Employees’ preferences about the types of jobs they want are of central importance both for theories of work motivation and for theories of personal well-being. Yet, we know little about whether there are significant differences between European countries in the strength of different preferences. This article uses representative data for five European countries with contrasting institutional regimes—Denmark, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden. It compares the relative strength of intrinsic and extrinsic job preferences in these countries and then seeks to examine the usefulness of contrasting theoretical accounts to account for employees’ job preference orientations. It finds little support for the view that either production or welfare regimes have a substantial effect on job preferences. Much of the difference between countries can be accounted for in terms of differences in workforce composition. There is, however, support for the view that the quality of jobs contributes to the salience of intrinsic job preferences and that variations between societies in the prevalence of good quality jobs help account for differences in motivational patterns.
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