The Importance and achievement of work values and locus of control as factors in work motivation
Abstract
The present research study examined the
relationships in a work motivation context among perceived
importance and achievement of work values, locus of
control and internal work motivation. The congruence of a
work value was considered to be the discrepancy between
the importance of a work value and the perceived
achievement of that value. The theoretical framework
utilized was based on a self-perpetuating cycle of
motivation which included the perceived importance and
achievement of work values and internal work motivation as
separate and distinct, yet interrelated factors.
It was hypothesized that individuals who
experienced high congruence of work values would
experience higher levels of internal work motivation than
individuals who had low congruence of work values. It was
also hypothesized that individuals who had an internal
locus of control would experience more internal work
motivation
individuals
well, the
and have higher congruence of work values than
who had an external locus of control. As
possibility of locus of control as a moderator
between importance of work values and internal work
motivation was explored.
Survey data were collected from 184 managerial
level employees of the XYZ company during an ongoing
training session. The following instruments were employed
to measure the variables: Elizur's (1984) Importance of
Work Values, Hunt and Saul's (1985) Achievement of Work
Values, Hatfield, Robinson and Huseman's (1975) Job
Perception Scale, a modified version of Rotter's (1966)
I-E Locus of Control Scale and the Internal Work
Motivation Scale (Hackman & Oldham, 1980) which is a part
of the Job Diagnostic Survey.
The findings indicated that locus of control was
not a significant factor in determining congruence between
work values or internal work motivation for this sample.
Furthermore, locus of control was also found not to be a
moderator between the importance of work values and
internal work motivation.
All individuals in this study had relatively high
levels of internal work motivation. However, individuals
who had higher congruence of work values did have
significantly higher internal work motivation than those
who had low congruence of work values for a majority of
the 21 values. This was particularly true for the
intrinsic values which included responsibility,
meaningfulness and use of abilities.
In addition, the data were analysed into a
hierarchy of needs to indicate possible organizational
development or human resource development needs for the
XYZ corporation.