Occupational choice and values
Abstract
It is suggested that psychological and sociological
approaches to occupational choice can be linked together by
employment of three concepts: work salience, values and
motivation. Employing Vroom's (1964) cognitive model of
motivation occupational choice was examined as a value
attainment process.
The subjects were 225 male pupils of two different school
complexes in Athens, Greece. They were asked to respond to a
work salience questionnaire and to rank order a set of Life
Values and a set of Work Values. Modified versions of the
Rokeach Value Survey (1973) and of Super's Work Values Inventory
(1969) were employed. The pupils were also required to ask their
parents to rank order the two sets of values. A random subsample
of 70 pupils had interviews with the investigator in which
responses to a motivational measure were obtained as well as
responses concerning their perceptions of the meaning of work
under different circumstances and conditions. Responses to the
interview questions were classified into categories similar to
the value items examined by the other measures and the two
different measures were compared.
Analysis of the value systems of the pupils and their
parents, within and across schools, showed an overall similarity
and some significant differences between pupils, parents, and
schools. Some of these differences were attributed to
socioeconomic differences existing in the sample. A factor
analysis of the salience measure failed to give psychometrically
valid categorizations but it gave some indications for the
existence of three different attitudinal categories in the
sample.
Analysis involving the motivational model gave support to the
hypothesis that occupational choice can be viewed as a value
attainment process, an indication that was further supported by
the responses to the open ended questions to the interview.
There was evidence that the value hierarchies of people serve as
motivators when a choice situation is involved. There were also
some indications in the responses obtained that top and bottom
values in the hierarchy are the best predictors of action. A
model describing occupational choice as a value attainment
process is also presented.