Life/Career Values Inventory

Abstract

The Life/Career Values Inventory (LCVI) is a self-administered psychological scale designed to help individuals clarify and prioritize their personal and professional values. This instrument divides assessment into two distinct, yet interconnected, domains: Career Values and Life Values. Respondents use a 10-point Likert-style scale to assess both the current level of experience and the importance of each value item. The primary application of the LCVI is in personal development, career counseling, and facilitating discussions around work-life integration and satisfaction, allowing users to identify gaps between their desired values and their current reality.

Keywords

Career values, life values, work-life balance, self-assessment, psychometric instrument, job satisfaction, career development, personal priorities, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation.

Authors

The authors of the Life/Career Values Inventory are not explicitly specified in the provided documentation. The instrument is associated with worklifedesign.com.

[quads id=5]

Purpose

The fundamental purpose of the Life/Career Values Inventory is to serve as a diagnostic tool for identifying an individual’s core priorities across their professional and personal lives. By requiring respondents to rate items on two dimensions—”Presently Experience” and “Level of Importance”—the inventory facilitates a crucial comparison. This comparison highlights areas where current life or career circumstances align well with core values, and, more importantly, reveals significant discrepancies that may lead to dissatisfaction or burnout.

In a practical setting, the LCVI is instrumental in career counseling and coaching, helping clients make informed decisions about job changes, educational pursuits, or lifestyle adjustments. The structured scoring system allows users to quantify abstract concepts like recognition, growth, and organizational fit, thereby providing concrete data for goal setting and action planning related to their work values and life values.

Construct

The LCVI measures the psychological construct of personal and professional values prioritization. It operates on the principle that satisfaction and motivation stem from the alignment between an individual’s core values and their environment (both workplace and personal life). The inventory is bifurcated into two major sections, each measuring distinct value domains:

• Career Values: This domain focuses on values derived primarily from the professional environment, including factors related to status (Recognition), compensation (Rewards), impact (Work-Product), organizational climate (Organization), and professional development (Growth).
• Life Values: This domain assesses values related to personal fulfillment outside of work, focusing on community involvement (Community), family relationships (Family), social connection (Friends/Social), material well-being (Financial), personal health and development (Growth), and public perception (Recognition).

Validity

Information regarding the formal psychometric validity (e.g., content validity, criterion validity, and construct validity) of the Life/Career Values Inventory is not detailed in the source materials provided. Typically, a valid values inventory should demonstrate that its items accurately reflect the definitions of the values they purport to measure (content validity) and that the factor structure aligns with theoretical expectations (construct validity). Users should approach the results primarily as a starting point for self-reflection and discussion rather than as definitive, empirically validated scores for clinical diagnosis.

Reliability

Specific data concerning the internal consistency reliability (such as Cronbach’s alpha) or test-retest reliability of the Life/Career Values Inventory are not provided in the publicly available source content. In the absence of such data, the stability and consistency of the scores across repeated measurements or across different subsets of items cannot be formally confirmed. However, the clear categorization of items into distinct subscales suggests an underlying attempt to create coherent, reliable measures for each value domain.

Factor Analysis

Although formal statistical factor analysis results (e.g., Exploratory Factor Analysis) are not presented, the structure of the LCVI implies a predefined factor model based on the item groupings used for scoring. The inventory is explicitly divided into the following subscales (factors) for interpretation:

Career Values Factors

• Recognition: Items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (Focus on status, respect, and visibility within the organization).
• Rewards: Items 6, 7, 8, 9 (Focus on financial gain, success recognition, and performance-based compensation).
• Work-Product: Items 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (Focus on autonomy, impact, integrity, and altruism in the work itself).
• Organization: Items 16, 17, 18, 19 (Focus on organizational culture, co-worker relationships, reputation, and work-life balance).
• Growth: Items 20, 21, 22 (Focus on challenge, continuous learning, and opportunity for advancement).
• Job Security: Item 23 (This item is listed separately and functions as a critical, potentially standalone, value indicator).

Life Values Factors

• Community: Items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (Focus on involvement, acceptance of lifestyle, and cultural opportunities).
• Family: Items 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (Focus on spouse/children well-being, significant relationships, and protected family time).
• Friends/Social: Items 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (Focus on social network size, compatibility of values with friends, and non-interference of work).
• Financial/Lifestyle: Items 16, 17, 18 (Focus on comfortable living standards, housing, neighborhood quality, and vacation capability).
• Growth: Items 19, 20 (Focus on physical fitness, health, and continuous learning/knowledge acquisition).
• Recognition (Life): Items 21, 22, 23 (Focus on respect, integrity, and visibility within the community or neighborhood).

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report inventory; Non-standardized vocational and life values assessment.

Format: Paper-and-pencil or digital checklist format, consisting of 46 declarative statements (23 Career Values and 23 Life Values).

Language Available: English (as presented in the source document).

Population Group: Adults engaged in or planning for professional careers; individuals seeking greater work-life balance.

Age Group: Typically utilized with adults (18+), particularly those undergoing career transition or development.

Population Details: General population seeking self-help or participating in coaching and counseling programs. No specific demographic normative data is provided.

Test Methodology: Respondents rate each item twice using a 1–10 scale (where 1 means No Importance and 10 means Very High Importance). The two ratings are for “Presently Experience” and “Level of Importance.” Scores are then aggregated per factor to identify discrepancies, where high importance coupled with low present experience indicates a value gap requiring attention.

Keywords

Values assessment, psychometrics, vocational guidance, self-reflection, life satisfaction, organizational culture, recognition, rewards, personal growth.

[quads id=5]

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not specified.

Correspondence Address: Correspondence is typically directed through the associated website, worklifedesign.com.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions and Fee: The inventory appears to be available for free self-use via the provided PDF link, suggesting it may be intended for general educational or coaching purposes rather than restricted clinical use. Specific licensing details for commercial or research use are not provided.

Test Year: The original publication or development year of the instrument is not specified in the source material.

Reference’s

The primary source for this instrument is its online availability, which includes the self-scoring PDF. The original PDF can be downloaded here: http://worklifedesign.com/pdf-downloads/values-inventory-self-score.pdf

The associated organization is: http://worklifedesign.com/

[quads id=5]

Items of the Life/Career Values Inventory

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Career Values

1. I am well liked by many people in the organization.
2. My ideas are respected and listened to.
3. My position has a good sounding title.
4. Top leaders know me and my work.
5. My subordinates like me and believe I am fair.
6. I want to earn ___% more than at present.
7. I am known and recognized as a success in my field.
8. I enjoy receiving frequent feedback and recognition.
9. Salary increases are directly related to my productivity.
10. I am involved in making decisions.
11. I enjoy being in charge of things.
12. My work accomplishes something worthwhile to society.
13. I am most satisfied in a structured/non-structured work environment.
14. I am able to work with a high degree of integrity.
15. My work enables me to help others.
16. The morals and values of co-workers are similar to mine.
17. I enjoy socializing with my co-workers.
18. The organization is well regarded.
19. My work does not interfere with social or family life.
20. I am challenged by new ideas and tasks.
21. I am encouraged to continue growing.
22. There is opportunity for advancement.
23. Job security is of major importance to me.

Life Values

1. I am able to take part in community activities and organizations.
2. Others do not question my life-style.
3. There are many cultural opportunities where I live.
4. I am able to take part only in those things of interest.
5. I am able to live the life-style I want.
6. My work associates do not make demands on my non-work time.
7. My spouse is able to have a satisfying life-style.
8. My children attend good schools.
9. I am able to have a significant relationship.
10. I am able to have the kind of family life I enjoy.
11. I have many friends and acquaintances.
12. My work does not interfere with my family or social life.
13. My friends share similar cultural and moral values.
14. I enjoy having a few very close friends.
15. My neighbors are good people.
16. I live in a comfortable home and a good neighborhood.
17. I am able to take the kind of vacation I enjoy.
18. “Going out” is an important part of my life-style.
19. There is opportunity to be physically fit and active.
20. I am able to continue learning and gaining new knowledge.
21. I am respected in my community and neighborhood.
22. I am regarded as a person with integrity.
23. I am widely known in my community.