Work values ethic and personal discretionary non-work activities

• Published in: International journal of manpower Vol. 40; no. 4; pp. 704 - 716
• Main Authors: McMurray, Adela, Scott, Don, Simmers, Claire A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Publishing Limited 12-07-2019; Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Subjects: Employee attitude; Employees; Employment; Ethics; Extracurricular activities; Leisure; Manufacturing; Questionnaires; Religion; Research methodology; Studies; Success; Values; Work environment; Work ethic; Work life balance; Formative structural equations modelling; Personal discretionary non-work activities; Work values ethic; Manufacturing industry
• ISSN: 0143-7720; 1758-6577
• DOI: 10.1108/IJM-04-2018-0133

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the constituents of personal discretionary non-work activities and their influence on the work values ethic (WVE).
Design/methodology/approach
The constituents of personal discretionary non-work activities and their relationship to the WVE for 1,349 employees drawn from three manufacturing companies were surveyed. The data was used to test a measure of WVE, to develop a valid measure of personal discretionary non-work activities and to test a model of the relationship between personal discretionary non-work activities and a WVE.
Findings
Data obtained from the survey enabled the identification of a valid measure of personal discretionary non-work activities and the components that made up this measure. A measure of WVE was shown to be both valid and reliable, and a model of the relationship between personal discretionary non-work activities and WVE was tested.
Research limitations/implications
A positive relationship between personal discretionary non-work activities and WVE was identified. However, the study was not designed to investigate motivations and such relationships should be the subject of future research.
Practical implications
Personal discretionary non-work activities were shown to be of importance for a major proportion of the study’s respondents and to contribute to the employees’ work ethic.
Originality/value
The study has extended the non-work and work literature and has identified a formative non-work measure that was able to be tested in an overall model.