Work values of white-collar employees as a function of sociological background.

Abstract

More than 3,000 employees indicated their job orientation by ranking six intrinsic and six extrinsic factors. Their father's occupations and the size of communities in which they worked were identified. The sample was classified according to salary level, education, and sex. In the low-salaried group (<$ 10,000) employees whose fathers held primarily unskilled jobs were less intrinsically oriented than employees whose fathers held primarily technical jobs. The latter group was, in turn, less intrinsically oriented than employees with professional fathers. Moreover, in the low-salaried group, a positive relationship was found between intrinsic job orientation and community size. No differences in job orientation were found in the high-salaried group as a function of either fathers' occupation or community size.

Work values: Genetic and environmental influences.

“…No published studies have investigated the heritability of work values per se, although some studies have attempted to determine which factors are associated with work values. There are significant associations between work values and gender (Beutell & Brenner, 1986; Fruehling, 1980), age (Taylor & Thompson, 1976), education (Dipboye & Anderson, 1959; Wijting, Arnold, & Conrad, 1978), tenure and work experience (Gomez-Mejia, 1983; Whelen, 1972), socioeconomic measures (Saleh & Singh, 1973; Taylor & Thompson, 1976), and personality (Davidson, 1983). The purpose of the present study was to determine whether work values are significantly associated with genetic factors while accounting for several of these other important variables.…”

Mental health of the unemployed : an analysis of a CETA program / by John Anderson Sanford.

“…Extrinsic factors include working conditions, security, status, salary, supervision, and relationships with fellow employees. Saleh and Singh (1973) studied the instrinsic and extrinsic elements of the job valued by 3000 white-collar workers as moderated by the subjects educational level, salary, and father's occupation. They found that among the low salaried subjects (annual income less than $10,000) intrinsic factors increased in importance as the father's occupational level (unskilled versus skilled or professional) increased and as the community size increased.…”

A Comparison of Pre- and Postemployment Work Values

“…Clearly, the changes hypothesized to occur will depend on the occupational expectations of the students in the preemployment status; these, in tum, are likely to be influenced by the student's sex and socioeconomic background (Rosen & Aneshensel, 1978;Saleh & Singh, 1973). Also, postemployment work values will (probably) be influenced by the jobs actually performed by these young workers.…”