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Work values andcommitment

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Dov ElizurSchool of Business, Bar -Ilan Universit y,

Ramat-Gan, Israel

Introduction

Two parallel areas of research have been of particular interest in theorganizational literature in recent years: the study of work values and theanalysis of commitment in its various forms. Although the type of datacollected in both types of research are naturally similar, as both ask subjects torespond to questionnaire items which assess either attitudes or values, littleeffort has been made to analyse the relationship between them. The purpose ofthe present study was to analyse the relationship between the two concepts.

There has been growing interest, in recent years, in the analysis of humanvalues in general (Braithwaite and Law, 1987; Levy, 1990; Rokeach, 1979;Shwartz and Bilsky, 1990) and of work values specifically (Elizur, 1984; Elizuret al., 1991; Furnahm, 1984). Extensive empirical attention has been devoted totypology and measurement of values (Borg, 1986; Elizur et al., 1991), to the

dynamics of value priorities such as stability and change (Elizur et al., 1991;Furham, 1984) and to the relationship between values and attitudes, goals andbehaviour (Guttman, 1982; Levy and Guttman, 1976; Rokeach, 1973).

Some authors suggest a distinction between values and attitudes (Rokeach,1973), while Levy and Guttman (1976) consider values as a subset of attitudeswith an emphasis on the concept of importance.

Various definitions of work values as a unique concept have been suggested.According to Pennings (1970), for instance, work-value systems can be definedas constellations of attitudes and opinions with which individuals evaluate their

jobs and work environments. Herzberg et al. (1956) considered work values asrepresenting motivational aspects, i.e. motivators and hygiene. Other authorsconsider work values as representing Protestant work ethics (e.g. Furnham,1984).

According to Levy and Guttmans (1976) definition of values, an item belongsto the universe of work values if its domain asks for an assessment of theimportance of a goal or behaviour in the work context and the range is orderedfrom very important to very unimportant.

The formal approach of facet analysis (Elizur, 1984; Elizur and Guttman,1976; Guttman, 1959; Shye and Elizur, 1994) as applied to work values wasstudied here. Facet analysis attempts to define the universe of observationsformally and test hypotheses about the relationship between the definitionalframework and the structure of the empirical observations.

International Journal of Manpower,Vol. 17 No. 3, 1996, pp. 25-30.

MCB University Press,0143-7720

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InternationalJournal ofManpower17,3

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Defining the work values domainIn order to analyse the work values domain systematically, an attempt wasmade to define its essential facets. Two basic facets were distinguished:modality of outcome and system performance contingency.

Facet A . Modality of outcome

Various work outcomes are of a material nature. Some of them can be directlyapplied (such as pay), others have direct practical consequences (such asbenefits, hours of work, work conditions, etc.). This class of outcomes can bedefined as material, or instrumental, in a sense that they are concrete and ofpractical use. It should be noted that the term instrumental is applied here in

a fashion similar to that used in many attitude studies (Elizur, 1970; Elizur andGuttman, 1976) which can be contrasted with the meaning applied in theories ofwork motivation (e.g. Graen, 1969; Vroom, 1964). The instrumentality ofoutcomes refers here to the external nature of this class of outcomes rather thanthe internal nature of the other modalities.

Although material outcomes are more salient, there exist various otheroutcomes which are not of material nature. Most studies include items whichask about relations with people, including colleagues, supervisor and others.

These items deal with interpersonal relations, and they are affective rather thanmaterial.

An additional class of outcomes includes items such as interest, achievement,responsibility and independence. These items may be classified as cognitive

rather than affective or instrumental.

Facet B. System-performance contingency

The second classification concerns system-performance contingency and canbe considered to cut across that of modality. Personnel managers recognize thenecessity of motivating individuals to join the organization and to attend towork. For that purpose they provide various incentives which are usually givenbefore task performance and are not conditional on its outcome. These includebenefit plans, work conditions and various services such as transportation andsubsidized meals, as well as other resources provided by the organization. Katzand Kahn (1966) refer to these as systems rewards, earned merely throughmembership in the system. The term resources is suggested to characterize thisclass of outcomes.

CommitmentCommitment, particularly in the area of work, has been analysed from severalperspectives (Martin and OLaughlin, 1984; Morrow, 1983; Mowdayet al., 1982).It has served as both a dependent variable for antecedents such as age, tenure,gender and education (Ferris and Aranya, 1983; Huntet al., 1985; Luthanset al.,1985), and as a predictor of various outcomes such as turnover (Rusbult andFarrell, 1983), intention to leave (Ferris and Aranya, 1983) and absenteeism(Ivancevich, 1985).

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One other type of analysis using commitment as the measure of interest hasbeen emphasized in the literature. This involves the distinction between moralcommitment which focuses on attachment or loyalty (Porter and Lawler, 1968)versus calculative commitment which emphasizes potential benefits derivedfrom the employees belonging to the organization (Hrebiniak and Alutto, 1972).Findings reported by Ferris and Aranya (1983) and Wiener and Vardi (1980)seem to indicate that the former is more predictive and stable than the latter.Kidron (1978) found that work values were related more to moral than tocalculative commitment. According to these findings, the present study focusedon the moral dimension as the indicator of commitment.

Values and commitmentSeveral authors considered values in general and work values specifically asimportant variables in explaining organizational commitment (Kidron, 1978;Putti et al., 1989). According to Werkmeister (1967) commitment is amanifestation of the individuals own self, and reflects value standards that arebasic to the individuals existence as a person. Some empirical support to thisview was provided in studies relating work values to commitment (Kidron, 1978).

In a study of central life interest, Dubinet al. (1975), found that workers witha central life interest in work had a higher commitment to their workorganization compared to those with a different central life interest. Kidron(1978) found a moderate relationship between work values and organizationalcommitment. Putti et al. (1989) analysed the relationships between work values

and organizational commitment based on a sample of workers in Singapore.Their findings indicate that intrinsic work values relate more closely toorganizational commitment than extrinsic work values.

Objectives and hypothesisIn summary, the main objective of the present study was to examine therelationships between the various work values and commitment. I t wasexpected that commitment would correlate highest with cognitive items such as

job interest and independence and lowest with instrumental items such as pay,benefits, etc. These distinctions should hold when commitment is considered ameasure of attitudes or loyalty, as was the case here.

MethodA group of 144 randomly chosen adults in Israel responded to a questionnairewhich contained 24 work values previously identified by Elizur (1984) and ameasure of commitment which asked the subject to rate from 1 (very greatextent) to 6 (very little extent) to the statement that if a similar job weresuggested in another place, would you leave to take the offer?

ResultsThe correlations between work values and commitment are shown in Table I.The results indicate that moderate correlations were obtained between certain

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specific work value items and commitment, such as independence, job interest,use of abilities, pay, achievement, influence in the organization and in work, andadvancement.

Although the correlations were low, they indicated that certain associationsdo exist. As hypothesized, the strongest relationships were observed betweencognitive work values and commitment, e.g. independence, job interest and useof abilities. Quite remarkably, however, a relatively high correlation was also

observed with pay. Thus, it appears that pay also, although consideredinstrumental, is an aspect of work values that is involved with a personscommitment to the organization.

DiscussionThe major objectives of the present study were to examine the relationshipsbetween work values and commitment and explore whether those values whichwere found to be related to commitment in previous studies in the USA (Kidron,1978) and in the Far East (Putti et al., 1989) hold true in the Israeli context.

Content Commitment

Cognitive

Advancement 0.12Feedback 0.00Status 0.11Achievement 0.14

Job interest 0.16Meaningful work 0.07Personal growth 0.10Use of abilities 0.15Responsibility 0.09

Contribution to society 0.10Independence 0.19Company 0.00Work influence 0.13Organizational influence 0.14

Affective

Recognition 0.06Co-workers 0.12Esteem 0.07Interaction 0.11Supervisor 0.07

Instrumental

Pay0.15Benefits 0.01

Security 0.10Convenient hours 0.06Work conditions 0.00

Table I.

Correlations betweenwork values andcommitment

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The implications of the study stem from the findings that work values havea moderate positive correlation with organizational commitment, and thatcognitive (intrinsic) work values, rather than affective or instrumental values,are positively related with organizational commitment. Quite remarkably,however, one instrumental work value, pay, shows a positive relation withcommitment as well. Further research with wider samples of respondents fromvarious cultural environments, and examining additional aspects ofcommitment, such as calculative and organizational commitment, that havebeen distinguished in previous studies from moral commitment and jobcommitment, respectively, need to be studied as well. It may be that in certainpopulations affective values also have an effect on commitment, e.g. women areknown to assign higher importance to affective values (Elizur, 1994). It may beexpected, similarly, that in calculative commitment additional instrumentalvalues, e.g. benefits, security, should have a stronger effect than in our case.

Since work values were found to be related to commitment, organizationswhich wish to enhance the commitment of their employees should strive for acongruence between organizational rewards and the important work values oftheir members. Furthermore, attempts to enhance commitment should focus oncognitive outcomes. This, however, does not mean that instrumental values areunimportant. As the data indicate, at least one instrumental value, pay, showedalso positive relations with commitment. Thus, organizations may combinecognitive outcomes with other incentives and strategies to enhancecommitment.

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