Limited research has been exclusively conducted to explain the racial differences in work values, though the subject is theoretically and substantively significant in the workplace. This study reexamines the findings of previous studies that African American workers attach significantly higher values to the "extrinsic rewards" than Whites while White workers value the "intrinsic rewards" significantly higher than their Black counterparts. The article proposes that the socioeconomic improvements of African American workers, before and after entering the workplace, have transformed their work values. The proposition is based on William Wilson's discussions that Blacks like their White counterparts are doing the same in high-status occupational contexts. Based on recent theories of occupational socialization, four sets of work values, including intrinsic and extrinsic, have been analyzed. The findings reveal persistence of racial differences on work values during the last few decades. However, when the occupational contexts are taken into consideration, racial differences in three out of fours sets of work values turn out to be nonsignificant, supporting Wilson's arguments that culturally developed work attitudes have been reshaped within high-status occupational contexts.

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The rapid diffusion of high performance work organizations (HPWO) has attracted the attention of many scholars in sociology and psychology over the last three decades. One area in which ongoing debates and evidence are inconclusive is the linkage between HPWO and the ‘psychological functioning’ of employees, specifically the issues of job satisfaction and job stress. This study examines, and thereby extends our understanding of, associations between workplace restructuring — adopting an ‘internalization strategy’ within HPWO — with job satisfaction and job stress. The findings reveal that the implementation of an internalization strategy has raised job satisfaction both directly and indirectly, through affecting job characteristics — while indirectly increasing job stress as well. The latter occurred because an internalization strategy speeds up work pace, develops conflicting demands and intensifies conflicts between work and family. The article concludes with a short discussion on the theoretical significance of the findings and their policy implications for human resource management.