Nouvelles formes d’engagement dans le travail : Y-a-t-il une « spécificité jeune » ?
Do young people today maintain a unique relationship with work? Do they promote new forms of engagement with work, in contrast to those pursued by previous generations? In this article, we aim to answer these questions based on the results of a questionnaire-based study involving a thousand Quebec workers. The analysis focuses on three key dimensions of on-the-job engagement among young people: the centrality of work, its main purpose, and attitudes toward managerial norms. Ultimately, we find no major discrepancies between younger workers and their older counterparts with regard to these three dimensions of engagement. However, younger workers do place less importance on work than their elders, despite being more committed to achieving recognition and self-fulfillment. Young people are also more attached to the norms underlying the new model of production, especially through their widespread acceptance of performance-based remuneration and of individual responsibility for job security and career development.