به سوی درک درستی از رابطه بین ارزش کار و جهت گیری های فرهنگی

The role of values in influencing behaviour and attitudes has been well documented; however, the relationship between various values has received little academic attention. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between work values and cultural orientations, and to determine which dimension of each predicted work and career satisfaction. Unlike many studies that have focused on the relationship between culture and work, this study has not used a person's country of origin to represent their cultural orientation. Participants’ cultural orientations were identified independently of nationality and then used as variables in the analysis, and principal components and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The results indicated that individuals with particular cultural orientations valued different aspects of work, and that work values and cultural orientations explained a minimal amount of variance in work and career satisfaction in the hospitality industry. Implications of the findings for practitioners and researchers are also addressed.

Interest in the analysis of human values has been growing for some time. Much of this interest has focused on the measurement and typology of values, and on the relationship between values and constructs such as attitudes, emotions and decision-making (Elizur, 1996; Shafer et al., 2001). Values have been described as “beliefs that are experienced by the individual as standards that guide how he or she should function” (Brown, 2002, p. 49). It is believed that they have cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions, are closely linked to motivation, and, according to Rokeach (1973), that they develop through the influences of culture, society and personality. The reason for focusing on values as opposed to attitudes, for example, is that unlike attitudes, values do not correspond to a particular object or situation and are relatively stable over time. Furthermore, individuals have fewer values than attitudes (Dose, 1997) and many studies have found that values have influence over a variety of attitudes and behaviours (Brown, 2002). Values related to work have received considerable scholarly attention for many decades (Hofstede, 1980; Super, 1970). Hertzberg et al. (1956) linked work values to motivation and job satisfaction, and others have demonstrated a strong link between having a high achievement value and being aggressiveness in and showing initiative in one's work (Pizam et al, 1980). Work values have also been related to organisational commitment (Elizur and Koslowsky, 2001), vocational choice (Super, 1970), ethical decision making (Shafer et al., 2001) and cross-cultural management (Mellahi, 2001). In an attempt to organise the various theoretical approaches to work values, Jennifer Dose (1997) proposed a framework that categorised them along two dimensions. The first identified whether the value had a moral component or was simply a preference for a particular type of work. The second was continuum between personal and social consensus values. Fig. 1 shows the relationship between each of these categories, and illustrates how a number of popular approaches to work values can be classified. There is no doubt that this framework is useful for organising, identifying and clustering similar perspectives; however, it raises some conceptual questions. One concern is to the assumption that personal values and socially constructed values fall along a continuum, as it may be more appropriate to conceptualise them as distinct. For example, while some individuals in a collectivist society may adhere to a particular social value, such as respect for tradition, others in that same society may also value the opportunity to work independently and challenge the status quo. In this sense two types of values are operating within individuals at the same time. Determining whether these values are distinct or in some way connected is of great importance to the question, as yet unanswered, of how they influence work-related behaviours or attitudes (Brown, 2002; Dose, 1997; Rohan, 2000). The aim of this study, therefore, is to investigate the relationship between work values and cultural orientations, and its role in predicting work satisfaction and career aspiration.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between cultural orientations and work values, and the findings provide a rare insight into the relationship between these two constructs, as cultural orientation of respondents has not referred to their country of origin. Numerous studies that have investigated work/culture dynamics, where, for example, managers from two or more countries provided information on a topic, assume differences to be related to country of origin. Clearly, such an approach is problematic, particularly if the sample is from a country like the US, where respondents could be of many nationalities. Two research questions were devised to guide the investigation, and in respect to the first, it was established that while the two frameworks were not strongly related, individuals with different cultural patterns did value different outcomes from work. An understanding of these differences will enable managers to enhance selection procedures and design jobs that complement the cultural orientations of individual employees. The findings related to the second research question can also assist managers by providing insights into the characteristics of individuals who are more likely to believe that the hospitality industry will satisfy their work and career aspirations. From a theoretical perspective, it has been established that cultural orientations and work values are correlated, and of the two instruments that were used in this study, the horizontal and vertical, individualism and collectivism framework has demonstrated sound psychometric properties and appears to be a robust means of discerning differences in cultural orientations in individuals. The WVI components demonstrated acceptable reliability; however, the factor structure found in earlier studies was not replicated here. Moreover, caution needs to be taken when using this instrument for career guidance purposes, as it proved to be a weak predictor of work and career satisfaction in the hospitality industry. 7.1. Limitations Despite the number of institutions involved in the study, and the extended data collection period, only 562 usable questionnaires were received. The length of the questionnaire (87 items) may have deterred students from responding (participation in the study was entirely voluntary). The convenient nature of the sampling procedure, and the fact that the majority of the respondents were under 30, weaken the representativeness and generalisability of the findings. However, given that the hospitality industry employs many people in this age bracket, and the absence of research in this area, the findings should be viewed as providing foundation knowledge and a guide for future research activity. Finally, while the length of time each of the respondents had spent working in the industry is known, the nature of the work is not. For example, some may have been working part-time while studying or undergone a practicum as part of their course, and this should be considered when interpreting the findings related to Question 2. 7.2. Future research While it has been demonstrated here that there is a clear relationship between cultural orientations and work values, many questions remain. For example, future research could examine how long an individual will tolerate work that is incongruent with their values and identify the possible behavioural consequences: How long will HC or HI tolerate a job that does not meet their need for affiliation and stimulation? And are there differences in the way each would respond in such situations? There is a need to examine each of the frameworks in conjunction with other organisational factors, such as commitment, work climate or organisation culture. This would overcome the limitation of using only one dependent variable and enable more detailed understandings of the characteristics associated with each of the cultural orientations and work value components. It is unlikely that individuals will have a strong preference for only one cultural orientation, most will probably have a blend of influences, and research that examines the ‘blend’ effect on attitudes or behaviour would be beneficial. Finally, longitudinal studies could provide insights into the stability of both frameworks over time, and determine whether they are influenced by factors such as age and changes in social conditions, or by training and development initiatives within organisations.