondary, manufacturing sector, and dierent
governments have tried to compensate for these decits by encouraging entre-
preneurial aspirations through dierent state programs and by strengthening
the public discourse on the desirability of entrepreneurship. For example, 2016
was declared the year of entrepreneurship in Serbia, the aim of which was to
show that the
38 Peter Warr / Ilke Inceoglu, Work Orientations, Well-Being and Job Content of
Self-Employed and Employed Professionals, Work, Employment and Society 32, no. 2 (2018),
1–20, DOI: 10.1177/0950017017717684.
Table 3. Choice of key readiness factors (in %)
Readiness to: 2003 2012 2018
Change residence for employment purposes 12.1 12.9 14.6
Accept any paid job 23.8 18.5 8.9
Work longer hours 10.8 12.5 7.6
Simultaneously work for multiple companies 3.7 3.7 3.6
Work below one’s qualications for a higher salary 5.6 5.8 8.2
Opt for a high-paying temporary job instead of permanent
employment 1.3 1.5 2.5
Do additional part-time work along with a full-time job 13.1 14.7 13.9
Do informal work in the grey economy 0.9 0.6 1.2
Acquire new skills and qualications 6.0 6.6 10.3
Be self-employed 12.1 14.1 14.2
Start a business 10.5 9.2 15.0
Total 100 100 100
The respondents were asked to choose one preferred option.

357
Changes in Work Orientations in Postsocialist Serbia
‘strategy of the Serbian Government is the development of economic competitiveness,
which, as in all developed and successful economies of the modern world, is based
on the concept of private initiative, entrepreneurial spirit and social consensus on the
important role of the government and the entire society in encouraging such values
and long-term policies’.39
Consequently, by promulgating neoliberal values and declaring entrepreneur-
ship and proactivity a general economic development strategy, political actors
have managed to promote and establish this type of economic activity as the
dominant one.
The rst hypothesis proposes that citizens will recognize two groups of ori-
entations among the options—a propensity for secure employment and a pro-
pensity for the exibilization of work arrangements. In order to test this classi-
cation into two divergent dimensions, factor analysis with Varimax rotation
was conducted, identifying two factors with characteristic roots above 1. How-
ever, three items had low factor loadings—readiness to opt for a high-paying
temporary job over permanent employment, readiness to do informal work in
the grey economy, both of which are among the least preferred options with
a share of merely 3.7 %, and the propensity for spatial mobility, whose factor
scores indicated that it almost equally belonged to the rst and second latent
factor. Consequently, these three answers were excluded from the analysis. The
results are presented in Table 4.
The classication into standard and exible types of employment has proven
to be correct, although the respondents evidently perceive not two, but four
dierent groups of orientations. If one solely observes the variables included in
the analysis, the rst factor includes readiness for intensied labor and depro-
fessionalization, which can jointly be considered a necessity-driven choice and
an orientation towards security. The rst factor includes those aspects which
lead to an intensication of work, comprising the readiness to 1) do any paid
job; 2) work long hours; 3) do multiple jobs simultaneously for multiple com-
panies; 4) work below one’s qualications for a signicantly higher salary; and
5) perform additional part-time jobs along with full-time employment. I have
named this factor ‘intensication of work’. The second group includes learning,
self-employment, and business startup, which is rather an opportunity-driven
choice and suggests willingness to take risks. I have named the second factor
‘entrepreneurial orientation’.
The three options excluded from the analysis due to low component load-
ings need to be kept in mind though. It is evident that the shift to part-time
or informal jobs represents, for the economically active population of Serbia,
39 Razvojna agencija Srbije, Godina preduzetništva 2016, 20 February 2019, hps://ras.gov.
rs/predstavljena-godina-preduzetnistva-2016.

358 Dunja Poleti Ćosić
a form of full precarization of work orientations, for which they are shown not
to be ready. Finally, readiness for spatial mobility ought to be observed as an
independent option.
Based on the aforementioned facts, the rst hypothesis is partially conrmed.
Although certain options related to work environment security and job in-
tensication are still widely accepted, there has been an overall growth trend
regarding the choice of independent and atypical employment. In addition
to the two described options, the study highlights the most precarious forms
of work—temporary jobs instead of permanent employment and work in the
grey zone, which are the least preferred options for the working population of
Serbia. It also highlights the readiness for spatial mobility which is, after en-
trepreneurship preference, the most frequently chosen key option. The highly
similar component loadings in both dimensions indicate that one part of the
workforce sees this option as an escape and a necessity, while the other part
perceives change of residence as a proactive strategy.
Further analysis aimed to show the connection of human capital and structur-
al limitations, operationalized through sociodemographic and socioeconomic
characteristics, to work orientations. Based on the most preferred options, the
respondents were classied into the four previously described groups. The
analysis was initially aimed at those who opted for the responses classied in
the two dimensions that resulted from the factor analysis: work intensication
and deprofessionalization on the one hand, and entrepreneurship on the other.
The ndings indicate an important but relatively weak link between cer-
tain characteristics of the respondents and work orientations (Table 5). The
variations in dierent orientations are more strongly related to age and eco-
nomic position than other characteristics (generational aliation: χ2 = 50.112,
Cramer’s V = 0.240, p = 0.000; economic position status: χ2 = 38.269, Cramer’s
Table 4. Results of the principal component analysis – factor loadings, 2018
Components
1 2
Readiness to do any paid job 0.660
Readiness to work longer than ‘normal’ working hours 0.727
Readiness to do multiple jobs simultaneously for multiple companies 0.696
Readiness to work below one’s qualications for a signicantly higher salary 0.667
Readiness to do additional part-time jobs along with full-time employment 0.688
Readiness to gain new knowledge, skills, and qualications 0.617
Readiness to start a business 0.891
Readiness to start a company independently or with partners 0.905

359
Changes in Work Orientations in Postsocialist Serbia
V = 0.209, p = 0.000). The youngest actors in the labor market opt for entrepre-
neurship more often than work intensication, whereas the second option is
more frequently chosen by the older working population, due not only to the
Table 5. Cross tabulation – characteristics of the respondents and key readiness, in %,
2018
Types of readiness
Intensication of
work and deprofes-
sionalization
Entrepreneurship
Age 17–29 6.9 22.0
30–44 33.7 36.7
45–59 47.5 32.9
60+ 12.0 8.3
Education level Primary education 14.0 7.6
Secondary education 52.5 48.1
Tertiary education 33.5 44.3
Class Upper class 8.6 11.4
Small entrepreneurs 7.5 11.1
Experts 21.8 27.6
Clerks 15.1 12.8
Highly skilled and skilled workers 20.2 22.6
Semi-skilled and unskilled workers 12.7 7.5
Small farmers 14.0 7.0
Economic
position index
Upper 2.7 5.7
Upper middle 12.2 21.8
Middle 21.5 25.8
Lower middle 41.5 36.3
Lower 22.2 10.4
Region Belgrade 24.5 30.8
Vojvodina 25.4 32.5
Šumadija and western Serbia 28.5 24.9
Eastern and southern Serbia 21.6 11.8
Age χ2 = 50.112, Cramer’s V = 0.240, p = 0.000;
Education level χ2 = 15.631, Cramer’s V = 0.134, p = 0.000;
Class χ2 = 20.920, Cramer’s V = 0.169, p = 0.002;
Economic position index χ2 = 38.269, Cramer’s V = 0.209, p = 0.000;
Region χ2 = 20.254, Cramer’s V = 0.152, p = 0.000.

360 Dunja Poleti Ćosić
increased risk that comes with age, but also a specic value matrix that reects
onto the youth through socialization. Predictably, respondents with a primary
and secondary education level opt for intensication and deprofessionaliza-
tion more often within their employment, while the most educated respond-
ents prefer professional development and entrepreneurship. The respondents’
class scheme consists of seven hierarchical positions: 1) upper class: managers,
medium and big entrepreneurs, and politicians; 2) small entrepreneurs and
self-employed without tertiary education; 3) professionals, lower managers,
and self-employed with tertiary education; 4) clerks: oce workers, technicians
with secondary school, and self-employed with secondary education (or less);
5) highly skilled and skilled workers; 6) semi-skilled and unskilled workers; 7)
small farmers. This class scheme, together with the region respondents live in
and their education level, is shown to have an extremely low relevance to the
choice of work orientations, despite being statistically signicant indicators
(class: χ2 = 20.920, Phi = 0.169, p = 0.002; region: χ2 = 20.254, Phi = 0.152, p = 0.000;
education: χ2 = 15.631, Phi = 0.134, p = 0,000).
Nonetheless, some tendencies have been observed in relation to these social
features. While upper classes, small entrepreneurs, and professionals more fre-
quently opt for entrepreneurial work orientations, those who are lower in the
social hierarchy are more likely to choose work intensication and deprofes-
sionalization. The active population of a higher economic status is most likely
to have entrepreneurial aspirations, while respondents in the worst economic
position tend to choose deprofessionalization and work intensication. The
economic position index is a composite index, compiled on the basis of in-
dicators on income, assets, and consumption. It is expressed in the form of
a ve-level interval scale.
Finally, regional paerns have been noticed: respondents who live in Bel-
grade and Vojvodina are more often inclined towards entrepreneurship, while
those living in western Serbia and Šumadija, as well as southern and eastern
Serbia, more frequently opt for work intensication. Gender, urban/rural resi-
dence, as well as work activity have no signicant impact on the choice of work
orientations. The most interesting fact about the variables that have no impact
is that there are no dierences between the employed and unemployed work-
force. This may be due to some factors that have also been recognized in other
studies: for example, the unemployed persons’ need to be open to all business
opportunities clashes with their objectively higher expenses and risks, due to
the dispersion of human capital resulting from their distancing from the labor
market.
An additional analysis was conducted in order to establish the determi-
nants of spatial mobility as the orientation that was very frequently chosen as
a key option in this research cycle. In the binary logistic regression model, the

361
Changes in Work Orientations in Postsocialist Serbia
dummy variable, ‘readiness for spatial mobility’, was the dependent variable
(Table 6). Here 0 indicated those who were not willing to move and 1 indicated
those willing to change residence in order to nd a (beer-paid) job. The model
included age as an independent variable (youth meaning the independent var-
iable), as well as dummy variables: respondents’ gender (reference category:
women), education level (reference category: completed secondary education),
employment status (reference category: employed persons), class (reference
Table 6. Binary logistic regression, 2018
Variable B Sig. Exp(B)
Gender—female 0.108 0.398 1.114
Age 0.047 0.000 0.954
Education level
Primary education 0.028 0.909 0.973
Tertiary education 0.366 0.069 1.441
Employment status—unemployed 0.751 0.007 2.118
Class
Upper class 0.843 0.028 2.324
Small entrepreneurs 0.415 0.221 1.514
Experts 0.632 0.055 1.880
Clerks 0.052 0.001 2.864
Highly skilled and skilled workers 0.787 0.005 2.197
Semi-skilled and unskilled workers 0.623 0.037 1.864
Economic position index
Lower 0.235 0.297 1.265
Lower middle 0.173 0.334 1.189
Upper middle 0.452 0.037 1.572
Upper 0.115 0.738 0.892
Region
Belgrade 0.474 0.008 1.606
Vojvodina 0.438 .0.009 1.549
Eastern and southern Serbia 0.456 0.017 1.578
Constant 1.157 0.004 3.179
N1209
Cox & Snell R Square 0.122
Nagelkerke R Square 0.164

362 Dunja Poleti Ćosić
category: farmers), economic status (reference category: middle class), and re-
gion (reference category: western Serbia and Šumadija).
The statistically signicant model (χ2 = 157.011, p = 0.000) accounts for 12.2–
16.4 % of the variance and accurately classies 67 % of the cases. Class has the
strongest single independent eect in this model. Namely, clerks are around
three times readier to change residence for employment purposes than farmers,
whereas members of the upper and working classes are about two times read-
ier to do the same. An important predictor is work activity, whose odds ratio
indicates that unemployed individuals in the labor market are twice as ready
to change residence for employment purposes compared to their employed
counterparts. Another statistically important independent variable is age: for
each year, the probability that a person is ready to move drops by 4.7 %. The
economically active citizens of the upper middle economic status are 1.5 times
readier to accept a change of residence compared to members of middle eco-
nomic status. Regional aliation has also proven to be signicant: compared
to the residents of western Serbia and Šumadija, the residents of Belgrade,
eastern and southern Serbia, as well as Vojvodina are 1.5 times readier to accept
migration as part of their work strategy.
Gender and education level are not shown to be relevant predictors in this
model. Therefore, when observing the economically active population, one can
say that potential migrants in Serbia include younger and unemployed per-
sons. However, the other important predictors have conrmed the results of
the factor analysis which indicate that certain respondents categorize mobility
in the work intensication and deprofessionalization dimension, while others
associate it with entrepreneurial aspirations. Namely, if the individuals who
are willing to move for employment purposes include members of the upper
and working classes, as well as residents of the more developed and the poorest
regions, one can conclude that this option is acceptable to persons with dier-
ent levels of human capital who face somewhat dierent structural obstacles
due to the segmentation of migration paerns resulting from the dual labor
market. The position of individuals in one of the two labor market segments,
one comprising secure, high-paying, and high-ranking jobs with advancement
opportunities, and the other comprising ‘3D positions’,40 aects the two dif-
ferent perceptions of work mobility: while some see it as a necessity, others
perceive it as an opportunity.
All things considered, the second hypothesis has thus been conrmed. There
are clear dierences in the preferred work orientations among members of the
40 In the mobility studies literature, jobs on the secondary market are often referred to as
3D jobs—dirty, dangerous, and dicult. Jelena Predojević-Despić, Ka razumevanju deter-
minanti medjunarodnih migracija danas—teorijska perspektiva, Stanovništvo 48, no. 1 (2010),
25–48.

363
Changes in Work Orientations in Postsocialist Serbia
economically active population with dierent levels of human capital. Individ-
uals substantially prole their choices by considering the circumstances and
structural opportunities related to their social features. Actors with a lower
level of human capital and an unfavorable position in the labor market, that is,
those whose costs of accepting exible and atypical forms of work are higher,
are prone to work intensication and deprofessionalization.
Conclusion
The ndings of the nal research cycle clearly indicate a gradual change in the
work orientations of the economically active population in Serbia. Although
still dominant, the orientations related to increased work intensity and depro-
fessionalization are slowly losing advantage over proactive orientations—edu-
cation, self-employment, and business startup. Today, the working population
opts for any paid job less frequently than for independent work arrangements,
even though accepting any job with nancial compensation has so far been the
preferred option. The consequences of this transformation are unquestionably
beer quantitative indicators in the labor market, despite the fact that the qual-
ity of the increased employment is highly questionable, the normative changes
opened the door to employment exibilization, as well as the promotion of
neoliberal values by the ruling echelons.
Contrary to the expectation that work orientations would be observed solely
through the distinction between secure and exible employment, the working
population distinguished two further types of work orientations among the
oered options. One group includes precarious arrangements, such as accept-
ing temporary jobs over permanent employment, and informal work, which
the citizens of Serbia accept unwillingly. Considering that in 2016 one-fth of
employed workers were engaged in the grey economy, it becomes clear that
the current situation is in collision with the values expressed by the workforce.
The nal group includes the orientation towards spatial mobility, which was
the most frequently chosen key option in this research cycle. One part of the
working population in Serbia perceives it as a necessity and a form of escape
from (local) social and economic problems, while the other part sees it as an
opportunity for proactive action. Unfortunately, due to the omiance of the
potential destination in the question, determining whether the respondents
referred to internal migration within Serbia or international migration remains
a maer of guesswork.
Finally, human capital and structural position largely determine the accepta-
bility of dierent work options for individuals. While older people and those
with lower levels of education are inclined to work more intensively, young
persons are much more likely to opt for independent forms of employment.

364 Dunja Poleti Ćosić
People with an academic degree are highly inclined towards independent ar-
rangements. Migration is more frequently chosen by younger and unemployed
individuals and those in the upper middle economic position, but almost equal-
ly by members of the upper class, clerks, and workers, as well as residents of
Belgrade, Vojvodina, and eastern and southern Serbia. The work practices that
presumably will have the lowest acceptance ‘costs’, those that are available and
known, will be the ones accepted as desirable over time. Very clear divisions
of the social structure are reected in the selection of preferred jobs, which is
something that decision makers ought to consider when creating future nor-
mative frameworks, institutional solutions, and policies relevant to the labor
market.
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Dunja Poleti Ćosić University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, Institute for Sociological Research,
18–20 Čika Ljubina, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia. E-mail: dunja.poleti@f. bg.ac.rs