Decent work expressing universal values and respecting cultural diversity: propositions for intervention

Abstract

Decent work is a comprehensive concept expressing people’s aspirations for their working lives. This concept has had great legitimacy since it was proposed by the International Labour Organization, the United Nations agency for labour issues, which is the well-established institutional world forum for cooperation. Furthermore, decent work has joined various research subjects in labour-related disciplines, gaining a central role as a research subject and intervention compass. This paper aims to discuss the consequences of societies’ cultural complexity for decent work intervention. After highlighting previous research subjects in labour-related disciplines that are closely related to the decent work dimensions, the consequences of cultural complexity for intervention are pointed out. The tension between universal human values, cultural diversity and culture as an evolving social phenomenon is the trigger for proposing a balance expressed in several propositions concerning culture-sensitive intervention in decent work.