Individual and Work Values of Nonprofit, Public, and Business Employees: How Similar or Different Are They?

Abstract

This study explored differences in individual and work values among employees of nonprofit, public, and business organizations in a sample of 656 organizations. The data used in the present study were extracted from the World Values Survey (WVS) data set. The results of this study showed that while work values were related to the sector of employment, individual values were not. This suggests that work values, and not individual values, might play an important role in determining which sector individuals choose to work in. Additionally, while work values did not differ based on demographic and job variables, interesting differences in individual values were detected based on age, gender, and job position (supervisor/non-supervisor). Based on the results of this study, the author discusses implications for human resource practices and future research.

Applying Self-Determination Theory to Understand Public Employee’s Motivation for a Public Service Career: An East Asian Case (Taiwan)

“…Following this step, scholars associate motives with people's public sector choice/preference. A line of research focuses on incumbent public servants (Buelens & Van den Broeck, 2007;Bullock, Stritch, & Rainey, 2015;Jaskyte, 2014;Lyons, Duxbury, & Higgins, 2006), but this approach may be biased by socialization effects such as sunk cost, 'reality shock' by negative bureaucracy (Kjeldsen & Jacobsen, 2013), as well as selfpersuasion (Giauque, Ritz, Varone, & Anderfuhren-Biget, 2012). Recently, a few scholars target university students (Christensen & Wright, 2011;Clerkin & Coggburn, 2012;Ko & Jun, 2015;Liu, Hui, Hu, Yang, & Yu, 2011;Rose, 2013;Winter & Thaler, 2016) and individuals who switch sectors (Bozeman & Ponomariov, 2009;Hansen, 2014).…”

Shifting and Persistent Human Resources’ Positional/Motivational Profiles in the Context of the Latest Economic Crisis: The Cases of Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Portugal

“…On the other side, Lyons, Duxbury, & Higgins (2006) found no significant differences in the ten basic values proposed by Schwartz between public and private sector employees. In addition, Jaskyte (2014) found no significant differences in values' scores between supervisors and non-supervisors, regardless of the sector (public, private, nonprofit).…”