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 Values at Work 9-5: What is important?

Welcome to this 3-contact-hour Continuing Education  course with instant online processing and certification 24/7.  Study the course below, take the 12-question multiple-choice TEST, register and pay online. If you score 75% or above, you may print your CE certificate on your printer as soon as you finish. If you have difficulty printing your certificate, click here.. You may retake the test once.

1. LIFE PRIORITIES  

(My life priority is___________)

Consider what you want out of life. Select ONE of the following goals as your life priority: (There are no right or wrong answers here.)

ERIC_NO: ED320061, Two Paycheck Families: Therapeutic Techniques to Enhance Family Functioning, by Chambliss, Catherine; Hartl, Alan J., 1990
ABSTRACT: American family life is being transformed by the trend toward two paycheck families, yet most people have not been socialized to live in this way, and social institutions have been slow to accommodate the needs of two paycheck families. Accordingly, this paper presents a package of therapeutic techniques designed to help members of two paycheck families learn how to adjust to this family lifestyle. After a brief introduction, an audience-generated list of 12 common family stressors is presented and external and internal sources of stress are defined. The main part of the paper presents a therapeutic model for dealing with the stresses in two-paycheck families. Techniques are classified under four headings: control, courage, commitment, and cooperation. Control techniques emphasize locus of control, mutual brain storming, rethinking, and shared gloating. Courage techniques address perfectionism, learning to say no, rewarding effort despite outcomes, and experimentation. Commitment techniques address life priorities, self-defeating fantasies, guilt, and marital enhancement. Finally, cooperation techniques include delegation, household preferences, scheduling, and friendships. www.askeric.org 

 2. WORK-RELATED VALUES 

(I work for___)

A value is something of worth that is useful or important to the possessor. In order to reach my above life priority, I plan to place special emphasis in my 9-5 work-life on the issues in ONE of the following value groups:

___Insights into issues, enjoying an inner life, being relaxed, having a balanced life.

___Gaining recognition, obtaining the respect of peers, being accepted, accomplishing great things.

___Handling conflicts, solving problems, communicating, being honest & sensitive to the needs of others.

___Having physical life comforts, increasing resources, being financially secure, investing money.

ERIC_NO: ED283071, The Role of Work Values in Leader-Member Exchange, by Steiner, Dirk D.; Dobbins, Gregory H., 1987
ABSTRACT: The Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) approach to leadership emphasizes the interactive nature of the superior-subordinate relationship, asserting that an individual's role in an organization is defined through a series of episodes with the supervisor. Because work-related values are potentially important subordinate characteristics in LMX development, a study was conducted to examine the role that leader and subordinate work values and leader attributions play in the development of supervisor-subordinate relationships. Undergraduate management students (N=111) with either high or low intrinsic and high or low extrinsic work values supervised the work of four theoretical subordinates. The work values of the "subordinates" were also manipulated. Analyses revealed that subordinates with high intrinsic or extrinsic work values were treated with greater negotiating latitude and were assigned more challenging tasks. Attributions for the subordinate's past high performance were more internal and less external when the subordinate had high intrinsic and extrinsic work values and when subordinates had work values similar to those of their leader. Furthermore, attributions for past subordinate performance were found to mediate the effect of work values on leader-subordinate exchanges.

 3. OVERCOMING VALUE-BARRIERS 

(I plan to work against___)

The main barriers that stop me from expressing the above marked values in my 9-5 life are:

___I am self-centered and unable to let others get ahead of me. I have to be in control.

___I am not able to keep the larger issues of life in mind at work. On my job I am in the here-and-now mode.

___I just work to make money and to pass the time. My real life is after work.

___I feel helpless and blame others for my difficulties. I often see myself as the scapegoat.

___Other barriers________________________________________________________

ERIC_NO: ED393977, Educational Intervention for Nurse Managers in a Situation of Need for Rapid Change by Davies, Susan, 1996
ABSTRACT: The principles of action research were used to identify the reasons for substandard patient care in two long-term care facilities in Quebec; then, a 20-hour inservice education course for nurse managers at the facilities was developed, presented, and evaluated. Fifteen nurse managers (1 director of nursing, 12 health care managers, and 2 nurse clinicians) who volunteered for the study completed a learning needs assessment to identify their work-related values and gaps in their managerial and clinical expertise and self-efficacy. The nurses then participated in 10 2-hour training sessions that were designed on the basis of the needs assessment and ongoing discussions. At the end of the 10-week course, participants completed 2-hour written evaluations. One month later, they participated in a learning circle and responded to trigger questions to validate the evaluation findings. The course was credited with effecting changes in the participants' values and behaviors that in turn resulted in improved practice on the part of personnel in their units.

Summary Notes: The definition of the concept of value includes worth. A life priority can be reached best by emphasizing values. Historically, nurses made their work priority service. The value "Work with Others" deals with teams.

 4. APPLYING VALUES@WORK, 9-5

Below state the number of the case which you identify with the most and the least. Give reasons.

CASE 4.1: Henry has become comfortable with his highly creative co-worker, Jim, and his slow plodding boss, Mary. He now realizes that everyone has talents and weaknesses, even he himself. It struck him all at once when he had to admit that Jim and Mary, in spite of their limitations, had things more together than he himself did.

CASE 4.2: When Ray reached 40, he realized that he will never change the world or be president of Intel. He had the respect of his supervisor, co-workers, family and friends, and that seemed enough. He did not have to impress them any more to earn brownie points.

CASE 4.3: June was very frustrated at work. She called herself a perfectionist, but one day she learned that that was just a cover-up for focusing on other's reactions to her work rather than on the quality of her work. For her, work was not only dealing with things, but mainly with people. When she was able to make real friends of the people around her, she began to relax.

CASE 4.4: Marg had a mixture of fear and anger against many of her fellow-workers. Fear because she felt she could not trust them to understand her special problems. And anger for being so isolated. As she talked out her problems with one of her co-workers, she soon concluded that her problems were not so special. Her anger started to dissipate when it was pointed out to her that she herself was the cause of her isolation.

CASE 4.5: Jane knew for sure that her life had a larger purpose and that her job was a fulfillment of that purpose. She was a part of a larger design. One of her stages was her worksite.

CASE 4.6: Harry saw himself as an agent of encouragement not only in his home and among his friends, but also at work. Generally, he felt good about his lot. With so many conflicts and problems around him, he did his best to create a positive and constructive attitude at his workplace.

CASE 4.7: The technical nature of Jim's work demanded his total concentration. At that time, the only values that were important were honesty and 100% quality. But in the transitions, in the planning and reporting, Jim was very much of a team-player who respected his co-workers and pitched in where he was needed.

State the number of the case with which you identify.

the most:___________________ Why?_____________________________________

the least:___________________ Why?_____________________________________

Select your work priority on which you plan to concentrate now:

___MONEY: I see myself wasting less time and making more money.

___PERSONAL INSIGHT: I cannot get upset by the problems around me. I will live mainly within myself.

___JOB PROMOTION: Whatever it takes, I will get to the top.

___SERVICE: I am here at work to help our clients, fellow-workers and supervisors.

ERIC_NO: ED243373, RN Baccalaureate Education: A Process-Product Evaluation, 1979-1983. Final Report. By Jacobsen, Marilyn-Lu W.; Sabritt, David, 1983
ABSTRACT: Processes and outcomes associated with baccalaureate education for registered nurses were studied longitudinally as part of the Sleuthing Nursing Pathways Project. Participants included about 500 registered nurses who entered the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) programs at the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, Northern Kentucky University, and the University of Cincinnati between 1979 and 1982. Evidence was found that registered nurses' completion of a baccalaureate program was associated with changes in work-related value systems described as a transition from technical to professional outlooks on nursing. Factor analysis revealed four dimensions: identification with nursing as an organized profession; belief in the use of expanded forms and sources of knowledge; acceptance of holistic approaches to nursing; and belief in the capacity of nurses to act autonomously and make independent decisions. The performance and role structure of registered nurse-BSN graduates were compared with those of generic BSN, associate degree, and nursing diploma graduates working in similar settings. www.askeric.org 

 5. ANALYZING VALUES@WORK

Look for the answers to the following questions in the underlined sources. Click on them. Please read the articles carefully, since they also provide information that will be tested.

5.1 How are values such as justice, belonging and service defined? Career Values.

5.2 What are some intrinsic and extrinsic values?

5.3 How did your values change through the years? In a 1990 US government survey, high school sophomores stated their values as: 85% work success, 77% relationships, 65% leisure time, and 44% money. Yet most adults say that they work for the money. Grady Cash found that work-stress was related to personal finance in 40% of cases, relationships in 25%, work in 20% and health/safety in 15%. Historically, nurses saw their work as service. Optional further readings may be found in 1st Corinthians 12:8-11 (that deals with diversities of gifts given to each one for the profit of all, namely wisdom/knowledge, faith, healing, etc.) and Matthew 25:40 (that focuses on service to the least fortunate).

Ethics Glossary  Classic Texts in Ethics Ethics Connection - What is Ethics? 

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