Perceived Importance of Workplace Values

Abstract

The Perceived Importance of Workplace Values scale is a concise instrument developed by Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch (1994). This measure utilizes 12 specific items designed to quantify the degree to which employees perceive their organization prioritizes key organizational values. These values encompass critical areas of organizational behavior and performance, such as commitment to quality, fostering innovation, encouraging internal cooperation, and promoting widespread participation in decision making. The scale is frequently used in organizational psychology and management research to assess cultural alignment and employee perceptions of organizational priorities.

Keywords

Organizational values, employee perception, quality, innovation, cooperation, decision making, organizational citizenship behavior, organizational loyalty, cynicism.

Authors

Van Dyne, L., Graham, J. W., Dienesch, R. M.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the scale is to capture the subjective perception of employees regarding the organizational environment. It seeks to measure how important employees believe their organization considers specific behavioral and operational norms. By assessing these perceptions, researchers can better understand the psychological contract between the employee and the organization.

This measurement is crucial for linking perceived organizational culture to various outcome variables, such as job satisfaction, organizational loyalty, and proactive behaviors like Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), which was the core focus of the original study that developed this scale.

Construct

The psychological construct measured is the employee’s Perceived Importance of Workplace Values. This construct reflects the organizational climate as interpreted by the individual employee, specifically focusing on the perceived value placed on four central domains: Quality, Innovation, Cooperation, and Widespread Participation (or Voice).

This construct is distinct from personal values; instead, it assesses the perceived demands and priorities of the organization itself. High scores indicate an employee believes the organization places extreme importance on these positive, proactive values, suggesting a strong, positive organizational culture.

Validity

The scale demonstrates strong criterion-related validity through its correlation patterns with established organizational constructs (Van Dyne et al., 1994). Empirical evidence supports its application in predicting relevant organizational outcomes:

• The perceived importance of workplace values correlated positively with organizational loyalty, social participation, having a covenantal relationship with the organization, job satisfaction, tenure, and job level.
• Conversely, the perceived importance of workplace values correlated negatively with cynicism, indicating that employees who perceive high importance placed on organizational values are less likely to express distrust or negativity toward the organization.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the 12-item scale is high, suggesting homogeneity among the items. The original study reported a robust Coefficient alpha of .89 (Van Dyne et al., 1994). This value indicates that the items reliably measure a single underlying dimension related to the perceived importance of organizational values.

Factor Analysis

Although the original publication primarily focused on overall reliability and criterion validity, the structure of the 12 items suggests that the scale operationalizes four distinct, though potentially correlated, sub-factors that contribute to the overall perceived importance of organizational values:

• Quality (e.g., high-quality products, reputation for quality).
• Innovation (e.g., innovative products, rewarding innovative work).
• Participation in Decision Making (e.g., widespread participation, encouraging minority viewpoints).
• Cooperation (e.g., cooperation among employees, rewarding helping behavior).

Subsequent research often utilizes the measure as a unidimensional scale reflecting overall perceived organizational health and values, consistent with the high initial internal consistency reported.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire

Format: 12 items utilizing a 7-point Likert-type scale

Language Available: English (Original research language)

Population Group: Employees/Working Adults

Age Group: Typically Adult (18+)

Population Details: Applicable across various organizational settings and industries where the assessment of perceived organizational culture is relevant.

Test Methodology: Respondents rate the perceived importance of organizational values on a scale where 1 = not important at all and 7 = extremely important.

Keywords

Organizational culture, employee commitment, perceived organizational support, job attitudes, organizational values, organizational behavior, human resource management, organizational climate.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Refer to original publication (Van Dyne et al., 1994) for current contact information.

Correspondence Address: Refer to original publication (Van Dyne et al., 1994) for current correspondence details.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was developed and published in 1994. The items were taken from the appendix of the original article published in the Academy of Management Journal. Reproduction of the items was granted by the Academy of Management via the Copyright Clearance Center for use in a textbook format, suggesting that formal permission or licensing may be required for large-scale or commercial use.

Test Year: 1994

Reference’s

Van Dyne, L., Graham, J. W., & Dienesch, R. M. (1994). Organizational citizenship behavior: Construct redefinition, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 37, 765-802. Items were taken from the appendix, p. 801. Reproduced with permission of Academy of Management in the format textbook via Copyright Clearance Center.

Items of the Perceived Importance of Workplace Values

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way. Responses are obtained on a 7-point Likert-type scale where 1 = not important at all and 7 = extremely important.

1. High-quality products and services of central importance
2. Individual employees recognized and rewarded for superior performance.
3. Reputation for quality surpasses major competitors.
4. Innovative products and services of central importance
5. Individual employees recognized and rewarded for innovative work.
6. Reputation for innovation surpasses major competitors.
7. Widespread participation in decision making highly valued.
8. Employees are encouraged to express minority points of view.
9. Procedures facilitate widespread participation in decision making.
10. Cooperation among employees highly valued
11. Individual employees recognized and rewarded for helping others.
12. Reputation as very friendly place to work compared with other firms.