Abstract

A work ethic is people's attitude to work—imprinted in a complex of moral values and norms, embodied in categories and examples of the culture, and expressed in human behavior, above all in the sphere of labor activity. In my understanding, a work ethic is a component part of the socioeconomic genotype of a society. A SEG is a kind of information mechanism of "social inheritance" that ensures the reproduction of the structure and principles of a particular social system's functioning, regulation, and learning process. It comprises a system of values, a set of motivations, and a paradigm of economic management and administration, and in its manifest form it is reflected in the contours of the regulation and administration of socioeconomic processes, including legal, administrative, economic, and moral norms and incentives. A SEG itself is based on the system of social interests and on the particular society's culture