(Some Possible) Differences between European and American Approaches to the Study of Work

Abstract

European work and organizational psychologists appear more favourably disposed toward constructionist, soft-determinist, and socialist stances, while Americans may be more “realist”, hard-determinist or libertarian, and individualist. Such differences may be due in part to a broader difference in epistemological preference: Europeans are presented as preferring rational, and Americans as preferring empirical, ways of knowing. Assuming that there are differences along the lines indicated, what might be their theoretical and practical implications? It is argued that such differences may have led Europeans to generate more comprehensive theories and to integrate theory and practice more closely, and that they may help explain why projects to humanize work are pushed forward more systematically and with greater vigour in Europe than in the United States.