Attitudinal and personality correlates of a nation’s pace of life

Abstract

This study looked at seven attitudinal and three personality variable correlates of three measures of pace of life. Pace of life was operationalised as three distinct measures; walking pace, postal service speed, and clock accuracy. Correlational and multiple regression analyses revealed that achievement motivation and competitiveness were highly predictive of general pace of life which is consistent with previous work. Moreover, linear discriminant analysis showed distinct differences in work attitude profiles between low, medium, and fast‐paced nations, the difference being significant for competitiveness, achievement motivation and attitudes towards savings. These nations also differed with respect to GDP, cost of living, energy (consumption of kg coal equivalent per head), and family size though nations did not differ in terms of economic growth and inflation rates. Overall, pace of life represents a simple, unobtrusive measure which is useful, subtle and a cheap indicator of national culture and economic progress.

Citation

Kirkcaldy, B., Furnham, A. and Levine, R. (2001), "Attitudinal and personality correlates of a nation’s pace of life", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 20-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940110366551