The Work Values
CHAPTER I
BACKGROUND
A. Introduction
The purported advantage of a strong corporate culture presumes that positive outcomes result when peoples' values are congruent with those of others. This was tested by using a design that controlled for artifacts in prior studies. Participants, 191 production workers, their supervisors (N = 17), and 13 managers at a large industrial products plant, completed questionnaires containing measures of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work values. Responses were later matched with the attendance and performance records of the production workers in the sample. Results showed that workers were more satisfied and committed when their values were congruent with the values of their supervisor. Value congruence between workers and their supervisors was not significantly correlated with workers' tenure; however, its effect on organizational commitment was more pronounced for longer tenured employees.
If you are interested in turning your internship into a job offer, it’s important to know exactly what employers look for when hiring full-time employees. In addition to relevant skills, employers seek employees who have the personal values, characteristics, and personality traits that spell success. Good personal values are what makes the foundation for a good employee. Internships are an excellent time to show employers that you have the personal traits that they value in their employees. Do not make the mistake of missing the opportunity to show your supervisors at your internship that you have what it takes to be successful on the job as well as possessing the personal characteristics they value. An internship is an opportunity to learn the skills and behaviors along with the work values that are required for success in the workplace.
CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
A. What Are Work Values
Throughout your life you acquired a set of values — beliefs and ideas that are important to you. For example you may believe that one should always be honest or that one must always be a loyal friend. You live your life according to this set of values. In order to have a happy, successful and fulfilling life, you must act upon your values, both in your personal life and at work. Taking your values into account when you choose a career could be the most important factor that determines whether you will or won't be satisfied with that aspect of your life.
Clarifying your work values, that subset of values that relate to your career, is essential. Your work values are both intrinsic, relating to the actual tasks involved in practicing a particular occupation, and extrinsic, relating to the by-products of an occupation. An intrinsic value might be helping others, while an example of an extrinsic value is earning a lot of money.
B. How to Identify Work Values
Career development professionals, including career counselors and career development facilitators, use work value inventories to measure how important various work values are to you. Generally, a work value inventory is simply a list of values that you are asked to rate. For example, the instructions may tell you to rate each value on a scale of one to 10, giving a one to those values that are most important to you and a 10 to those that are least important. Alternatively, you may be asked to list a series of work values in order of importance.
The results of a work value inventory are used to identify appropriate career choices, by matching an individual's work values with characteristics of occupations. A work value inventory is best used in conjunction with other self assessment instruments that help identify one's personality, interests and skills.
C. Here is a List of the Top 10 Values Employers Look for in Employees.
1. Strong Work Ethic
Employers value employees who understand and possess a willingness to work hard. In addition to working hard it is also important to work smart. This means learning the most efficient way to complete tasks and finding ways to save time while completing daily assignments. It’s also important to care about your job and complete all projects while maintaining a positive attitude. Doing more than is expected on the job is a good way to show management that you utilize good time management skills and don’t waste valuable company time attending to personal issues not related to the job. Downsizing in today’s job market is quite common so it’s important to recognize the personal values and attributes employers want to improve your chances of job security should a layoff occur.
2. Dependability and Responsibility
Employers value employees who come to work on time, are there when they are suppose to be, and are responsible for their actions and behavior. It’s important to keep supervisors abreast of changes in your schedule or if you are going to be late for any reason. This also means keeping your supervisor informed on where you are on all projects you have been assigned. Being dependable and responsible as an employee shows your employer that you value your job and that you are responsible in keeping up with projects and keeping them informed of the things that they should know about.
3. Possessing a Positive Attitude.
Employers seek employees who take the initiative and have the motivation to get the job done in a reasonable period of time. A positive attitude gets the work done and motivates others to do the same without dwelling on the challenges that inevitably come up in any job. It is the enthusiastic employee who creates an environment of good will and who provides a postive role model for others. A positive attitude is something that is most valued by supervisors and co-workers and that also makes the job more pleasant and fun to go to each day.
4. Adaptability
Employers seek employees who are adaptable and maintain flexibility in completing tasks in an ever changing workplace. Being open to change and improvements provides an opportunity to complete work assignments in a more efficient manner while offering additional benefits to the corporation, the customer, and even the employee. While oftentimes employees complain that changes in the workplace don’t make sense or makes their work harder, oftentimes these complaints are due to a lack of flexibility.
Adaptability also means adapting to the personality and work habits of co-workers and supervisors. Each person possesses their own set or strengths and adapting personal behaviors to accommodate others is part of what it takes to work effectively as a team. By viewing change as an opportunity to complete work assignments in a more efficient manner, adapting to change can be a positive experience. New strategies, ideas, priorities, and work habits can foster a belief among workers that management and staff are both committed to making the workplace a better place to work.
5. Honesty and Integrity
Employers value employees who maintain a sense of honesty and integrity above all else. Good relationships are built on trust. When working for an employer they want to know that they can trust what you say and what you do. Successful businesses work to gain the trust of customers and maintain the attitude that “the customer is always right”. It is the responsibility of each person to use their own individual sense of moral and ethical behavior when working with and serving others within the scope of their job.
6. Self – Motivated
Employers look for employees who require little supervision and direction to get the work done in a timely and professional manner. Supervisors who hire self-motivated employees do themselves an immense favor. For self-motivated employees require very little direction from their supervisors. Once a self-motivated employee understands his/her responsibility on the job, they will do it without any prodding from others. Employers can do their part by offering a safe, supportive, work environment that offers employees an opportunity to learn and grow. Working in a supportive work environment and taking the intitiative to be self-directive will provide employees with a better sense of accomplishment and increased self-esteem.
7. Motivated to Grow & Learn
In an everchanging workplace, employers seek employees who are interested in keeping up with new developments and knowledge in the field. It has been noted that one of the top reasons employees leave their employers is the lack of opportunity for career development within the organization. Learning new skills, techniques, methods, and/or theories through professional development helps keep the organization at the top of its field and makes the employee's job more interesting and exciting. Keeping up with current changes in the field is vital for success and increased job security.
8. Strong Self – Confidence
Self-confidence has been recognized as the key ingredient between someone who is successful and someone who is not. A self – confident person is someone who inspires others. A self-confident person is not afraid to ask questions on topics where they feel they need more knowledge. They feel little need to have to impress others with what they know since they feel comfortable with themselves and don’t feel they need to know everything.
The self-confident person does what he/she feels is right and is willing to take risks. Self- confident people can also admit their mistakes. They recognize their strengths as well as their weaknesses and are willing to work on the latter. Self-confident people have faith in themselves and their abilities which is manifested in their positive attitude and outlook on life.
9. Professionalism
Employers value employees who exhibit professional behavior at all times. Professional behavior includes learning every aspect of a job and doing it to the best of one’s ability. Professionals look, speak, and dress accordingly to maintain an image of someone who takes pride in their behavior and appearance. Professionals complete projects as soon as possible and avoid letting uncompleted projects pile up. Professionals complete high quality work and are detail oriented. Professional behavior includes all of the behavior above in addition to providing a positive role model for others. Professionals are enthusiastic about their work and optimistic about the organization and its future. To become a professional you must feel like a professional and following these tips is a great start to getting to where you want to go.
10. Loyalty
Employers value employees they can trust and who exhibit their loyalty to the company. Loyalty in the workforce has taken on a new meaning. Gone are the days when employees plan on starting out and retiring with the same company. It is said that most people will hold between 8 – 12 jobs throughout their career. What does this mean in terms of loyalty in today’s workforce?
Companies offering employee growth and opportunity will ultimately gain a sense of loyalty from their employees. Employees today want to feel a sense of satisfaction in their jobs and will do a good job when they feel that the employer is fair and wants to see them succeed. Although this may mean only staying for five or ten years in a position, employees can offer loyalty and make an important contribution during their time with the company.
More companies today encourage employee feedback and offer employees an opportunity to lead in their area of expertise. This gives employees a greater sense of satisfaction and a sense of control over their job. Empowerment encourages employees to do their best work since companies are displaying a trust and expectation that they believe in their employees to do a good job.
Offering jobs that encourage learning and the development of new skills also gives employees a sense of empowerment in the workplace. Aligning an employees values with the goals of the organization will foster loyalty and a bond between employer and employee. Fostering good relationships within an organization and offering constructive ways to handle conflict provides a win – win situation for both employer and employee. Creating an organization that values loyalty within the organization can also work to its benefit by using the same techniques and strategies to establish loyalty with customers; and loyatly from customers ultimately makes for a successful business.
D. The American Dream
The American Dream builds on the system of American values and especially on the ones which are called equality and future orientation. The term "American Dream" has a precise definition. J.T. Adams in The Epic of
Some scholars, however, stress that the term "American Dream" has been interpreted differently in American history. In the 1980s different value studies were published in
The Puritan stage
The Yankee stage and
The Yuppie stage.
The Puritan stage lasted through the 17th century. The Puritans stressed the importance of socially useful work. They worked hard not to accumulate wealth personally, but to contribute to the wealth of the community. Thus, in that period, the American Dream consisted of the following components: hard work- social usefulness- respect of the community.
The Yankee stage lasted through the 18th and 19th centuries. The Yankee stressed hard work, but he worked not to contribute to the wealth of the community, but to his own prosperity. The 18th century ideal of prosperity, however, was different from the modern one and included not only material comfort, but good health, good temper and wisdom. Yankee believed that virtue should be rewarded with money. But for Yankee the final reward for virtue was not money, but the respect of the community. Thus, in that period the American Dream consisted of slightly different components: hard work -money/success as a reward for virtue - respect of the community.
In the second half of the 20th century the Yuppie stage began. At that time the prophets of positive thinking (such as Dale Carnegie or Norman Vincent Peal) offered a new formula for success. They taught how to win friends and to influence people rather than how to work hard. They praised image rather than deeds, they praised money rather than virtue. Now success appeared not as the reward for virtue and hard work, but as a victory in a competition over your rivals. But if you win in a competition, it would mean that the others lose. And those who lose tend to think that they lost because they were just unlucky, but not lazy or less clever. These unlucky losers usually don't respect the winner, but envy him. And this is the essence of the Yuppie stage of the American Dream evolution: the yuppie is envied by the community, rather than respected. At this stage the components of the American Dream are slightly modified again: beating others in competition- money/success as a reward for being the first in the competition- envy of the community.
Having shown this evolution of the American Dream, Lasch came to the following frightening conclusion. The American Dream used to be an American value, which united the American nation, when it was based on respect. Envy, unlike respect cannot unite the nation. That is why at present the American Dream can no longer unite the American nation. Which means that very soon the nation will fall apart. As I have said Lasch's study initiated the deluge of other similar studies of other American values. The official reaction to those studies was the shift of cultural priorities in the American society in the 90s. Those who fostered multiculturalism in the 80s started to urge Americans to turn back to their traditional values and not to put the country's national identity at stake. Americans were urged to turn back to hard work and virtue as a way to win respect of the community. The official propaganda started to praise Yankee over Yuppie.
E. What are work ethics?
Work ethics include not only how one feels about their job, career or vocation, but also how one does his/her job or responsibilities. This involves attitude, behavior, respect, communication, and interaction; how one gets along with others. Work ethics demonstrate many things about whom and how a person is.
Work ethics involve such characteristics as honesty and accountability. Essentially, work ethics break down to what one does or would do in a particular situation. The begging question in a situation involves what is right and acceptable, and above board, versus what is wrong, underhanded, and under the table.
Throughout the last few years, there have been companies whose work ethic -- honesty, integrity and accountability -- have been rather shady and have a rather negative impact on other people. This has involved people looking the other way when people have done something questionable, or thinking it would not matter.
Work ethics, such as honesty (not lying, cheating, and stealing), doing a job well, valuing what one does, having a sense of purpose and feeling/being a part of a greater vision or plan is vital. Philosophically, if one does not have proper work ethics, a person’s conscience may be bothered. People for the most part have good work ethic(s); we should not only want to do, but desire to do the proper thing in a given situation.
Work ethics are intrinsic; they come from within. A question may involve where they came from, if they come from within. Philosophically, this may lead to various perspectives; however, the truth about work ethics, and where they come from are answered from a Christian worldview. Work ethics come from God the creator. God made humans in His image, and His word proclaims these various work ethics -- honesty, integrity, doing a job well, keeping things above board, and accountability factors.
The Christian worldview holds fundamentally to two central work ethics -- humility and the treatment of others. Humility is being humble, no task is too demeaning. Humility involves servitude, which emphasizes placing other peoples need before ones own. Treating others with decency and respect equate to the golden rule. The treatment of others involves loving your neighbor, loving your enemy, doing good to those who dislike you. It involves valuing others, and knowing they have worth.
CHAPTER III
CLOSING
A. Conclusion
Work values, deeply rooted in the evolution process of human society, appeared to be in the basis of Puritan ideology. Puritans as the first settlers on the American continent saw themselves as the chosen of God. They had their vocation and it was to cultivate the immense territory. They had to start from the very beginning – from working on land as farmers to founding factories and banks.
Rapid economic growth and the period of industrialization made from the
Self-discipline of Calvin opened the door for the “self-reliance” in new-born
That is how we came to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries – the period of globalization; the age of communication, when our world seems to be a “global village”. Let me put it our time, when people can see and talk to each other at the same time, never mind where on earth they are.
That is how
REFERENCES
By Meglino, Bruce M.; Ravlin, Elizabeth C.; Adkins, Cheryl L. Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol 74(3), Jun 1989, 424-432.
Michael Henderson is the director of Values AT Work and co-author of the recently published book.
Leading through Values, Linking Company Culture to Business Strategy.
American Work Values, Bernstein, P., p.31.
Holidin, Cross Cultural Understanding. Umm Press.
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