Abstract

The purposes of this study were to investigate the internal structure of work motivation, the types of the values persued, and the relationship between the two variables. The internal structure of work motivation was measured through the use of expectancy model(Nadler & Lawler, 1977) and the types of the values persued were measured by the scales developed by Park(1991). 7,309 employees from fifteen corporations and six factories in Korea participated in this study. Major significant findings of the internal structure of work motivation were : 1) The higher the individual's position in the organization, the higher her/his levels of effort→performance expectancy(E→P), performance→outcome expectancy(P→O), valence(V), and motivation score computed by these three components ; 2). The level of the P→O expectancy, especially that of the performance→material outcome expectancy, was lowest among the three components. This trend was stronger in the company adopting the fixed wage system than in the company adopting the performance-based wage system. The most significant result of the types of the values persued was the fact that the high positional managers pursued growth-oriented values which were composed of both the individual's personal and the organization's-economic values(e.g., autonomy and diversification), whereas the low postional employees persued maintenance-oriented values which were composed of both the individual's economic and the organization's personal values(e.g., pay and hierarchical control). The most interesting and significant result in this study was the relationship between work motivation and values : while lowly motivated individuals persued maintenance-oriented values, highly motivated individuals persued growth-oriented values. To enhance work motivation two strategies were suggested : 1) Organizational transformation to change an organization should be unfolded in a very. paradoxical way which allows both an organization's economic values and an individual's personal values to be persued simultaneously ; 2) Wage systems should be changed from a fixed system to a performance-based system. Finally, a model of organizational culture based on the values persued in an organization was proposed.