Identifying work value patterns: cross-national comparison and historical dynamics
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify and characterize different work value patterns empirically. Furthermore, it is analyzed how these patterns are distributed in different countries and how they change in the course of time.
Design/methodology/approach
Latent class analysis as an advanced clustering procedure was applied. The empirical analysis is based on data from the International Social Survey Program from three time periods (1989, 1997 and 2005), covering five countries (USA, Great Britain, West Germany, Norway and Hungary).
Findings
The analysis reveals four distinct work value patterns among employees: “moderate demanders”, “high demanders”, “post modern demanders” and “income and security demanders.” The affiliation to these patterns depends on gender, generational membership, education, occupation and nationality. The historical analysis reveals considerable variety in cross-national developments.
Practical implications
The work value patterns identified have implications for recruitment, employee motivation and international HRM strategies. Management needs to be aware of work value patterns in the workforce in order to avoid mismatches and their negative consequences. If mismatch is unavoidable, the paper highlights the need to proactively manage mismatches between work value patterns and workplace situation.
Originality/value
The authors argue that different work values are not independent of each other. Instead, they seem to have systematic interrelations and exist in specific patterns. Accordingly different segments within the labor force can be characterized by specific combinations of work values. This is highly relevant because it could help to customize HR instruments and incentives.
Keywords
Citation
Hauff, S. and Kirchner, S. (2015), "Identifying work value patterns: cross-national comparison and historical dynamics", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 151-168. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-05-2013-0101
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited