Work Values of Jordanian Fresh Graduates

The aim of the study was to explore the work values of Jordanian fresh graduates as well as the effect of gender on values preferences. 1109 fresh university graduates participated in the study (720 females64.9%, and 389 males). Participants completed a scale that assesses the level of importance of 10 work values. The results indicated that fresh graduates value jobs that provide them with career development, financial rewards, creativity, job security, teamwork, and opportunity to serve others while the least important values were for jobs that provide independence, prestige and excitement. Additionally, the results indicated that there are gender differences in work values preferences. The current study is providing helpful information for job counselors and career succession planners.


Introduction
Work values are preferences and needs related to working environment.These values are a part of a person's core beliefs and give meaning to the person's career and life.They represent the person beliefs about the level of desirability of various aspects of work such as the importance of pay, independence, teamwork, accomplishment, excitement, and prestige (Martin & Osterling, 2014, Chen & Kao, 2012;Lyons, Higgins, & Duxbury, 2010;Allport, Vernon, & Lindzey, 1960).
Values are a complex form of attitudes and beliefs and very helpful in the analysis of human behavior.Therefore, some researchers define values as general goals that an individual tries to attain (Super, 1995) while others indicted that work values is an organizing construct, which involves the priority placed on various aspects of work, jobs and the workplace (Elizur, 1984;Lyons, Higgins, & Duxbury, 2010;Roe & Ester, 1999).
It is widely recognized that values cannot be measured directly but rather can be rated by analyzing the preferences that a person considers important and have a value (Arnoled, 2005).Thus, self-rating methodology is widely used in identifying work values.Accordingly, many questionnaires and self-assessment tools have been developed such as Manhardt's (1972) Work Values Inventory, the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire (MIQ; Rounds, Dawis, Lofquist, & Weis, 1981), Super's Work Values Inventory Revised (SWVI-R; Zytowski, 2006), and The Lyons Work Value Survey (LWVS; Lyons et al, 2010).Despite many different labels, measures and conceptualizations, the various aspects included in the work values domain fall into two broad categories: (1) Internal work values, which relate to person's preferences of personal growth such as career development, independence, ability to influence and control.
(2) External work values, which reflect issues related to work environment and policy such as pay, job security, serving others and opportunity for teamwork.
There are many benefits of identifying work values for new employees.Workplace values have proved to show a direct impact on work attitudes.Some studies indicated that work values are an important predictor of job satisfaction (Hegney, Plank, & Parker, 2006;Froese & Xiao, 2012) and organizational commitment (Howell, Kirk-Brown, & Cooper, 2012).
Additionally, work values are important in career counseling and vocational guidance.Research indicated that values increase self-awareness and may influence career choices (Hirschi, 2008;Jin & Rounds, 2012;Ros, Schwartz, & Surkiss, 1999).For example if the person is considering a career change then understanding work values is critical to identifying a new career path.
It has widely recognized that values are not fixed components rather they change and develop.The changes in values have been observed in many countries across various job sectors and various cultures (Danis, Liu, & Vacek, 2011).Values change has been attributed to several factors such as younger people attending university courses (Bayrkova, 2015).For example, research indicated that university life might change person's belief, attitudes, and values.Therefore, work values may be an important component of vocational guidance.Most universities' job centers are always surveying work values of university students as well as fresh graduates (Duffy & Sedlacek, 2007;Fletcher & Majour, 2004;Trintini & Muzio, 1995).
According to factors affecting values, research indicated that there is a number of demographic and personal factors can affect work values such as gender, education, social and economic status, personality, family, and parents' nurturing style (Super, 1995).For instance, research indicted that there are differences among males and females in work preferences (Ryckman & Houston, 2003).A study conducted by (Hagström & Kjellberg, 2007) indicated that females rated Social relations and Altruism more important.Additionally, females' ratings of Benefits and career development and Influence were higher than males.Another study by (Byrakova, 2015) studied the work values of Bulgarian university students indicated that females scored higher than males on Advancement, Variety, Autonomy, Altruism, whereas males scored higher than females on Physical Prowess and Authority.
Finally, clarifying values is important because values are indications of the qualities people desire and seek in the activities in which they engage.Therefore, career guidance and counseling services in universities and governmental agencies measure frequently work values and preferences of students and fresh graduates in order to provide proper career guidance and career succession planning.Considering that Jordan is a developing country with high number of graduates then a survey research about work values is a necessity.Such research will provide information for career counselors and decision makers about students' interests, motivations, and attitudes toward work, and factors that influence their career choices.The current research is taking the initiative of exploring work values of Jordanian fresh gradates.

Study Aims and Questions
Based on the above, the current study has two purposes, the first purpose is to study the work values of Jordanian university fresh graduates and determine what the most and the least important work values are.Another objective is to decide whether there are gender differences in work values preferences.More specifically, the study aims to answer the following questions: 1) What are the work values of Jordanian fresh graduates (males and females) ordered from the most important to the least?
2) Does gender affect the work values preferences of fresh graduates?

Participants
Participants were 1109 individuals.The average age is 23 years.64.9% (n= 720) of the total sample were females and 35.1% (n=389) were males.All participants were fresh university graduate (less than two years) and were unemployed in the time of data collection.

Tools
A special scale was developed for the purpose of this study.Considering literature review, aims of this study as well as the Jordanian culture and needs; a scale of work values were developed that measures 10 dimensions which are: (Service Orientation, Team Orientation, Influence, Creativity, Independence, Excitement, Career Development, Financial Rewards, Security, and Prestige).These dimensions were chosen based on a number of existed work values questionnaires such as Manhardt's (1972)  After piloting the initial version of the scale, the final version consists of 80 questions with 8 items for each dimension.Responses were indicated on a 5-point Likert style scale as follows: (1= not important at all, 2 = not important, 3 = neutral, 4 = important, 5 = very important).The total score of items related to each dimension presents the level of importance of the value, with a higher score indicating greater level of importance.

Validity of the Work Values Scale
The psychometric prosperities of the scale were extracted in an earlier pilot study and provided in a detailed report (Al-Zoubi, 2012).The results of the pilot study indicated that the scale has a content validity (the scale was validated by five psychologists and two HR mangers) and acceptable construct validity using items' inter-correlation and exploratory factor analysis.To ensure the validity of the scale, we examined the scale structure another time using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and sub-dimensions inter-correlation using the current data.First, common factor analysis with principal axis factoring and oblique rotation was used, which allowed the factors to be correlated.As shown in The next step analysis was exploring the inter-correlations between work values to explore the inter-correlations between dimensions which can be an indicator of structure validity of the scale.The results in Table 2 indicate that all work values were positively inter-correlated.Some of the work values have strong correlations such as service orientation and teamwork orientation (r = 0.74) (i.e.internal work values), creativity and influence (r = 0.70) (i.e.external work values).However, other dimensions were poorly correlated such as job security and independence (r = 0.13).These results indicate that the current questionnaire has sound convergent validity.

Reliability of Work Values Questionnaire
In terms of reliability, the (b) coefficients indicated that the internal consistency of the sub-scales is acceptable (b = 0.67-0.91).Table 3 provides results of the internal consistency coefficients for the 10 work values on the current sample using Cronpach Alpha formula.

Procedures
The sample was collected in 2013 by using local universities alumni records, advertisement in the local newspapers, formal websites and social media.Fresh graduates were informed of an opportunity to have a comprehensive assessment that may increase their awareness of their abilities and increase their employment chances.The comprehensive assessment consists of a full day assessment that includes completing various personality measures, cognitive tests, attitudes scales and behavioral assessments.
All tests and activities were completed in a special assessment center that contained 15 computers and a data show for instructions.Tests and questionnaires were applied in small groups ranging from 5-15 individuals.Three assistants were recruited to give instructions and supervise the procedures.All assistants received a comprehensive training to answer all participants' questions as well as administrate all tests and assessment activities.All instructions were included in a manual which became the standardized procedures for giving instructions and delivering assessment activities.
Individuals were asked to complete the work values scale along with other scales and tests.The scale was fully computerized (answering questions, marking and reporting).The scale took around 15 minutes to complete.Each individual participated in the assessment center received 10-page report about his/her potentials as well as a compensation for transportation ($5).

Statistical Analysis
Statistical analysis was based on average and Standard Deviation (SD) for the raw scores of the work values subscales.Descriptive statistics were produced for all work values.The first question was answered by generating cross tabulation statistics (mean & SD) and the second question was answered using independent samples T test.

Results
The aim of the study was to explore the work values of university fresh graduate as well as the effect of gender on values preferences.The following analysis presents the main results.
The first analysis was a descriptive one to show the mean and standard deviations of the sample according to their work values preferences.Table 4 provides means and standard deviations for the 10 values examined in this study using the total sample while tables 5 and 6 provide descriptive statistics for males and females samples separately.Additionally, there were differences in the importance level of work values according to the sex of respondents.For example, males valued more influence and prestigious jobs in comparison with female sample while females valued higher level of independency.However, other dimensions have almost the same mean such as service orientation, teamwork orientation and service orientation.
The final analysis was about answering the second question of the study, which is about the effect of gender on work values preferences.Independent sample T tests were used to answer the question and Table 7 provides the results of the analysis.
and job security.
The other result in this study was about the differences in the importance level of work values according to the sex of respondents.In general, males valued more the ability to influence and prestigious jobs in comparison with females while females valued higher level of independency.In particular, the results of T test analysis indicated that six work values out of the ten values measured in the current study have significant differences.In all of the values that have significant differences, males preferred higher levels than females except the value of independency in which females valued more jobs with higher levels of independency.In the rest of the work values male valued more the ability to influence, ability to be creative prestigious jobs with opportunity of financial rewards, and jobs with more opportunity for career development.
These results are inline with previous research which indicates that males ask for more influence and authority and opportunity to be creative while females prefer higher level of independence and privacy (Bayrkova, 2015;Ryckman, & Houston, 2003;Martin & Osterling, 2014, Chen & Kao, 2012;Lyons, Higgins, & Duxbury, 2010;Hagström & Kjellberg, 2007).However, Jordanian culture is a masculine one, and may affect our results and influence males to value jobs that have higher financial rewards as females are not expected to provide financial help to the family, like the western culture, but males are.
The current results provide some practical applications for fresh graduates' selection and career counseling.The current study indicates that fresh graduates can be selected based on their work values.Such results may help in selecting the right candidates as many studies indicated that work values could predict work performance especially the values of service orientation and teamwork (Cook, 2009).In addition, the current findings might be very helpful in career guidance.Fresh graduates usually look for different kinds of jobs and they are more open to various offers.Therefore, values profile may help career counselors to orient fresh graduates to jobs that suite their values and preferences.
Finally, the current study has several limitations, including: (a) measures variance as work values were measured using self assessment techniques (b) lack of generalizability beyond our population of interest (fresh university graduates).Given the different results reported by studies focusing on work values, future research is needed to measure other work values and other populations that may help to understand the reasons for, as well as the implications of, our findings.

Table 1 .
Table 1, a two-factor structure was identified by examining the scree plot and retaining factors with Eigenvalues greater than one.EFA of the set of the 10 work aspects produced two components (the internal work values and external work values).The factors model explained 51.88% of total variance.All items had loadings greater than (0.60) which provide additional evidence of convergent validity.Exploratory factor analysis of the 10 work values scale (N=1109)

Table 2 .
Table 2 provides the inter-correlations matrix of the 10 work values.Inter-Correlations between the 10 work values ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Table 3 .
Internal consistency coefficients for the work values scale

Table 4 .
Work values of the total sample ranked from the highest to lowest

Table 5 .
Work values of the male sample ranked from the highest to lowest

Table 6 .
Work values of female sample ranked from the highest to the lowest