A World-View Shift is Occurring in the Australian Workforce
Paul Chippendale, 2000
Introduction
Values are priorities we hold as a result of how we view the
world. They indicate the type of life-style we want to have. For the past 12
years the Values Education Network has been surveying the value priorities of
the Australian Workforce. They have noticed a significant shift in value
priorities between 1988 and 1998. This means that peoples’ world-views are
changing.
This article looks at the values shift that has occurred and
discusses implications for management and the formulators of social policy.
The Comparison
A comparison of the top ten values of people in the
Australian Workforce in 1988 and 1998 is shown in the table below (The values
are listed in order of priority from highest to lowest. Definitions of the
values can be found in Appendix A of New Wisdom II):
Interpreting the Values Shift
The 1988 top 10 values indicate that people at that time
viewed the ‘world of work’ in a rather traditional light:
-
effective management was most important;
-
‘you get things done through delegation’;
-
productivity, making decisions and acting on them, taking
responsibility for actions, treating each other with respect, and having the
competence and confidence to do undertake one’s allocated role – were
all key components.
The1998 top 10 values indicate the majority of people in the
workplace no longer view the world of work this way – there has been a
paradigm shift. The cluster of the top three values (i.e.
self-competence/confidence, relaxation and being self) would seem to indicate
that, today, people want to develop competencies that are relevant to who they
are as a person (i.e. being self) and at their own pace (i.e. relaxation). This
interpretation is reinforced by the existence of the value
Life/Self-Actualisation in the Top 10 value priorities.
In summary the paradigm shift is:
-
In 1988 people felt compelled to work in order to live as
they desired – any work would do, so long as it generated the revenue
necessary to create the desired life style.
-
In 1998 people are firstly looking at who they are as a
person, and are then seeking to create a life around this – some may view
their activities as work, others may not.
Implications for Management
Values are people’s unconscious motivators. In the
workplace, effective managers tap into people’s values as a way of motivating
them. Clearly, if some managers are operating from the belief that the majority
of people still hold the same values priorities they held in 1988, then they
will not be effective in motivating their people. To motivate people today,
managers will need to allow employees more flexibility in: the hours they work,
when they work, and how they work. Gone are the days when people will spend
hours engaged in activities they do not enjoy.
Implications for Social Policy Makers
The economic and social policies of the main political
parties are constructed around the assumption that there is a strong correlation
between income and contentment (Ghazi & Jones 1997, p. 12). The general
populace, however, have come to realise that this is not so and are following
new multi-faceted strategies to self-fulfilment and happiness.
The political parties who are elected into government in the
future will be the ones who tune into the values shift that has occurred in
society, and who demonstrate this through formulating their policies around the
new value priorities.
References
Colins, C., & Chippendale, P. 1995, New Wisdom II:
Values-based Development, Acorn Publications, Brisbane.
Ghazi, P., & Jones, J. 1997, Getting a Life: The
Downshifter’s Guide to Happier Simpler Living, Hodder & Stoughton,
London.
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