Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-lrblm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-09T00:52:01.275Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The personal values of tomorrow's workforce: Similarities and differences across sex and nationality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Margaret Lindorff
Margaret Lindorff*
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Monash University, Melbourne VIC, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Previous research has identified that values affect attitudes and behaviour, and value differences may be associated with conflict in organizations. This paper examines potential national and gender differences in values in a group of 345 young people soon to be entering the Australian workforce. Although there were national, and small gender, differences in the importance placed on particular values, the young people in the study were consistent in the relative importance placed on happiness, work success and friendship, and the unimportance of life and work activities that contributed to society. Implications for organizations and suggestions for future research are explored.

Keywords

valuesdiversitygendernationalityAustralia
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , July 2010 , pp. 353 - 368
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abu-Saad, I and Isralowitx, RE (1997) Gender as a determinant of work values among university students in Israel, Journal of Social Psychology 137: 749–763.Google Scholar
Agle, BR and Caldwell, CG (1999) Understanding research on values in business: A level of analysis framework, Business and Society 38: 326–387.Google Scholar
Ambrose, M, Arnaud, A and Schminke, M (2008) Individual moral development and ethical climate: The influence of person-organization fit on job attitudes, Journal of Business Ethics 77: 323–333.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2007) Migration Australia 2005-2006 Catalogue no 3412, Australian Government, Canberra ACT.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2009) Labour Force Catalogue no 6202.0, Australian Government, Canberra ACT.Google Scholar
Aycan, Z (2000) Cross-cultural industrial and organizational psychology: Contributions past developments and future directions, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 31: 110–128.Google Scholar
Aygun, ZK and Imamoglu, EO (2002) Value domains of Turkish adults and university students, Journal of Social Psychology 142: 333–351.Google Scholar
Bardi, A and Schwartz, SH (2003) Values and behavior: Strength and structure in relations, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29: 1207–1220.Google Scholar
Ben-Shem, I and Avi-Itzhak, TE (1991) On work values and career choice in freshman students: The case of helping vs other professionals, Journal of Vocational Behavior 39: 369–379.Google Scholar
Brown, D (2002) The role of work and cultural values in occupational choice, satisfaction, and success: A theoretical statement, Journal of Consulting and Development 80: 48–56.Google Scholar
Cable, DM and DeRue, DS (2002) The convergent and discriminant validity of subjective fit perceptions, Journal of Applied Psychology 87: 885–893.Google Scholar
Cennamo, L and Fardner, D (2008) Generational differences in work values, outcomes and personorganisation values fit, Journal of Managerial Psychology 23: 891–906.Google Scholar
Chavan, M (2005) Diversity makes good business, Equal Opportunities International 24(7): 38–58.Google Scholar
Chen, PJ and Choi, Y (2008) Generational differences in work values: A case study study of hospitality management, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 20: 595–605.Google Scholar
Chow, IH and H-Y, Ngo (2002) Gender differences in job attribute preferences and job choice of university students in China, Journal of Applied Business Research 18: 15–26.Google Scholar
Daily Telegraph (05 15, 2007) Overconfident and overpaid. Available http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21733545-2,00.html accessed 23 April 2009.Google Scholar
DEST 2007 Higher Education Report 2005 Australian Government DEST accessed at http://www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/9CB34653-2270-4D91-A9B4-C5DFB2FAEF57/16967/contents.pdf on 14 10 2008.Google Scholar
Dolan, SL and Garcia, S (2002) Managing by values: Cultural redesign for strategic organizational change at the dawn of the twenty-first century, Journal of Management Development 21: 101–117.Google Scholar
Dolan, SL, Martin-Prius, A, Diez-Pinol, M, Martinez-Fierro, S and Fernandez-Alles, M (2004) Exploratory study of within-country differences in work and life values, International Journal of Cross Cultural Management 4: 157–180.Google Scholar
Dose, JJ (1997) Work values: An integrative framework and illustrative application to organizational socialization, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 70: 219–240.Google Scholar
Duffy, RD and Sedlacek, WE (2007) The work values of first year college students: Exploring group differences, Career Development Quarterly 55: 359–364.Google Scholar
Earley, PC (1994) Self or group? Cultural effects on training on self-efficacy and performance, Administrative Science Quarterly 39: 89–117.Google Scholar
Elizur, D (1994) Gender and work values: A comparative analysis, Journal of Social Psychology 134: 201–212.Google Scholar
Elizur, D, Borg, I, Hunt, R and Magyari-Beck, I (1991) The structure of work values: A cross-cultural comparison, Journal of Organizational Behavior 12: 21–38.Google Scholar
Elizur, D, Kantor, J, Yaniv, E and Sagie, A (2008) Importance of life domains in different cultural groups, American Journal of Psychology 121: 45–46.Google Scholar
Elizur, D and Sagie, A (1999) Facets of personal values: A structural analysis of life and work values, Applied Psychology: An International Review 48: 73–87.Google Scholar
Feast, V and Bretag, T (2005) Responding to crises in transnational education: New challenges for higher education, Higher Education Research and Development 24: 63–78.Google Scholar
Fontaine, R and Richardson, S (2005) Cultural values in Malaysia: Chinese Malays and Indians compared, Cross Cultural Management 24: 63–77.Google Scholar
Gelfand, MJ, Erez, M and Aycan, Z (2007) Cross-cultural organizational behavior, Annual Review of Psychology 58: 479–514.Google Scholar
Giancola, F (2006) The generation gap: more myth than reality? Human Resource Planning, 29(4): 32–37.Google Scholar
Glass, A (2007) Understanding generation differences for competitive success, Industrial Commercial Training 39(2): 23–42.Google Scholar
Glazer, S and Beehr, TA (2002) Similarities and differences in human values between nurses in four countries, Cross Cultural Management 2: 185–202.Google Scholar
Glazer, S, Daniel, SC and Short, KM (2004) A study of the relationship between organizational commitment and human values in four countries, Human Relations 57: 323–345.Google Scholar
Harpaz, I and Fu, X (2002) The structure of the meaning of work: A relative stability amidst change, Human Relations 55: 639–667.Google Scholar
Jehn, KA, Northcraft, GB and Neale, MA (1999) Why differences make a difference: Study of diversity conflict and performance in workgroups, Administrative Science Quarterly 44: 741–762.Google Scholar
Johnson, MK (2002) Social origins adolescent experiences and work value trajectories during the transition to adulthood, Social Forces 80: 1307–1341.Google Scholar
Kupperschmidt, BR (2000) Multigeneration employees: Strategies for effective management, Health Care Manager 19(1): 65–76.Google Scholar
Lauver, KJ and Kristof-Brown, A (2001) Distinguishing between employees' perceptions of person-job and person-organization fit, Journal of Vocational Behavior 59: 454–470.Google Scholar
Leschinsky, RM and Michael, JH (2004) Motivators and desired company values of wood products industry employees: Investigating generational differences, Forest Products Journal, 54(1): 34–39.Google Scholar
Locke, EA and Latham, GP (2004) What should we do about motivation theory: Six recommendations for the twenty-first century, Academy of Management Review 29: 388–403.Google Scholar
Loughlin, C and Barling, J (2001) Young workers' work values attitudes and behaviors, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 74: 543–558.Google Scholar
Macky, K, Gardner, D and Forsyth, S (2008) Generational differences at work: Introduction and overview, Journal of Managerial Psychology 23: 857–861.Google Scholar
McKenny, L (2008) Financial crisis brings good times to an end. Sydney Morning Herald, 11 16. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/11/15/1226319000858.html accessed 23 April 2009.Google Scholar
Meglino, BM and Ravlin, EC (1998) Individual values in organizations: Concepts controversies and research, Journal of Management 24: 351–389.Google Scholar
Ofori-Dankwa, J and Ricks, DA (2000) Research emphases on cultural differences and/or similarities: Are we asking the right questions? Journal of International Management 6: 173–186.Google Scholar
Ostroff, C, Shin, Y and Kinicki, AJ (2005) Multiple perspectives of congruence: Relationships between value congruence and employee attitudes, Journal of Organizational Behavior 26: 591–623.Google Scholar
Roe, RA and Ester, P (1999) Values and work: Empirical findings and theoretical perspective, Applied Psychology: An International Review 48: 1–21.Google Scholar
Rohan, M (2000) A rose by any name? The values construct, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 4: 255–277.Google Scholar
Ryckman, RM and Houston, DM (2003) Value priorities in American and British female and male university students, Journal of Social Psychology 143, 127–138.Google Scholar
Sagie, A and Elizur, D (1996) The structure of personal values: a conical representation of multiple life areas, Journal of Organizational Behavior 17: 573–586.Google Scholar
Sagie, A, Elizur, D and Koslowski, M (1996) Work values: a theoretical overview and a model of their effects, Journal of Organizational Behavior 17: 503–514.Google Scholar
Sagie, A, Kantor, J, Elizur, D and Barhoum, MI (2005) A cross-cultural investigation of personal values: The Israeli–Palestinian Case, Problems and Perspectives in Management 2: 148–157.Google Scholar
Sayers, R (2007) The right staff from X to Y: Generational change and professional development in future academic libraries, Library Management, 28(8/9):474–487.Google Scholar
Schwartz, SH (1992) Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries, in Zanna, MP (ed.) Advances in Experimental Social Psychology Vol 25: 1–65, Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Schwartz, SH and Bardi, A (2001) Value hierarchies across cultures: Taking a similarities perspective, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 32: 268–290.Google Scholar
Schwartz, SH and Rubel, T (2005) Sex differences in value priorities: Cross-cultural and multi-method studies, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 89: 1010–1028.Google Scholar
Shipara, Z and Griffith, TI (1990) Comparing the work values of engineers with manager production and clerical workers: A multivariate analysis, Journal of Organizational Behavior 11: 281–292.Google Scholar
Smola, KW and Sutton, CD (2002) Generational differences: Revisiting generational work values for the new millennium, Journal of Organizational Behavior 23: 363–382.Google Scholar
Soontiens, W (2007) Chinese ethnicity and values: A country cluster comparison, Cross Cultural Management 14: 321–335.Google Scholar
Tsui, AS, Nifadkar, SS and Ou, AY (2007) Cross-national cross-cultural organizational behavior research: Advances gaps and recommendations, Journal of Management 33: 426–478.Google Scholar
Twenge, J.M. and Campbell, SM. (2008) Generational differences in psychological traits and their impact on the workplace, Journal of Managerial Psychology 23: 862–877.Google Scholar
Vertinsky, I, Tse, DK, Wehrung, DA and K-H, Lee (1990) Organizational design and management norms: A comparative study of managers' perceptions in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong and Canada, Journal of Management 16: 853–867.Google Scholar
Walsh, BD, Vach-Haase, T and Kapes, JT (1996). The values scale: Differences across grade levels for ethnic minority students, Educational and Psychological Measurement 56: 263–276.Google Scholar
Wong, M, Gardiner, E, Lang, W and Coulon, L (2008) Generational differences in personality and motivation: Do they exist and what are the implications for the workplace? Journal of Managerial Psychology 23: 879–890.Google Scholar
Zhang, Y, Straub, C and Kusyk, S (2007) Making a life or making a living? Cross-cultural comparisons of business students' work and life values in Canada and France, Cross Cultural Management 14: 174–195.Google Scholar