Work meaning among mid-level professional employees: A study of the importance of work centrality and extrinsic and intrinsic work goals in eight countries.

Table of Contents

TOC o “1-3” h z u HYPERLINK l “_Toc317166127” Section One PAGEREF _Toc317166127 h 2

HYPERLINK l “_Toc317166128” Section Two PAGEREF _Toc317166128 h 3

HYPERLINK l “_Toc317166129” Section Three PAGEREF _Toc317166129 h 5

HYPERLINK l “_Toc317166130” Reference PAGEREF _Toc317166130 h 7

Section OneThe article seeks to find out what work means, according to the chosen respondents. It was found out that some of the major factors that are supported universally are family and work issues. Furthermore, other vital aspects included community involvement, religion, and leisure. Also, work centrality is associated with human orientation, assertiveness and performance indices. On the other hand, there are varying work goals that are either intrinsic or extrinsic, and this depends on the various country clusters. The article has given vital information regarding resistance to change and organization change issues. This is when it is compared to other literature that exists concerning the mentioned topics (Kunchike & Arcdichvili & Borchert, 2011).

The article has addressed the fact that work is constantly changing, and it occurs in various countries. Other sectors that are affected by the change include individuals, families as well as organizations. It should be known that strategic management and human resource management are vital when dealing with matters that relate to work provisions. When employees are in work environments, which are new, they attempt to find ways of navigating, negotiating and adapting to the new environments. The countries that were used in the study are the United States, Russia, Poland, Kyrgyzstan, South Korea, Hungary, Germany and Brazil (Kunchike & Arcdichvili & Borchert, 2011).

According to the article, there were more males as compared to females, who were in their mid-career stage. Also, there were more males who had a master’s degree and other higher qualifications. Community involvement and religion played a vital role in determining how people behaved at the work place. For example, in South Korea and Germany, employees did not have high levels of work centrality. Moreover, people preferred to work and money was not a key consideration. It seems that the respondents valued work, and this had an effect on their performance (Kunchike & Arcdichvili & Borchert, 2011).

The family is another factor, which influenced the respondents work centrality. It should be known that according to the article, when the employees were given rewards and monetary compensation, their performance increased. On the other hand, those who were paid poorly had a low, work centrality. Stress at the work place affects organization, which has a low centrality. This means that employees are often not motivated to work, and often end up being stressed, thus affecting their work performance. In terms of resistance, those with high, work centrality do not offer as much resistance, as those with low, work centrality. The article has not provided much information regarding the relationship between work place stress and resistance to change. The only information obtained is that only 56% of the entire population was comfortable working in changing work place environments. Also, 12% of the population claimed that they would not continue working if the work environments were changed. The latter is based on the assumption that the individuals won the lottery (Kunchike & Arcdichvili & Borchert, 2011).

Section TwoA table was used to provide information regarding the study about the eight countries. The latter had varied human development and economic levels, and thus the need to use a suitable method. The authors used a research method that is based in surveying. This means that it considered characteristics such as demographics, positions, organizations and industries. Data was collected by the authors from their respective home countries, in order to make the sampling strategy successful. Other procedures used were translation and instrument selection. In the United States, Poland, Germany and Brazil, respondents were chosen from certain universities. They were students undertaking human resources and business administration courses. Moreover, the surveys were to be done outside class and online. On the other hand, in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, South Korea and Hungary, respondents were recruited through personal communication and the email. Also, questionnaires were to be filled and then submitted to a website on the internet. A disadvantage of the on-line survey is that it could not be possible to measure if there was any bias. There were pilot groups, which consisted of about fifteen respondents, and they provided answers to the various questions. Unfortunately, the mentioned method could not be measured, as it did not have construct, metric and translation equivalence (Kunchike & Arcdichvili & Borchert, 2011).

In terms of findings, a table was provided by the authors to show how the various demographic characteristics were represented. There were various hypotheses that were used to describe the findings. Also, Scheffe post hoc tests were conducted, and it focused on the various subgroups. The latter included education levels, age, as well as gender. They were used as the controls, to find out more about work centrality in the different countries. The authors in turn used zero order correlations and descriptive statistics and the variables. A table was provided to show the country comparisons and the standard deviations. For example, in Kyrgyzstan, there were high work centrality levels. Also, the authors found out that work and family matters were extremely crucial regardless of, which country the respondents came from. In the United States, people were more likely not to continue working, and it was based upon education, and gender (Kunchike & Arcdichvili & Borchert, 2011).

Lastly, the study focused upon making sure that the countries were clustered. The authors used an analysis that is referred to as function analysis, in order to differentiate them. It was found that when compared to work, people preferred leisure, despite it not having any financial rewards. Spiritual involvement and religion were viewed as being interesting and challenging. Kyrgyzstan and Russia were found to favor financial rewards and leisure. When the hypotheses were different, the work dimensions were found to have various meanings. In turn, the most heterogeneous regions the authors found are Eastern Europe. This is with the exception of Kyrgyzstan and Russia (Kunchike & Arcdichvili & Borchert, 2011).

Section ThreeThe article is quite intriguing, as well as informative, on matters that concern employees in various work places. It is also of extreme value to the profession of human resources in many ways. Human resource managers should find ways through, which they can motivate, their employees, in order to boost their productivity. This can be done through increasing their pay, job rotation, giving them bonuses, among others. This means that the employees will have a work centrality that is high as they are being treated well. In organizations, where people come from different cultures, the human resource personal should find ways to establish rules concerning work. It is possible for an employee with a work centrality that is low to influence others negatively. The human resource personnel should come up with strategic plans that focus on making sure that employees achieve the set goals. Furthermore, employees should be given a learning opportunity in order to improve their career status. In turn, the performance levels of the entire organization will improve drastically (Kunchike & Arcdichvili & Borchert, 2011).

The study is helpful as organizations should always strive to have environments that promote work centrality that is high. In turn, the employees will learn how to achieve through reward and value. Moreover, the employees should on a regular basis be subjected to work appraisal systems in order to monitor their progress. It will be easy to know the areas where the employee is weak and needs to be improved. The organization should thus train and educate the employees. The later should provide feedback to their managers, who will in turn, decide on what needs to be done. This means including subordinate employees in decision making by including their views. It is not evident that the article has had an impact on the profession of human resources. It is only after other researchers conduct further studies that the impact of this article will be known. The authors are only speculating, and are not sure about what will take place in the future. Therefore, they welcome other researchers to conduct more studies until conclusive results are obtained (Kunchike & Arcdichvili & Borchert, 2011).

Reference

Kunchike, Peter. & Arcdichvili, Alexandre. & Borchert, Magaret. Et al. (2011). Work meaning among mid-level professional employees: A study of the importance of work centrality and extrinsic and intrinsic work goals in eight countries. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 49, 3, 264-284.