Extrinsic and Intrinsic Work Values: Findings on Equivalence in Different Cultural Contexts

DOI10.1177/0002716219829016
Date01 March 2019
Published date01 March 2019
Subject MatterConceptual Clarifications on Work Attitudes
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829016ANN
The Annals of The American AcademyExtrinsic and Intrinsic Work Values
research-article2019
Academic literature emphasizes the importance of
work values to job satisfaction and commitment. there
is agreement that work values are multidimensional—
most often identified as having extrinsic and intrinsic
elements. however, little work has gone into assessing
the measurement invariance of work values in different
contexts. In this contribution, we ask, Do we find simi-
lar patterns of extrinsic and intrinsic work values across
different cultural contexts? As such, we investigate the
Extrinsic and validity of work values when they are applied in cross-
national analyses by identifying sets of items that can be
Intrinsic Work translated into scales of extrinsic and intrinsic work
values that carry a similar meaning in those cultural
contexts. We thus want to know which items that make
Values:
up work values are best understood in diverse contexts
and are most suitable for cross-cultural analysis. We
Findings on tackle this issue by relying on the European Values
Study 2008, as well as the CupESSE data from 2016.
the results reveal that there is a trade-off between the
Equivalence in number of items researchers use to study work values
and the number of countries analyzed if we aim for a
Different
more equivalent analysis of work values across Europe.
Cultural
Keywords: work values; scalogram analysis; cross-
cultural research; measurement equiva-
lence
Contexts
the contributions of this volume of The
ANNALS underscore the general impor-
tance of analyzing work values in broad context.
Work values define the general importance of
By
work in one’s life as well as one’s adherence to
MAurICE GESthuIzEN,
existing norms. Further, they are guidelines for
DANIEL KOVArEK,
employers in selecting adequate employees.
and
throughout the literature, as well as in this
CArOLIN rApp
Maurice Gesthuizen is an assistant professor in the
Department of Sociology at Radboud University
(Nijmegen, the Netherlands). His major research inter-
ests include educational inequality, economic vulnera-
bility, social capital, and their interrelations. He has
published widely on these subjects in international sci-
entific journals.
Correspondence: m.gesthuizen@maw.ru.nl
DOI: 10.1177/0002716219829016
60
ANNALS, AAPSS, 682, March 2019

ExtrINSIC AND INtrINSIC WOrK VALuES
61
volume, work values have been analyzed from different angles, in particular their
multiple causes—at the individual or contextual level—as well as their potential
consequences for one’s life satisfaction, economic self-sufficiency, or nonelectoral
political participation (Cemalcilar, Secinti, and Sumer 2018; Elizur 1984;
Gesthuizen and Verbakel 2011; Lechner et al. 2018; Visser, Gesthuizen, and
Kraaykamp 2019; Yankelovich 1985). Another large part of the literature engages
with the question of how work values change between generations and over dec-
ades (Jin and rounds 2012; Krahn and Galambos 2013; Lechner et al. 2017;
Meriac, Woehr, and Banister 2010; twenge et al. 2010).
Yet there is little previous academic work on the basic question of what we
understand work values to be (Elizur et al. 1991; halman and Müller 2006; Kaasa
2011; Leuty and hansen 2011; Vecerník 2003) and whether the measurement of
work values is accurate and comparable across cultural contexts. Equivalence is
an important issue in cross-cultural research. If we, for example, analyze the most
important determinants of work values, we assume that these concepts—or bet-
ter, the scales we use—are understood the same way in different contexts: each
measured item has the same meaning across countries. the meaning of certain
concepts may differ as they depend on the cultural, economic, and political set-
ting within a country (Gesthuizen and Verbakel 2014). Does the importance of a
secure job have the same emphasis in a country with a strong welfare state com-
pared to a country with very low social security? Do inhabitants of those coun-
tries interpret security in a similar fashion and think of the same features related
to this concept? Likewise, preferring a secure job over not experiencing too
much pressure may, for instance, decisively differ among countries: in one nation,
the bulk of the population might prefer security; whereas in the other nation,
work pressure occupies the minds of most.
Accordingly, it is the aim of this contribution to empirically test the compara-
bility of measurements of dimensions of work values, as well as to assess the
extent to which there is conceptual invariance among a wide-range of countries.
We base our analysis on two datasets, the European Values Study and the
Cultural pathways to Economic Self-Sufficiency and Entrepreneurship
(CupESSE) 2016 survey. By means of scalogram analysis,1 we test whether there
are similar patterns for selected items of intrinsic and extrinsic work values across
countries.
Daniel Kovarek is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at Central European
University. His research interests include voting behavior, public opinion, and party politics.
Carolin Rapp is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University
of Copenhagen. Her research lies in the intersection among political sociology, political psy-
chology, and social policy research. Her research has appeared in, for example, the Journal of
politics, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and Social Science research.
NOtE: the research leading to these results received funding from the European union
Seventh Framework programme under grant agreement no. 613257 – CupESSE (Cultural
pathways to Economic Self-Sufficiency and Entrepreneurship).

62
thE ANNALS OF thE AMErICAN ACADEMY
Dimensions of Work Values
Schwartz (1992, 1994, 20) posits that values encompass five dimensions: “a value
is a (1) belief (2) pertaining to desirable end states or modes of conduct, that (3)
transcends specific situations, (4) guides selection or evaluation of behavior, peo-
ple, and events, and (5) is ordered by importance relative to other values to form
a system of value priorities.” Work values define the general motivation to work
and what kind of work we are looking for. the research on work values is thereby
spread over multiple disciplines such as sociology, psychology, economics, and
political science (Cemalcilar, Secinti, and Sumer 2018), which leads to a large
variety of understandings and variances in the analysis of work values. the litera-
ture largely agrees that work values contain different dimensions and subcon-
cepts. the most common distinction thereby is between intrinsic and extrinsic
work values (Gesthuizen and Verbakel 2014; Kaasa 2011; Kalleberg 1977; ros,
Schwartz, and Surkiss 1999).
preferences for work may differ between individuals: some may prefer a job
that offers economic benefits, whereas others may look for self-fulfillment in a
job. the first refers to extrinsic work values, which cover tangible things such as
income, working hours, pension schemes, or insurances. In that sense, these
values are external to the individual as they are not connected to the way one
works or to the content of one’s work (Kaasa 2011). hallman and Müller (2006,
119) even go as far as saying that the main purpose of extrinsic values is to reduce
the general unpleasant character of work by providing favorable circumstances.
In other words, even if someone does not like the content of her work, she might
still appreciate it if it provides a decent pay or other amenities. however, follow-
ing Ester, Braun, and Vinken (2006, 90), extrinsic work values “are no longer
sufficient to do the job” of fostering economic development in Europe, as they
are outdated. to be compatible with the changes on the European labor market,
workers have to augment or even change their traditional mindset and enhance
intrinsic work values.
Intrinsic work values are the mirror image of extrinsic values: they describe
the desired content of one’s work and not the general circumstances of it.
According to Arendt (2013, 140), intrinsic values evolve around personal devel-
opment and self-fulfillment in work. they stress the importance that an individ-
ual places on the “opportunities for further development of personal skills and an
interest in the work promoted by the activity” (tarnai et al. 1995, 140). Someone
high on these values may, for example, prefer a job where he has the freedom to
decide what he does, even though it means having less security (an extrinsic
value). thus, the focus lies more on the personally defined goals of work, instead
of individual wealth or security (Yankelovich 1985). Intrinsic work values apply to
the accelerated European labor market. Individuals are supposed to take respon-
sibility in their jobs, be creative, and strive for self-fulfillment instead of working
in a typical nine-to-five manner (Ester, Braun, and Vinken 2006). In that sense,
the increased importance of intrinsic work values is in line with the pronounced
individualization in European societies (halman, Sieben, and van zundert 2011).

ExtrINSIC AND INtrINSIC WOrK VALuES
63
Even though the literature agrees on these two dimensions of work values, we
cannot be certain if these two are present or, better said, understood in the same
way in every country. the institutional...

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