International Journal of Manpower

Work values and commitment

Dov Elizur
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Dov Elizur, (1996),"Work values and commitment ", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 17 Iss 3 pp. 25 - 30
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 Work values and
Work values and commitment
commitment
Dov Elizur
School of Business, Bar-Ilan University, 25
Ramat-Gan, Israel

Introduction
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Two parallel areas of research have been of particular interest in the

organizational literature in recent years: the study of work values and the
analysis of commitment in its various forms. Although the type of data
collected in both types of research are naturally similar, as both ask subjects to
respond to questionnaire items which assess either attitudes or values, little
effort has been made to analyse the relationship between them. The purpose of
the present study was to analyse the relationship between the two concepts.
There has been growing interest, in recent years, in the analysis of human
values in general (Braithwaite and Law, 1987; Levy, 1990; Rokeach, 1979;
Shwartz and Bilsky, 1990) and of work values specifically (Elizur, 1984; Elizur
et al., 1991; Furnahm, 1984). Extensive empirical attention has been devoted to
typology and measurement of values (Borg, 1986; Elizur et al., 1991), to the
dynamics of value priorities such as stability and change (Elizur et al., 1991;
Furham, 1984) and to the relationship between values and attitudes, goals and
behaviour (Guttman, 1982; Levy and Guttman, 1976; Rokeach, 1973).
Some authors suggest a distinction between values and attitudes (Rokeach,
1973), while Levy and Guttman (1976) consider values as a subset of attitudes
with an emphasis on the concept of importance.
Various definitions of work values as a unique concept have been suggested.
According to Pennings (1970), for instance, work-value systems can be defined
as constellations of attitudes and opinions with which individuals evaluate their
jobs and work environments. Herzberg et al. (1956) considered work values as
representing motivational aspects, i.e. motivators and hygiene. Other authors
consider work values as representing Protestant work ethics (e.g. Furnham,
1984).
According to Levy and Guttman’s (1976) definition of values, an item belongs
to the universe of work values if its domain asks for an assessment of the
importance of a goal or behaviour in the work context and the range is ordered
from very important to very unimportant.
The formal approach of facet analysis (Elizur, 1984; Elizur and Guttman,
1976; Guttman, 1959; Shye and Elizur, 1994) as applied to work values was
studied here. Facet analysis attempts to define the universe of observations International Journal of Manpower,
formally and test hypotheses about the relationship between the definitional Vol. 17 No. 3, 1996, pp. 25-30.
© MCB University Press,
framework and the structure of the empirical observations. 0143-7720
 International Defining the work values domain
Journal of In order to analyse the work values domain systematically, an attempt was
Manpower made to define its essential facets. Two basic facets were distinguished:
modality of outcome and system performance contingency.
17,3
Facet A. Modality of outcome
26 Various work outcomes are of a material nature. Some of them can be directly
applied (such as pay), others have direct practical consequences (such as
benefits, hours of work, work conditions, etc.). This class of outcomes can be
defined as material, or instrumental, in a sense that they are concrete and of
practical use. It should be noted that the term “instrumental” is applied here in
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a fashion similar to that used in many attitude studies (Elizur, 1970; Elizur and
Guttman, 1976) which can be contrasted with the meaning applied in theories of
work motivation (e.g. Graen, 1969; Vroom, 1964). The instrumentality of
outcomes refers here to the external nature of this class of outcomes rather than
the internal nature of the other modalities.
Although material outcomes are more salient, there exist various other
outcomes which are not of material nature. Most studies include items which
ask about relations with people, including colleagues, supervisor and others.
These items deal with interpersonal relations, and they are affective rather than
material.
An additional class of outcomes includes items such as interest, achievement,
responsibility and independence. These items may be classified as cognitive
rather than affective or instrumental.

Facet B. System-performance contingency

The second classification concerns system-performance contingency and can
be considered to cut across that of modality. Personnel managers recognize the
necessity of motivating individuals to join the organization and to attend to
work. For that purpose they provide various incentives which are usually given
before task performance and are not conditional on its outcome. These include
benefit plans, work conditions and various services such as transportation and
subsidized meals, as well as other resources provided by the organization. Katz
and Kahn (1966) refer to these as systems rewards, earned merely through
membership in the system. The term resources is suggested to characterize this
class of outcomes.

Commitment
Commitment, particularly in the area of work, has been analysed from several
perspectives (Martin and O’Laughlin, 1984; Morrow, 1983; Mowday et al., 1982).
It has served as both a dependent variable for antecedents such as age, tenure,
gender and education (Ferris and Aranya, 1983; Hunt et al., 1985; Luthans et al.,
1985), and as a predictor of various outcomes such as turnover (Rusbult and
Farrell, 1983), intention to leave (Ferris and Aranya, 1983) and absenteeism
(Ivancevich, 1985).
 One other type of analysis using commitment as the measure of interest has Work values and
been emphasized in the literature. This involves the distinction between moral commitment
commitment which focuses on attachment or loyalty (Porter and Lawler, 1968)
versus calculative commitment which emphasizes potential benefits derived
from the employees belonging to the organization (Hrebiniak and Alutto, 1972).
Findings reported by Ferris and Aranya (1983) and Wiener and Vardi (1980)
seem to indicate that the former is more predictive and stable than the latter. 27
Kidron (1978) found that work values were related more to moral than to
calculative commitment. According to these findings, the present study focused
on the moral dimension as the indicator of commitment.
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Values and commitment

Several authors considered values in general and work values specifically as
important variables in explaining organizational commitment (Kidron, 1978;
Putti et al., 1989). According to Werkmeister (1967) commitment is a
manifestation of the individual’s own self, and reflects value standards that are
basic to the individual’s existence as a person. Some empirical support to this
view was provided in studies relating work values to commitment (Kidron, 1978).
In a study of central life interest, Dubin et al. (1975), found that workers with
a central life interest in work had a higher commitment to their work
organization compared to those with a different central life interest. Kidron
(1978) found a moderate relationship between work values and organizational
commitment. Putti et al. (1989) analysed the relationships between work values
and organizational commitment based on a sample of workers in Singapore.
Their findings indicate that intrinsic work values relate more closely to
organizational commitment than extrinsic work values.

Objectives and hypothesis

In summary, the main objective of the present study was to examine the
relationships between the various work values and commitment. It was
expected that commitment would correlate highest with cognitive items such as
job interest and independence and lowest with instrumental items such as pay,
benefits, etc. These distinctions should hold when commitment is considered a
measure of attitudes or loyalty, as was the case here.

Method
A group of 144 randomly chosen adults in Israel responded to a questionnaire
which contained 24 work values previously identified by Elizur (1984) and a
measure of commitment which asked the subject to rate from 1 (very great
extent) to 6 (very little extent) to the statement that “if a similar job were
suggested in another place, would you leave to take the offer?”

Results
The correlations between work values and commitment are shown in Table I.
The results indicate that moderate correlations were obtained between certain
 International Content Commitment
Journal of
Manpower Cognitive
17,3 Advancement 0.12
Feedback 0.00
Status 0.11
28 Achievement 0.14
Job interest 0.16
Meaningful work 0.07
Personal growth 0.10
Use of abilities 0.15
Responsibility – 0.09
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Contribution to society – 0.10

Independence 0.19
Company 0.00
Work influence 0.13
Organizational influence 0.14
Affective
Recognition 0.06
Co-workers – 0.12
Esteem 0.07
Interaction 0.11
Supervisor – 0.07
Instrumental
Pay 0.15
Table I. Benefits 0.01
Correlations between Security – 0.10
work values and Convenient hours – 0.06
commitment Work conditions 0.00

specific work value items and commitment, such as independence, job interest,
use of abilities, pay, achievement, influence in the organization and in work, and
advancement.
Although the correlations were low, they indicated that certain associations
do exist. As hypothesized, the strongest relationships were observed between
cognitive work values and commitment, e.g. independence, job interest and use
of abilities. Quite remarkably, however, a relatively high correlation was also
observed with pay. Thus, it appears that pay also, although considered
instrumental, is an aspect of work values that is involved with a person’s
commitment to the organization.

Discussion
The major objectives of the present study were to examine the relationships
between work values and commitment and explore whether those values which
were found to be related to commitment in previous studies in the USA (Kidron,
1978) and in the Far East (Putti et al., 1989) hold true in the Israeli context.
 The implications of the study stem from the findings that work values have Work values and
a moderate positive correlation with organizational commitment, and that commitment
cognitive (intrinsic) work values, rather than affective or instrumental values,
are positively related with organizational commitment. Quite remarkably,
however, one instrumental work value, pay, shows a positive relation with
commitment as well. Further research with wider samples of respondents from
various cultural environments, and examining additional aspects of 29
commitment, such as calculative and organizational commitment, that have
been distinguished in previous studies from moral commitment and job
commitment, respectively, need to be studied as well. It may be that in certain
populations affective values also have an effect on commitment, e.g. women are
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known to assign higher importance to affective values (Elizur, 1994). It may be

expected, similarly, that in calculative commitment additional instrumental
values, e.g. benefits, security, should have a stronger effect than in our case.
Since work values were found to be related to commitment, organizations
which wish to enhance the commitment of their employees should strive for a
congruence between organizational rewards and the important work values of
their members. Furthermore, attempts to enhance commitment should focus on
cognitive outcomes. This, however, does not mean that instrumental values are
unimportant. As the data indicate, at least one instrumental value, pay, showed
also positive relations with commitment. Thus, organizations may combine
cognitive outcomes with other incentives and strategies to enhance
commitment.

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