Work values ethic: A new construct for measuring work commitment

This study reviews recent research on work ethic constructs and the resultant development of a construct for measuring a work values ethic in an Australian manufacturing environment. The construct was tested for validity, using confirmatory factor analysis and was found to represent a valid measure. It was also tested for reliability using Cronbachs alpha and showed a satisfactory level of reliability in line with other previously developed measures for this construct. The findings suggest that, in an Australian manufacturing context, the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) is not a valid construct and should be replaced by the Work Values Ethic (WVE) construct. There are six forms of work commitment, which are regarded as being relevant to an employed individual, five are universal and one is non-universal. The universal forms of work commitment are: work ethic endorsement, which encompasses the importance of work itself including 'Protestant Work Ethic'; Job Involvement, which relates to the extent to which one can identify with and is absorbed in one's job; affective (attitudinal) Organizational Commitment, which refers to an individual's emotional attachment to their organization; Calculative Commitment, which deals with an individual's perceived costs of leaving the organization; and Career or Professional Commitment, which relates to the importance an individual places on their occupation for each form of work commitment. Union Commitment is regarded as the non-universal form of work commitment because its applicability is declining in various countries namely the United States (Morrow, 1993).