D.Litt. et Phil. / The shift from a modern to a postmodern culture is reverberating through the field of career psychology. This results in a rejection of the grandnarrative of the objective career and a shift to the exploration of multiple subjective realities regarding the world of work. A description of three aspects, namely, sensitivity towards diversity, the notion of the subjective self and the challenge to the general paradigm of progress, illuminate blind spots in modern career psychology. These aspects present a conceptual base for thinking on postmodern career psychology. The career psychologist’s role is determined by processes of decision making and attributing meaning. An exploration and clarification of values is useful during these processes. The aim of this study is to formulate and investigate the validity of a structure of work values during an early stage of career process by means of developing a Work Values Questionnaire. A theoretical discussion of the constructs of values and more specifically work values, presents a basis for developing items for the Work Values Questionnaire. The purpose of this theoretical description is operational. In accordance with the postmodern incrudibility towards the grandnarrative no attempt is made to present a unified value or work values theory. The work of Buchholz and Hofstede forms the basis for a description of work values. From this theoretical basis five work value scales, namely, Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance, Power Distance, Individualism and Humanist Values were postulated. 93 items representing these scales were written and administered on 1365 South African participants. The responses of 637 participants were used to perform an exploratory factor analysis on the 93 items. The responses of the remaining 717 participants were used to perform confirmatory factor analysis of the obtained empirical structure. Five factors were identified and described in the first group by means of exploratory factor analysis. Based on these results, a postulated model was generated and tested with the Group Two data. The fit between the model and the data was explored by means of the chi-square statistic, the Goodness of Fit Index, the Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index and the Steiger Lind Root Mean Square Error of Approximation Index. The results indicate a satisfactory fit between the postulated model and the data. Based on the outcome of the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, these five factors can be described as iv empirically well defined. The factors also appear to represent meaningful psychological constructs. It is therefore stated that the validity of a structure of work values is supported. The five constructs are Group Involvement, Uncertainty Tolerance, Structured Work, Visible Success, as well as, Progressive Advancement and Success. The results of this exploration can be utilised in further research aimed at the development of a Work Values Questionnaire.

This study investigated whether an employees’ perception of the ethical culture in the organisation and their perception of their own ethicality influenced their level of organisational identification and additionally, whether this relationship between perceived ethical culture and organisational identification had an influence on workplace wellbeing. The aim of this research study was to measure employees’ perceptions of organisational ethics, their relative self-ethicality, organisational identification, and wellbeing, in order to develop a model pertaining to the relationship between these three constructs. Research showed that employees’ perceptions of the ethical culture in their organisation can influence how they identify with that particular organisation. Research also indicated that the differences between perceived organisational ethicality and relative self-ethicality exist. Additionally, research showed the influence of perceived ethical culture and relative self-ethicality has indicated a relationship between organisational identification and wellbeing respectively. However, to date and to the researcher’s knowledge there has been no investigation of the relationship between these four constructs. This research study was quantitative in nature in which a questionnaire was utilised as a research method. A sample of 111 respondent from three organisations in the automation industry in the Eastern Cape, Port Elizabeth was utilised for this research study. The main findings indicated that an alternative model resulted to be a good fit through structural equation modelling. The results illustrated that organisational ethicality has an influence on how employees identify with their organisations and how this relationship influences wellbeing. Therefore, it is worthwhile to invest in an ethical organisational culture for the sustainability of the organisation and its employees’ livelihoods. This study contributes to the literature based on perceived ethical culture, organisational identification, and workplace wellbeing. Additionally, the study provides readers with a model on how these concepts influence each other.

Leadership behavior has been a popular research topic for many years. Much of this research has focused upon the identification of leader behavior that is interactional or determined by the situation which influences leadership style. Current leadership theories raise the question of the relationships between leadership behavior and personal work values. The problem of this research is to investigate the relationship of leadership style with an individual's values for working. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between variables which characterize leadership styles and variables related to working values. The hypotheses hold that work values will correlate positively with leadership style. Data were collected through the administration of three research instruments to ninety-two managers of five business firms. The instruments were the participant cover letter providing demographic characteristics, Leader Behavior Analysis II identifying style of leadership, and Values for Working identifying personal work values. Coefficients of determination were calculated to identify possible relationships between leadership style and personal work values. No significant statistical correlation was found. The conclusion is that leadership style appears to be a function of something other than an individual's work values.

Data were collected from 388 administrators from ten urban and suburban school districts in Oregon and Washington to identify the work values of public school administrators, (as measured by the Ohio Work Values Inventory, OWVI), and determine the relationship between public school administrator role perceptions associated with burnout, (as measured by the Administrator Role Perception Inventory, ARPI), and their work values. The data were analyzed by levels of administration, background data and specific scales on the instruments. Cluster sampling by district was used; i.e. all administrators within each of ten school districts in Oregon and Washington comprised the initial sample of 701 administrators. The independent variables of the study were level of administration and the biographical descriptors of sex, age, education, administrative work experience and years of administrative experience at the same job and at the same location. The dependent variables were the seven constructs of the ARPI and the eleven constructs of the OWVI. The results indicated only moderate burnout in administrators in the sample and no statistically significant differences in the burnout among different levels of administration, although respondents reported moderate to considerable job stress. There were no significant differences in the burnout of male and female administrators and in nine of the 11 work values measured. Women administrators assigned statistically significantly more importance to the work values of Self-realization and Ideas/Data. In total, there were 35 statistically significant correlations between the OWVI scales and the ARPI subscales and the Total ARPI scale, indicating there are statistically significant relationships between administrator work values and role perceptions associated with burnout. Statistically significant differences were found between three work values of central office administrators and elementary school administrators, with central office administrators assigning statistically significantly more importance to the work values of Independence and Prestige and less importance to Altruism than did elementary school administrators and statistically significantly more importance to Independence than building administrators. Respondents assigned the greatest importance to the work value of Task Satisfaction and the least importance to Solitude. Administrators assigned considerable importance to the work values of Altruism, Independence and Ideas/Data Orientation.

This present study examined the structural validity of a Chinese version of Multidimensional Work Ethic Profile (MWEP-C), using a large sample of Chinese parents and their young adult children (N = 1047). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied to evaluate the model fit of sample data on three competing models using two randomly split stratified subsamples. Measurement invariance for these two generational respondents was checked using differential item functioning (DIF) analysis. The results indicated that MWEP-C provided a reasonable fit for the sample data and the majority of survey items produced similar item-level responses for individuals that do not differ on the attributes of work ethic across these two generations. DIF items were detected based on advanced and successive iterations. Monte Carlo simulations were also conducted for creating threshold values and for chi-square probabilities based on 1,000 replications. After identifying the DIF items, model fit improved and generational differences and similarities in work ethic between parents and their young adult children were also identified. The results suggested that the younger Chinese generations have higher work ethic mean scores on the dimensions of work centrality and morality/ethics while they have similarities on time concept, self-reliance, delay of gratification, and hard work as their parents.

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The work ethic construct has seen increased research attention in recent years and has been applied to a host of different settings. In this study, the work ethic of correctional officers (COs) was examined. Compared with other occupational samples, COs generally endorsed higher levels of work ethic across several of the dimensions. Also, we found that the measurement properties of the Multidimensional Work Ethic Scale–Short Form (MWEP-SF) were comparable to those presented in previous studies. Implications for future research and the relevance of work ethic in a corrections context are discussed. In addition, study limitations and future directions are addressed.

This thesis reports a study of work ethic values, beliefs and attitudes held by medical professionals in selected hospitals in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study was in response to the public outcry about the declining work ethic and poor service delivery in South Africa’s healthcare sector. Scholarly interest in the work ethic and its role in economic development dates back to Max Weber’s classical work, which was the starting point for my study. The German economic sociologist published his seminal essay on The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1904/1905. Since that time, Weber’s ideas on the Protestant work ethic continue to inform and influence studies of the contemporary work ethic, which is thought to have become secularised. My study was informed by data collected in 2009 through a questionnaire survey and personal interviews. A total of 174 doctors and nurses, working in four urban, periurban and rural hospitals near East London, completed a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire replicated the Multi-Dimensional Work Ethic Profile (MWEP) developed by Miller, Woehr and Hudspeth in 2001/2002. The instrument examines seven critical dimensions of the work ethic, namely self-reliance, morality, (foregoing) leisure, hard work, centrality of work in life, not wasting time, and delay of gratification. In addition, I conducted personal interviews in the same four hospitals with 41 hospital managers, doctors, nurses, and patients to discuss their understanding of the work ethic and its practical application. The study found that both doctors’ and nurses’ overall work ethic scores on the MWEP scale were above average. Although there was no significant difference between the overall work ethic scores of the two professions, doctors scored significantly higher than nurses on the ‘hard work’ and ‘self reliance’ dimensions of the work ethic scale. In the qualitative study, the doctors’ work ethic was rated much more highly than the nurses’ by their superiors and patients; and the work ethic of nurses in the urban hospitals was rated much lower than that of their rural colleagues. In contradiction to the idea of the secularization of the contemporary work ethic, religiosity and religious beliefs were influential in the endorsement of work ethic principles. In line with the notion that ‘happy’ workers are more productive, job and life satisfaction were found to be strong correlates of the work ethic of medical professionals.

Narcissism has increased in the past 3 decades. Entitlement is a component of narcissism, and substantial research indicates that entitlement is associated with negative behaviors such as aggression, relationship conflict, incivility, and unreasonable expectations in the workplace, learning environments, and relationships. Despite such findings, factors such as self-control, work ethic, and self-efficacy that might explain the variance in entitlement in adolescents has received little investigation. Social cognitive theory indicates that continuous reciprocal relationships exist between personal, behavioral, and environmental factors. The study employed cross-sectional survey research to gather data from 118 students in Grades 10, 11, and 12 in the United States. A multiple regression was used to investigate whether each of self-control, as measured by the Self-Control Scale; work ethic, as measured by the Multidimensional Work Ethic Profileâ??Short Form; and self-efficacy, as measured by the General Self-Efficacy Scale, explained unique variance in the criterion variable entitlement, as measured by the Psychological Entitlement Scale, and a correlational analysis was used to examine the relationships between the variables. Self-control and work ethic displayed statistically significant negative correlations with entitlement, and each explained unique variance in entitlement. Self-efficacy was not a predictor of entitlement. The findings indicate that parents, teachers, and practitioners should design interventions aimed to increase work ethic and increase self-control to curb entitlement and its negative effects.

Narcissism has increased in the past 3 decades. Entitlement is a component of narcissism, and substantial research indicates that entitlement is associated with negative behaviors such as aggression, relationship conflict, incivility, and unreasonable expectations in the workplace, learning environments, and relationships. Despite such findings, factors such as self-control, work ethic, and self-efficacy that might explain the variance in entitlement in adolescents has received little investigation. Social cognitive theory indicates that continuous reciprocal relationships exist between personal, behavioral, and environmental factors. The study employed cross-sectional survey research to gather data from 118 students in Grades 10, 11, and 12 in the United States. A multiple regression was used to investigate whether each of self-control, as measured by the Self-Control Scale; work ethic, as measured by the Multidimensional Work Ethic Profileâ??Short Form; and self-efficacy, as measured by the General Self-Efficacy Scale, explained unique variance in the criterion variable entitlement, as measured by the Psychological Entitlement Scale, and a correlational analysis was used to examine the relationships between the variables. Self-control and work ethic displayed statistically significant negative correlations with entitlement, and each explained unique variance in entitlement. Self-efficacy was not a predictor of entitlement. The findings indicate that parents, teachers, and practitioners should design interventions aimed to increase work ethic and increase self-control to curb entitlement and its negative effects.