Go to the Choices Planner Work Values Sorter now or continue reading about this section:

Description / Background / Frequently Asked Questions

Description

Work values are global aspects of work that are important to a person's job satisfaction. The Work Values Sorter is an assessment of the values a person considers important in a work setting.

Work value statements are electronically placed in a matrix that allows the user to assign a level of importance for each statement. The score reflects the order of importance of six broad work values to that person.

The Work Values Sorter is automatically "scored" by the program. Users can then use their results to explore careers that reinforce their top work values by linking to the matching occupations presented. Results can also be imported into the Career Finder and combined with other factors in the user's search for occupations.

This assessment tool was designed to be self-administered and can be used by individuals or in a group setting. It is included in Choices Planner for personal career exploration, and should not be used for hiring or employment decisions.

Participants can generally work through the Work Values Sorter and obtain results within five to 15 minutes.

Background

The Work Values Sorter was originally called the Work Importance Locator. It was developed by the U.S. Department of Labor and released under the name "O*NET Work Importance Locator." The initial version was based on J.B. Rounds et al's Minnesota Importance Questionnaire, as described in their Manual for the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire: A Measure of Needs and Values (1981), and the six work values defined in R.V. Dawis and L.H. Lofquist's A Psychological Theory of Work Adjustment (1984).

The Theory of Work Adjustment has evolved over the past four decades and promotes the concept that individuals with particular characteristics are best suited for jobs that have work demands that correspond to those characteristics. The greater the correspondence between the individual and the work, the greater the job satisfaction, performance and job tenure. Over a period of time, however, the job will affect the characteristics of the worker and the worker will affect the demands of the job.

In other words, when exploring careers, one is more likely to be satisfied by jobs that meet one's needs and one is more likely to perform well if one has the abilities necessary to do the job. The more an individual is satisfied and performing well, the longer that person will stay on the job.

The following six work values correlate with the following work situations:

• Achievement -- where the worker can use his/her best abilities
• Independence -- where the worker can do things using his/her own initiative
• Recognition -- where the worker has opportunities for advancement, feels their work is prestigious, and has the potential for leadership
• Relationships -- where the co-workers are friendly, the worker can be of service to others, and the worker is not forced to do anything that goes against his or her sense of right and wrong
• Support -- where the company stands behind its workers and has a reputation for competent, considerate and fair management
• Working Conditions -- where the worker is offered job security, good pay and good working conditions. Some workers might like to be busy all the time, work alone or have many different things to do.

The O*NET Work Importance Locator was designed to meet two primary goals:

• creating a self-scoring, self-assessment instrument that measures work values as identified by the Theory of Work Adjustment
• developing an instrument that reliably and accurately measures work values as identified by the Theory of Work Adjustment

Needs statements were modified to match statements describing work values that are found in O*NET OnLine. The work values labels were also reworded to ensure that they were understandable to all potential users. In addition, materials for a five-column version of the O*NET Work Importance Locator were created. Included in the materials were two pages of instructions, 20 cards each displaying a needs statement, a card sorter sheet used to place the cards into five groups, and a scoring page on which need scores were reported and calculated.

A pre-pilot study was conducted to determine ease of use of the O*NET Work Importance Locator and any necessary design or procedural adjustments. As a result, improvements were made to the scoring instructions and format. A pilot study was then launched at an employment service center in Utah.

A total of 48 clients completed the O*NET Work Importance Locator and a Participant Reaction Questionnaire. As a result of the positive responses to this study, a final version of O*NET Work Importance Locator was created. For detailed information on the O*NET Work Importance Locator, refer to R. McCloy et al's Development of the O*NET Computerized Work Importance Profiler (1981).

A total of 230 technical/vocational and community college students completed the Work Importance Locator, with a two-month interval between the two test administrations. The ability of the instrument to reliably measure an individual's top work values was moderately high. The top work value was the same 62 percent of the time.

The correlation between the six top work value scores in the first and second administration ranged between .35 (Achievement) and .58 (Support). Therefore it was concluded that the Work Importance Locator had a low-to-moderate ability to reliably measure each of the six work values over the two-month interval. This conclusion reinforced the recommendation that the Work Importance Locator should not be used by clients to determine the rank order or profile of all six of their work values.

The same sample of students used in the reliability study were administered the computerized work values measure. The results indicated a high agreement for the measurement of values between the two instruments, with a median correlation of .77.

Validity analysis focused on determining the degree to which the Work Importance Locator and the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire appeared to be measuring the same work value constructs. A sample of 550 employment service clients, displaced workers, and vocational/technical and community college students were used to analyze the similarity of scores obtained by the Work Importance Locator and the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire.

Although the correlations between the scores were fairly low (from .30 to .49), it was discovered that the items with a correlation of .40 or less were items which contained modified text. The top value was the same for each pair of instruments 57 percent of the time, while the top value obtained on the Work Importance Locator was one of the two top values indicated by the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire 79 percent of the time. More direct validity will be forthcoming, but until that time, users should be cautioned to keep in mind the moderate relations which were reported.

The Work Importance Locator is designed for users aged 16 or older, with a minimum of an eighth grade reading level. Determining work values is a process that occurs throughout a person's lifetime. However, by the time a person reaches age 16, their values are stable enough to measure reliably.

After careful analysis by Bridges staff, the crosswalk between the Work Importance Locator and Choices Planner was developed. The assessment is called the Work Values Sorter in Choices Planner.

In the Work Values Sorter, users complete a computerized card sort process to rank 20 work values "cards," each containing a need statement related to one of the six work values. Using a drag and drop process, users drop each statement card onto the card sorter sheet, choosing its location according to how important each work value is to them. Users can change the location of the cards, either by moving a card directly across the card sorter sheet, or by dropping a card back into the stacked set.

In the process of completing the Work Values Sorter, users should be encouraged to keep several points in mind:

• There is a difference between work values and interests: INTERESTS look at what a user likes or dislikes, whereas WORK VALUES refer to what is important or unimportant to a user.
• The goal is to determine the relative importance of each work value (as expressed in the need statement) to the user's ideal job.
• This is not a test. Users should be thinking about what they want in their ideal job.

For more technical information about the instrument from the developer, see the U.S. Department of Labor O*NET site at http://www.onetcenter.org/WIL.html .

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Where can I see the Work Values Sorter results in my portfolio?
2. Where are the work values for each career displayed?
3. Where do I find a description of the six work values of the Work Values Sorter?
4. I just used the Work Values Sorter and it yielded hundreds of careers (way too many) that matched my work values. The program displays the careers in units of 20. How are these careers sorted?

1. Where can I see the Work Values Sorter results in my portfolio?

Work Values Sorter results are automatically saved in your portfolio if you are signed in when taking the assessment. They will be in the All About You page of the portfolio, under Work Values.

2. Where are the work values for each career displayed?

The related work values are in the Is This For You? tab within a Choices Planner career profile.

For example, you can log into Choices Planner and click on Work. Click on Alphabetical List and then Accountant (or any other career). Click on Is This For You? You will see the career's values under Work Values.

3. Where do I find a description of the six work values of the Work Values Sorter?

Go to the Work page and click on the Career Finder link. Under the My Characteristics heading, click on the Work Values link. Here you will find a description of all six work values.

You can also see descriptions on the Profiler page once you complete the Work Values Sorter. Click on the link for each value in the bar graph near the bottom of this page.

4. I just used the Work Values Sorter and it yielded hundreds of careers (way too many) that matched my work values. The program displays the careers in units of 20. How are these careers sorted?

The careers displayed in the Work Values Sorter results are sorted alphabetically. Careers containing all your top work values (usually two) are displayed first, in alphabetical order. You can also click on the links on the bottom of any results page to see careers that match just one of your work values.

The Work Values Sorter is based on six work value areas. Each occupation in Choices Planner is connected to two to four top work value areas. Within the occupations database, there are over 600 occupation titles. This means that chances are good that if you use only the Work Values Sorter results to search for careers, you will get a list of hundreds of careers to explore.

This is why we recommend you also use the Career Finder to add other search criteria (one at a time). This will narrow down your list of matching careers.

Start by selecting the Work Values link in the Career Finder to import your results. Then you can use the Career Finder to combine your results from the Work Values Sorter and the Interest Profiler, for example. You could also add preferences such as education and earnings.

Back to Table of Contents