Exploring Extrinsic and Intrinsic Work Values of British Ethnic Minorities: The Roles of Demographic Background, Job Characteristics and Immigrant Generation

Abstract

Despite the increasingly diverse ethnic composition of the British labor force, there is no research investigating whether ethnic minorities have different work values from the White British demographic (White British). Using nationally representative data (2012–2013), this article fills this gap by comparing extrinsic and intrinsic work values between White British and five ethnic minorities, while distinguishing between first and second generations. The results show that both first- and second- generation minorities have stronger extrinsic work values than White British, but the ethnic differences are more pronounced for the second generations. Compared to White British, while first-generation minorities have weaker intrinsic work values, the second generations have stronger intrinsic work values. Differences in extrinsic work values are partly explained by differences in age, education and income, while differences in intrinsic work values are largely explained by age, education and job autonomy. These results hold significant implications for understanding the career choices of ethnic minorities and labor market outcomes.

The roles of experience and gender in shaping work values

“…For example, ethnicity may play a role. Indeed, in a comprehensive study, Wang and Morav (2021) found that several ethnic minority groups (i.e. Bangladeshis, Indians and Black Africans) reported stronger extrinsic work values as compared with White British study participants.…”

Development and psychometric evaluation of the nurses' Work Values Scale

“…No. 17 (Wang & Morav, 2021). In the present study, using the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2017) According to the CFA results for the validity and reliability of nurses' WVS, the goodness of fit of the initial model did not meet the criteria.…”

Ethnicity disparities in job control in the United Kingdom

“…Second, this study attempted to investigate the extent to which a range of job/ workplace and demographic characteristics could mediate the ethnicity differences in job control, which, although we show that they do play some role, they do not fully account for the findings. While employer discrimination is a possible explanation of the unexplained part in job control ethnicity disparities, it is also possible that differential preferences in job control could account for some of this too (Wang & Morav, 2021a). While there is some research that attempts to reveal such patterns, it is still very limited and not always in line with the 'preferences' thesis (Brynin et al 2019;c.f.…”

“…In addition to differential treatment, another mechanism accounting for possible penalties is that different BAME groups tend to have more extrinsic and less intrinsic work orientations than White British (Wang & Morav, 2021a), which may feed through to job choice and so job control, for instance, by trading off job control for higher pay or security.…”