THE PROTESTANT WORK ETHIC AND HEDONISM AMONG KYRGYZ, TURKISH AND AUSTRALIAN COLLEGE STUDENTS

This paper is based on a cross-cultural research study comparing the Protestant work ethic (PWE) values of three groups of university students from post-industrialized Australia, newly industrialized Turkey and relatively under-developed pre-industrial Kyrgyzstan The outcomes of this research indicate that PWE endorsement is higher in less developed countries such as Kyrgyzstan followed by relatively developed countries like Turkey and then post-industrial Australia Additionally, this research shows that the influence of leisure oriented-hedonist culture increases in highly developed societies like Australia At the same time the PWE is increasingly evident in developing countries like Turkey and especially Kyrgyzstan through an extension of modern/industrial civilization as a form of moral justification for their current social economic conditions