Work preferences and well-being in emerging economies: A latent class analysis of employment patterns and leadership

The transformation of work in the post-pandemic era has intensified the need to understand how individuals evaluate employment opportunities and anticipate their future well-being. Drawing on expectancy-value theory and research on affective forecasting, this study conceptualizes job choice as a psychologically grounded process in which individuals integrate structural and relational job attributes when forming expectations about anticipated job-related well-being. We conducted a discrete choice experiment (DCE) with 322 participants in Chile, examining preferences across work modality (face-to-face, remote, hybrid), leadership style, working hours, and compensation. Random parameter logit models and latent class analysis were used to identify both average preferences and heterogeneity across individuals. Results indicate strong preferences for hybrid work, democratic leadership, shorter working hours, and higher compensation. Critically, authoritarian leadership significantly undermines the attractiveness of hybrid work arrangements, revealing asymmetric interaction effects in which negative relational climates attenuate the anticipated well-being benefits of structural flexibility. Latent class analysis further identifies three distinct motivational profiles, demonstrating that job preferences are shaped by heterogeneous anticipatory frameworks linked to age, education, and telework experience. These findings contribute directly to psychological research by positioning anticipated job-related well-being as a core cognitive-motivational mechanism underlying employment decisions. By integrating expectancy-value theory with affective forecasting, the study advances understanding of how individuals mentally simulate future work experiences and translate these anticipations into preferences, highlighting the psychological processes that shape job choice behavior in emerging economies.