Structure and/or Culture: Explaining Racial Differences in Work Values

Abstract

Limited research has been exclusively conducted to explain the racial differences in work values, though the subject is theoretically and substantively significant in the workplace. This study reexamines the findings of previous studies that African American workers attach significantly higher values to the “extrinsic rewards” than Whites while White workers value the “intrinsic rewards” significantly higher than their Black counterparts. The article proposes that the socioeconomic improvements of African American workers, before and after entering the workplace, have transformed their work values. The proposition is based on William Wilson’s discussions that Blacks like their White counterparts are doing the same in high-status occupational contexts. Based on recent theories of occupational socialization, four sets of work values, including intrinsic and extrinsic, have been analyzed. The findings reveal persistence of racial differences on work values during the last few decades. However, when the occupational contexts are taken into consideration, racial differences in three out of fours sets of work values turn out to be nonsignificant, supporting Wilson’s arguments that culturally developed work attitudes have been reshaped within high-status occupational contexts.