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Article Excerpt
Theory and research from industrial and organizational psychology suggest that employees can hold work value orientations that have sharply different foci (e.g. Ravlin & Meglino, 1987; Roe & Ester, 1999; Ros, Schwartz, & Surkiss, 1999; Super, 1968). Some employees view their jobs as opportunities to exercise their competencies and skills, pursue personal interests and make meaningful contributions to society, while others focus primarily on financial success, having control and influence over others and occupying a prestigious position at work. Despite the plethora of labels, work and organizational researchers have empirically distinguished intrinsic work value orientations, which are oriented towards self-actualization and self-expression, from extrinsic work value orientations, which are focused on security and material acquisition (Akhtar, 2000; Alderfer, 1972; Amabile, Hill, Hennessey, & Tighe, 1994; Ben-Yoav & Hartman, 1988; Centers & Bugental, 1965; Cotton, Bynum, & Madhere, 1997; Eichar, Norland, Brady, & Fortinsky, 1991; Hagestrom & Gamberale, 1995; Malka & Chatman, 2003; Mottaz, 1986; Schwartz, 1999), although it should be noted that a number of other work value frameworks have been proposed (see Berings, De Fruyt, & Bouwen, 2004; Dose, 1997, for an overview).
In examining employees' work value orientations, some researchers have paid attention to age and societal trends (e.g. Sverko, 1999; van der Velde, Feij, & van Emmerik, 1998), while others have examined their relations to job outcomes. With respect to the latter issue, a variety of previous studies (e.g. Butler & Vodanovich, 1992; Cheung & Scherling, 1999; Drummond & Stoddard, 1991) has assessed the relations between work value orientations and positive job outcomes, such as job satisfaction and commitment. However, relatively little research has examined the relations between extrinsic, relative to intrinsic, work value orientations and negative job outcomes, such as emotional exhaustion (Maslach & Jackson, 1981; Schaufeli, Maslach, & Marek, 1993), short-lived satisfaction with successful work value attainments (Assor, Roth, & Deci, 2004) and intention to leave the company (Spector, 1997). It is also possible that employees' extrinsic, relative to intrinsic, work value orientations promote certain negative experiences at work that carry-over to their family life (Carlson, Kacmar, & Williams, 2000); that is, the pursuit of certain work values may interfere with the development of a happy and satisfying life outside of work (Spector, 1997). Therefore, an important first aim of this research was to examine the relations between employees' extrinsic, relative to intrinsic, work value orientations and both positive and negative job outcomes.
A second aim of this research was to examine the mechanisms that underlie the relations between employees' extrinsic, relative to intrinsic, work value orientations and positive and negative job outcomes. To our knowledge, no previous research has documented such evidence. Using serf-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000), we propose that the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness (Deci & Ryan, 1991; Ryan, 1995) should largely explain the relations of extrinsic, relative to intrinsic, work value orientations to positive and negative job outcomes.
A final issue addressed in this research concerns whether holding an extrinsic, relative to an intrinsic, work value orientation has a differential effect on well-being as a function of income level. Recently, a number of researchers (e.g. Malka & Chatman, 2003; Nickerson, Schwartz, Diener, & Kahneman, 2003) have suggested that the negative effects of holding an extrinsic (work) value orientation might be offset, or even reversed, for those with a high level of income. However, this prediction stands in contrast to Kasser and Ryan's (1996) finding that extrinsic, relative to intrinsic, value pursuit negatively predicted well-being and self-actualization, regardless of income level. These three important issues were examined in two studies.
Extrinsic and intrinsic work value orientations
Malka and Chatman (2003, p. 739) defined work value orientations as 'work-related reinforcement preferences, or tendencies to value specific types of incentives in the work environment' (see also Caldwell, O'Reilly, & Morris, 1983; Glynn, 1998). Thus, work value orientations are individual preferences rather than 'ought standards' that should be preferred (Dose, 1997; Pryor, 1982, 1987). Intrinsic and extrinsic work value orientations probably give rise to the formulation and pursuit of intrinsic and extrinsic work goals, respectively. Work goals are more specific than work value orientations because they refer to a particular object or end state that is pursued (Oishi, Schimmack, Diener, & Suh, 1998; Schwartz, 1994), whereas work value orientations are more general and abstract, because they reflect employees' general preferences towards their jobs. In short, consistent with many other value researchers (e.g. De Witte, 2004; Grouzet et al., 2005; Rohan, 2000; Schwartz, 1994), we consider work goals to be expressions or manifestations of higher-order work values.
Further, consistent with Kasser and Ryan's (1993, 1996) conceptualization of intrinsic and extrinsic life values, we consider an intrinsic work value orientation to reflect employees' natural desire to actualize, develop and grow at the work place (i.e. self-development), to build meaningful and satisfying relationships with colleagues (i.e. affiliation) and to help people in need (i.e. community contribution). SDT suggests that intrinsic values are associated with higher well-being because their pursuit facilitates the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Kasser, 2002).
An extrinsic work value orientation concerns 'the traditional pursuit of success by advancing up the organizational hierarchy to achieve prestige, status, and high income' (Watts, 1992, p. 51). Within SDT, the pursuits of financial success, power and status reflect an extrinsic orientation because the importance of these values mostly lies within the anticipated personal admiration and self-worth that can be obtained by realizing them (Kasser & Ryan, 1993; Ryan & Deci, 2000; see Richins & Dawson, 1992, for a similar view in consumer psychology). From the perspective of SDT, extrinsically oriented people primarily focus on obtaining external indicators of worth, such as social approval and external rewards and, as a result, they often neglect their personal wants and interests. However, adopting an 'outward' (Williams, Cox, Hedberg, & Deci, 2000) or 'having' orientation (Fromm, 1976; Van Boven & Gilovich, 2003) is likely to detract from psychological health because such an orientation thwarts the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs (Niemiec, Ryan & Deci, 2006).
Studies that examined the relations between the contents of employees' work value orientations and job outcomes have yielded mixed findings. Some have shown a positive relation between an Intrinsic work value orientation and job satisfaction (e.g. Amabile et al., 1994), while others have failed to replicate this result (e.g. Drummond & Stoddard, 1991; Knoop, 1994b) (1). However, the pattern of findings for extrinsic, relative to intrinsic, life values is more consistent. Studies have repeatedly found that having a strong focus on extrinsic, relative to intrinsic, life values is detrimental to well-being (e.g. lower self-esteem, vitality, self-actualization and social productivity) and is associated with greater ill-being (e.g. higher narcissism, depressive complaints) as well as poorer physical health (Kasser & Ryan, 1993, 1996; McHoskey, 1999; Vansteenkiste, Duriez, Simons, & Soenens, 2006). Notably, it is possible that these studies on intrinsic vs. extrinsic life values yielded a more consistent pattern of results because they examined the relative importance of both types of values. In contrast, organizational psychologists have tended to focus on the effects of the absolute importance of employees' intrinsic and extrinsic work value orientations (e.g. Butler & Vodanovich, 1992; Eichar et al., 1991). Based on previous research using SDT, we expected that holding an extrinsic, relative to an intrinsic, work value orientation would negatively relate to positive job outcomes and would positively relate to negative job outcomes (Hypothesis 1).
Extrinsic vs. intrinsic work value orientations and basic need satisfaction
To our knowledge, no previous study in industrial and organizational psychology has examined the mechanisms that underlie the relations between employees' extrinsic, relative to intrinsic, work value orientations and job outcomes. We aim to fill this theoretical and empirical gap by relying on the SDT conceptualization of basic need satisfaction that forms the theoretical basis for the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic work values. SDT maintains that people have natural or inherent needs to experience their behaviour as freely chosen and volitional (i.e. to feel autonomous; deCharms, 1968; Deci, 1975), to care for others and to feel cared for by them (i.e. to feel related; Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Harlow, 1958), and to feel effective and skillful in the activities they undertake (i.e. to feel competent; White, 1959). SDT considers these three needs to be the 'nutriments or conditions that are essential to an entity's growth' (Ryan, 1995, p. 410). (2) Such a conceptualization of needs implies that to the extent that the needs are satisfied, people benefit psychologically, but to the extent that they are not satisfied, negative psychological consequences will follow. (3) Buttressing the importance of basic need satisfaction for well-being and adjustment, several studies in the organizational domain (e.g. Baard, Deci, & Ryan, 2004; Deci et al., 2001; Ilardi, Leone, Kasser, & Ryan, 1993; Kasser, Davey, & Ryan, 1992) have found that basic need satisfaction at work predicted positive outcomes, such as job commitment, job attitude, self-esteem and general health.
Within SDT, the predicted relation between work values and job outcomes is a direct function of the degree to which the work values allow satisfaction of the basic needs. To the extent that they do, positive work outcomes are expected, but to the extent that they do not, positive outcomes are expected to be diminished and negative outcomes are expected to emerge. As such, the most optimal outcomes are expected when people's intrinsic values are relatively stronger than their extrinsic values because intrinsic values are theorized to allow for greater satisfaction of the basic psychological needs (Kasser, 2002; Kasser & Ryan, 1996). Unfortunately, no study has directly examined whether the relation of extrinsic, relative to intrinsic, work value pursuit to job outcomes can be accounted for by need satisfaction. However, a number of studies that assessed extrinsic, relative to intrinsic, life values have provided indirect evidence for this position.
For example, concerning the need for relatedness, it was found that people who endorse extrinsic life values are less likely to connect with others in a close, authentic and interpersonally trusting way (Kasser & Ryan, 2001; Richins & Dawson, 1992), presumably because extrinsically oriented individuals tend to 'objectify' others and to use them as instruments to attain their materialistic values (Khanna, 1999). In contrast, because intrinsically oriented employees feel concerned about other people, they probably relate to others in a truthful way, thus allowing for a deep experience of connectedness (Kurdek & Schnopp-Wyatt, 1997).
Concerning the need for autonomy, research has also shown that extrinsically oriented people are motivated by rewards, praise and other external incentives (Sheldon & Kasser, 1995). Since extrinsically oriented employees tend to hang their self-worth on extrinsic outcomes (Kasser, 2002), they are likely to feel pressured by ego-involved demands and stressful interpersonal comparisons (Sirgy, 1998), both of which thwart their need for autonomy. In contrast, because intrinsically oriented employees are concerned with developing their talents and potentials, they are more likely to take the initiative and actively participate in job decisions, thus facilitating their experience of autonomy in carrying out their job tasks.
Finally, regarding the need for competence, Kasser (2002) suggested that because extrinsically oriented individuals tend to over-idealize wealth and possessions, they are more likely to continually experience a sense of incompetence in attaining their values. In contrast, intrinsically oriented employees are more likely to seek out challenging tasks that allow them to develop new skills (Amabile et al., 1994), thereby satisfying their need for competence. Thus, based on SDT and previous empirical work, we predicted that holding an extrinsic, relative to an intrinsic, work value orientation would be associated with less positive and more negative job outcomes because they thwart the satisfaction of the basic needs (Hypothesis 2).
Extrinsic vs. intrinsic work value orientations and income
LaBarbera and Gurhan (1997) and Nickerson et al. (2003) addressed the issue of whether earning a higher income serves to offset, or even reverse, the predicted negative effect of holding an extrinsic, relative to an intrinsic, work value orientation on positive outcomes. On the basis of aspiration theory (Andrews & Withey, 1976; Campbell, Converse, & Rodgers, 1967; McGill, 1967), which asserts that subjective well-being is a reflection of the discrepancy between people's aspirations and their attainments, these authors hypothesized that highly extrinsically oriented individuals with a high level of income would suffer less from adopting an extrinsic work value orientation because they have better attained their extrinsic values (i.e. they are earning more money), relative to people with a low level of income. This position is also held by Locke and colleagues (Locke & Latham, 2000) in their goal-setting theory in which they argue that obtained values promote well-being.
The few studies that have examined whether income moderates the relation of extrinsic (work) value orientations to well-being have yielded mixed findings. For instance, LaBarbera and Gurhan (1997) provided partial support for their hypothesis derived from aspiration theory: two of their materialism subscales (i.e. nongenerosity and possessiveness; Belk, 1985) interacted with income in the prediction of general affect, so that materialism was unrelated to general affect for those with a high level of income. Using a longitudinal study, Nickerson et al. (2003) found that the negative impact of aspiring to achieve financial success...
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