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PIJPSM 33,1

30 Received 26 January 2009 Reviewed 22 June 2009 Accepted 30 June 2009

The relationship between individual values, psychological well-being, and organizational commitment among Israeli police officers Aaron Cohen and Orit Shamai School of Political Science, Division of Public Administration, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel Abstract Purpose – There has been a growing trend recently to examine individual-level values in order to better understand the attitudes and behaviors of employees in the workplace. This paper aims to continue this trend by examining the relationship between individual values, using Schwartz’s basic human values theory, and psychological well-being (PWB) and affective organizational commitment. It also seeks to examine whether demographic variables control the relationship between individual values and the two dependent variables. Design/methodology/approach – The sample is comprised of 271 police officers enrolled in an undergraduate program in an Israeli university. Findings – As expected, the regression analysis showed a positive relationship between PWB and the values of benevolence, self-direction, and achievement, and a negative relationship between PWB and the values of power and tradition. Surprisingly, organizational commitment was negatively related to achievement and positively related to power – the reverse of their relationship with PWB. The results also revealed a negative correlation between PWB and commitment. Originality/value – The findings encourage future research on the relationship between individual values, PWB, and organizational commitment among police officers. Keywords Police, Employee attitudes, Employee behaviour, Israel Paper type Research paper

Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management Vol. 33 No. 1, 2010 pp. 30-51 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1363-951X DOI 10.1108/13639511011020584

Introduction As the role of personality traits in work-related behaviors and values has received renewed interest over the past decade (Furnham et al., 2005), studies have begun to examine the effect of values on commitment (Cohen, 2007b; Kirkman and Shapiro, 2001; Pearson and Chong, 1997; Wasti, 2003) and on psychological well-being (PWB) (Sagiv and Schwartz, 2000). Values are supposed to play a functional role in processes both work-related and not (Cohen, 2007b; Sagiv and Schwartz, 2000). However, the relationship between individual values and PWB has been relatively overlooked, despite the interesting research approach offered by Schwartz’s (1992, 1996) human values theory. Few studies have added to the findings of Sagiv and Schwartz (2000), who examined this relationship in several Israeli and German samples and found that values defined as healthy ones in the psychological literature (e.g. achievement, stimulation, benevolence, self-direction, universalism) were related positively to scales of psychological well-being.

More studies have examined the values-commitment relationship, at least from an empirical point of view. Several studies (Clugston et al., 2000; Cohen, 2007b) have applied Hofstede’s (1980) framework to the individual level, making the argument that each of Hofstede’s value dimensions varies widely across individuals within a society and that these individual differences have main effects on many outcomes (Farh et al., 2007). As with PWB, only a few studies have applied Schwartz’s (1992, 1996)human values theory to organizational commitment. Glazer et al. (2004) used Schwartz’s values survey (SVS) among hospital nurses in Hungary, Italy, the UK, and the USA. They found that openness to change had a negative relationship with affective commitment in three countries – the USA, Hungary and Italy. In a survey of German and British employees, Fischer and Smith (2006) found that conservation and openness to change had no direct effect on affective organizational commitment. The importance of studies on values and work-related attitudes is not hard to justify, given that values are ascribed a central role in determining the fit between individuals and the employment organization. The underlying assumption is that people will be happier and more motivated, satisfied, and committed when their values are congruent with those emphasized in the organization or vocational group (Berings et al., 2004). Although people’s activity in the work domain is likely to depend more on work values than on general values, the role of general values should not be ignored (Roe and Ester, 1999). An understanding of individual-level differences in values could provide insight into better ways of managing different employees (Francesco and Chen, 2004) and helping to improve both their commitment and their personal well-being, whose effects extend into both the work and life domains. The current paper looks specifically at police officers, a relatively under-researched profession with regard to attitudes and values in general (Worden, 1989), and PWB and commitment specifically. A small number of studies have examined determinants of organizational commitment in this population. Currie and Dollery (2006) found a positive effect of perceived organizational support on the affective commitment of Australian police officers, and McElroy et al. (1999) examined career-stage differences in commitment levels among American police officers. Management support and fairness were positively related to the commitment levels of police officers in New York City (Morris et al., 1999). However, very few studies have related individual values to commitment or PWB among police officers. Exceptions include Sun and Chu (2006) and Zhao et al. (1999), which examined differences and changes in values among police officers, and research testing Rokeach’s (1973) values theory (Rokeach et al., 1971; Zhao et al., 1998). The relationships between values, commitment, and PWB in the police setting are worth studying because these relationships may have bearing on the behavior of police officers – an issue in which all of society has an interest. The literature suggests several lines of thought that back this up. First, Worden (1989) argued that attitudes are important predictors of police behavior, at least as important as situational factors. Worden drew a distinction between attitudes developed on the job, and more deeply rooted attitudes that are largely determined by the time officers are hired. He argued that in the context of uncertainty and ambiguity, officers with similar sets of fundamental values and deeply rooted beliefs can nevertheless be expected to develop different occupational attitudes as they endeavor to derive meaning and lessons from their work experiences. Worden (1989) contended that the more fundamental, underlying attitudes may have more explanatory power than the more specific

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occupational attitudes developed on the job. Following this logic, a better understanding of these fundamental attitudes – which we believe include commitment and PWB – can assist in understanding their behavior. Malone and Paik (2007) took Worden’s thinking further in their study examining individual values among students in military service academies – work which can be generalized to the police setting. First, they argue that understanding the values which guide people’s lives is important because military work – or in our case, police work – involves daily ethical dilemmas, and values may affect how individuals behave in ambiguous or ethically messy situations. Second, it is important to understand how the values of officers (military or police) compare to the values prevalent in civil society. Only by elucidating the value fit between general society and the police can we understand whether and how differences in values affect the relationship between the police and the public (as well as offering ways to judge the results of more specific encounters between the two). This information can be highly valuable in developing training programs for officers (Malone and Paik, 2007), or in allowing the selection of recruits who make a good fit with the value system designed and shaped by the relevant decision makers. The current study aims to contribute to the new and important research trend here described by examining the relationship between individual values and both outcome variables – PWB, as measured by the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, and organizational commitment – among Israeli police officers. This research makes several contributions. Most important, the study adds to the still relatively sparse body of research applying Schwartz’s human values theory in the realms of both PWB and commitment (Malone and Paik, 2007). Beyond that, the study contributes to the literature in four ways. First, there has been growing interest in the spillover between the work and non-work domains (Cohen, 1995, 1997; Kirchmeyer, 1992, 1995). Our study will help show how determinants are related to outcomes in both domains (organizational commitment representing the work, and PWB the non-work domain), and thereby will help us better understand how individuals cope with their sometimes conflicting demands. Second, most research into individual values, commitment, and PWB has taken place in North America and Western Europe. Examining the relationships among these variables outside the North American or European setting will enhance our understanding of individual values in general and the relationships examined here in particular. This was emphasized by Malone and Paik (2007), who examined individual values in the military setting in the USA and Japan. Third, assuming that police officers represent an interesting and important occupational culture in themselves, and one that has been little examined, our exploration of these relationships among them represents another contribution of this study. Fourth, this research also responds to recent criticism that most efforts to explain value differences are too narrow and focus almost exclusively on individualism versus collectivism (Francesco and Chen, 2004; Gelfand et al., 2007; Malone and Paik, 2007). The current study applies a more thorough and comprehensive model of individual values than typically seen in the literature. Conceptual framework Schwartz’s individual values model Schwartz and Sagiv (1995) defined human values as desirable, trans-situational goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in people’s lives. The crucial content aspect that distinguishes these values from one another is the type of

motivational goal they express. Schwartz (1992, 1996) derived a typology of the different content of values by reasoning that values, in the form of conscious goals, serve three universal requirements of human existence: biological needs, requisites of coordinated social interaction, and demands of group functioning. Groups and individuals represent these requirements cognitively as specific values about which they communicate. Ten distinct motivational types of values were derived from the three universal requirements. Table I lists the ten value types as presented in Schwartz and Sagiv (1995), each defined in terms of its central goal and followed, in parentheses, by specific values that primarily represent it. According to Schwartz and Sagiv (1995), the value system is structured by relations of conflict and compatibility among value priorities. The pattern of these relations is presented in Figure 1. Competing value types emanate in opposing directions from the center; compatible types stand in close proximity around the circle. As can be seen, the ten value types are organized into two dimensions composed of four higher-order value types that combine the standard types. The first dimension – openness to change versus conservation – juxtaposes values emphasizing independent thought and action and favoring change (self-direction and stimulation) to those emphasizing submissive self-restriction, preservation of traditional practices, and protection of stability (security, conformity, and tradition). The second dimension – self-transcendence versus Power

Social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources (social power, authority, wealth) [preserving my public image, social recognition]

Achievement

Personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards. (successful, capable, ambitious, influential) [intelligence, self respect]

Hedonism

Pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself (pleasure, enjoying life)

Stimulation

Excitement, novelty, and challenge in life (daring, a varied life, an exciting life)

Self-direction

Independent thought and action-choosing, creating, exploring (creativity, freedom, independent, curious, choosing own goals) [self-respect]

Universalism

Understanding, appreciation, tolerance and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature (broadminded, wisdom, social justice, equality, a world of peace, a word of beauty, unity with nature, protecting the environment)

Benevolence

Preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with whom one is in frequent personal contact (helpful, honest, forgiving, loyal, responsible) [true friendship, mature love]

Tradition

Respect, commitment and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional cultures or religions provide the self (humble, accepting my portion in life, devout, respect for tradition, moderate)

Conformity

Restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms (politeness, obedient, self-discipline, honoring parents and elders)

Security

Safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships, and of self (family security, national security, social order, clean, reciprocation of favors) [sense of belonging, healthy]

Notes: Values in brackets were not used in computing indices for value types

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Table I. Definitions of motivational types of values in terms of their goals and the single values that represent them

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Figure 1. Theoretical model of relations among ten motivational types of values

self-enhancement – juxtaposes values emphasizing acceptance of others as equals and concern for their welfare (universalism and benevolence) to those emphasizing the pursuit of one’s own relative success and dominance over others (power and achievement). Hedonism is related both to change and to self-enhancement. Evidence for this theoretical structure has been found in samples from 67 nations (Schwartz, 1992, 2005; Schwartz and Sagiv, 1995) as well as in recent data from 38 countries (Fontaine et al., 2008). These findings have provided substantial support for both the content and structure postulates of the theory, showing that ten motivationally distinct value types are recognized across cultures and are used to express value priorities. Schwartz described several possible processes that might link value priorities to people’s attitudes and behaviors. High-priority values are enduring goals that guide people to look for and pay attention to value-relevant aspects of a situation (Schwartz et al., 2000). Values thus can influence the attention given to, the perception of, and the interpretation of various situations, with each person defining a given situation (and choosing a course of action in response) in light of the values central to his or her worldview. Value priorities also influence the weight people give to different issues and their subsequent behaviors (including commitment). Schwartz (1996) argued that when a prioritized value interacts with other variables (e.g. attitudes or behaviors), these will

tend to be associated with value types that are adjacent in the value structure. His view of value systems as integrated structures thus facilitates the generation of systematic, coherent hypotheses regarding the relationships between the full set of value priorities, and the relationship between values, attitudes and behaviors. While Schwartz’s value structure has not been examined in the police setting, Malone and Paik (2007) took this as their model in their study of Japanese and American military service academy students, a setting quite similar to the police context. Their findings showed that the Japanese students were more individualistic and self-directed and the American students more benevolent and traditional than popular conceptions suggest. They also found that the values of achievement, benevolence, conformity, security, and self-direction were the five most important value types for both groups. This finding suggests that these five values might be important in their relationship to the outcomes examined here. The current study will thus add to the Malone and Paik (2007) findings, and also move them one step forward by examining not only value priorities, but how values are related to the important attitudes of organizational commitment and PWB. The setting The Israel Police (IP) is a professional force, with some 30,000 officers on the payroll (Israel Police Homepage, 2009). In addition, it relies on some 70,000 Civil Guard (Mash’az) volunteers who contribute time to assist officers in their own communities. Structurally, the Israel Police is organized into six geographical divisions (Central District, Southern District, etc.) and various units and departments under control of the national headquarters (these include Immigration control, Economic crimes, Public complaints, Service administration, Human resources, Investigation and intelligence, and Logistic support, among others). In addition, there are three special operational units. The largest of these, the Border Police (Magav), is the combat arm of the police; it mainly serves along the nation’s borders, in the West Bank, and in rural areas. The Yamam (acronym for Special Police Unit) is the elite counter-terror hostage rescue unit, and the Yassam is the on-call counter-terror unit in each district (Israel Police Homepage, 2009). The Israeli Police was formed with the establishment of Israel in 1948. From the beginning, it was a nation-wide semi-military centralized organization, with all the problems that such an organization model presents. Several other characteristics of the IP are worth noting. For one, from its foundations the Israel Police has continuously suffered from a lack of resources (Hovav and Amir, 1979). On the other hand, the special social and political situation of Israel – a young nation, continuously at war or in a formal state of war, faced with the absorption of waves of immigrants – created positive relations between the police and the population, especially the immigrant sector. By the 1970s, changes in the force’s composition were taking place, as the old generation of officers in the middle and high levels of command began to retire and were replaced by college-educated professional officers (Hovav and Amir, 1979). Around that time, the IP came under criticism as an agency without a mechanism for establishing goals and ordering priorities (Bensinger, 1981; Reiser, 1983). The following decade saw a major change in the implementation of community policing on a large scale in 1995 (Weisburd et al., 2002). Very little research into the IP has been conducted. A few recent studies have examined the sensitive relationship of the IP with Jewish and Arab citizens in a

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country defined as a divided society (Hasisi, 2008; Hasisi and Weitzer, 2007). Others have examined the profile of Israeli police officers suspected of using illegal or excessive force against civilians (Herzog, 2000a, b). Both of these research directions the potential of examining individual values in the police setting. Individual values could in theory be used to identify officers likely to use illegal force against citizens – or alternatively, to function effectively in both Arab and Jewish communities. While these issues are not examined here, this study can be seen as a preliminary and exploratory stage in a larger effort to characterize the implications of particular individual values among police officers. Research hypotheses Values and PWB. Psychological well-being itself is a relatively new concept in the research realm. Throughout history, the idea of “happiness” has intrigued philosophers and theoreticians, but the search for a better understanding of the causes of happiness has intensified over the past few decades, as (in the Western world at least) socially accepted goals have shifted. According to Diener et al. (1995), the desire to be happy is the most common aspiration among people in Western cultures; indeed, they have found that in today’s competitive world, people have a declared preference for a happy life over one that is economically secure. Lyubomirsky et al. (2005) defined happiness as the frequent experience over time of positive emotions such as joy, interest, and pride, and the infrequent experience (though not the complete absence) of negative emotions such as sadness, anxiety, and anger. Seligman (2002) notes psychologists’ standard definition of happiness as subjective well-being in the form of overall satisfaction with life or generally high levels of enjoyment and other desired emotions. Although many other definitions of happiness have been used in the literature (e.g. Veenhoven, 1984), ranging from life satisfaction and an appreciation of life to momentary feelings of pleasure, we define happiness here as a shorthand way of referring to the frequent experience of positive emotions, as per Lyubomirsky et al. (2005; see also Diener et al., 1991). We chose this definition because happiness is here related to outcomes, both work and non-work. Lyubomirsky et al.’s (2005) comprehensive meta-analysis of a sizable experimental literature led them to conclude that short-term positive affect – the hallmark of a happy person – causes a range of behaviors that resemble those associated with success. The authors argue that positive affect may be the critical mediator underlying the relationship between happiness and culturally valued success. In other words, although it is generally supposed that happiness follows from successes and accomplishments in life, the evidence suggests that happiness actually leads to successful outcomes rather than the reverse. Only a few studies have examined the relationship between values and PWB. Burroughs and Rindfleisch (2002) looked at the relationship between materialism and PWB while using some of Schwartz’s (1999) aggregated measures as controls, and concluded that conflicting values are negatively related to happiness. However, no direct relationship between Schwartz’s typology and PWB was tested in their study, which focuses on materialism as the main value. Sagiv and Schwartz (2000) offered and tested a typology for the relationship between Schwartz’s values system and three scales of subjective well-being. They hypothesized that self-direction, benevolence, universalism, stimulation and achievement would be positively correlated with PWB,

and that values associated with conformity, security, power, and tradition would correlate negatively with PWB. Sagiv and Schwartz (2000) relied on several theories to support their hypotheses. First, they provided arguments from the psychotherapy literature (Ryff, 1995), which differentiates between values defined as “healthy” (achievement and stimulation) and those defined as “unhealthy” (conformity, tradition, security, and power). According to this view, the pursuit of “healthy” values is associated with perceptions, attitudes or behaviors that increase personal happiness, and the pursuit of “unhealthy” values with the reverse. For example, a person who focuses on goals associated with value types that represent growth needs (self-direction, universalism, benevolence, achievement, and stimulation) will be rewarded with a positive sense of well-being when the goals are realized. In contrast, an emphasis on values that represent deficiency needs (conformity, security, and power) expresses the desire to compensate for deprivation (Creed and Evans, 2002). Giving priority to these values is therefore more likely among people who feel insecure, not in control, or threatened in their relations with others, feelings that give rise to a negative sense of well-being (Sagiv and Schwartz, 2000). As can be seen in Figure 1, the unhealthy values, joined by power, represent the values associated with conservation in the basic four-part categorization of values presented above. Another theory that explains the relationship between values and PWB is self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 2000). According to this theory, autonomy, relatedness, and competence are innate, basic psychological needs whose pursuit leads directly to “intrinsic satisfaction”, the presumed source of true, non-contingent personal well-being. In contrast, pursuing “extrinsic” goals (e.g. money, fame, public image, and control) provides, at best, only indirect satisfaction, and may even interfere with the fulfillment of our basic psychological needs (Deci and Ryan, 1995). Pursuing extrinsic goals may also lead to a diminished sense of well-being because doing so often requires stressful involvement in ego-bruising activities. The innate, intrinsic needs or goals in self-determination theory largely correspond with Schwartz’s values of self-direction, benevolence, and universalism, while the extrinsic goals are closely related to values associated with power (Sagiv and Schwartz, 2000). It should be noted that the theories described above support a general argument that individuals who value conservation (conformity, tradition, and security) will be less happy than those who place a higher value on openness to change, self-transcendence, and to some degree, self-enhancement. The exception to the last-named is power. All the theories argue that higher levels of power will reduce levels of happiness. In short, conservation values together with the pursuit of control and status (power) are expected to be negatively related to PWB; the other values are expected to be positively related to PWB. While Sagiv and Schwartz (2000) found general support for the hypotheses advanced above in several Israeli and German samples, it should be noted that most of the participants in their study were students. The current study thus contributes to the continuation of their research by examining the relationship between values and PWB in a specific and rarely researched occupational group. H1. Values associated with self-direction, benevolence, universalism, stimulation, hedonism, and achievement will be positively related to PWB. Values associated with conformity, security, power, and tradition will be negatively related to PWB.

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Values and commitment. Meyer and Allen (1997) advanced a three-component model of organizational commitment that includes affective, normative and continuance dimensions. However, in light of strong criticism of conceptual and methodological problems in the normative and continuance commitment dimensions (Cohen, 2003, 2007a; Ko et al., 1997; Solinger et al., 2008), we decided to focus in the current study on affective commitment, which is considered more valid and conceptually clear (Cohen, 2003; Ko et al., 1997). The need for research that would test commitment in relation to values was strongly advocated by Becker (1960), who noted that “to understand commitment fully, we must discover the systems of value within which the mechanisms and processes described earlier operate” (p. 39). Furnham et al. (2005) advanced an explanation as to why values are related to commitment. According to their explanation, affective disposition has a pervasive influence on how people view the world, including their job or organization. Put differently, there is considerable variability among people in the same work environment, and individuals with different personalities may react differently to different aspects of this environment. This leads to the argument that some people have a value system that is more commitment-oriented than others – i.e. there is a better fit between their values and the notion of commitment in general and organizational commitment in particular. Specifically, the conservation-related values of tradition, conformity, and security, and the self-transcendence values of benevolence and universalism, seem to be especially relevant to most definitions of organizational commitment (Meyer et al., 2002), which emphasize loyalty to the organization (conformity), building a long-term relationship with the organization (tradition and security), and concern for others’ welfare (benevolence and universalism). The research hypotheses advanced here expect that the values of tradition, conformity, security, benevolence and universalism will be positively related to affective organizational commitment. The values of achievement, power, stimulation, hedonism, and self-direction are not expected to be related to organizational commitment, and may even show a negative relationship with commitment. We offer the following conceptual justifications for these expected relationships. In Schwartz’s typology, the first dimension – conservation versus openness to change – juxtaposes values emphasizing submissive self-restriction, preservation of traditional practices, and protection of stability (security, conformity, and tradition) with those emphasizing independent thought and action and favoring change (self-direction, hedonism, and stimulation). The second dimension – self-transcendence versus self-enhancement – juxtaposes values emphasizing acceptance of others as equals and concern for their welfare (universalism and benevolence) with those emphasizing the pursuit of one’s own success and dominance over others (power and achievement). In both cases, the first group, representing more traditional values, is expected to be related more strongly to commitment than the second group. This is because commitment is an attitude that focuses on one’s relationships with the organization as a whole and with its members, and because commitment to the workplace means a long-term relationship with the organization and more stability. It therefore fits with the attitudes associated with these traditional values, including concern for others’ welfare (benevolence and universalism), belonging and solidarity (tradition and conformity), and stability over the long term (security). At the same time, people who value achievement, self-direction, hedonism, and stimulation are likely to focus more on

themselves than on the collective, and will invest less in helping other members of the organization – hallmarks of reduced commitment. Power, too, is strongly individualistic in nature, according to Schwartz (1992, 1996), and thus contradicts the notion of commitment. The pursuit of power and dominance suggests an elevation of the individual over the collective and therefore low commitment to the larger group.

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H2. Higher levels of tradition, conformity, security, benevolence, and universalism will be positively related to organizational commitment. Higher levels of hedonism, stimulation, achievement, self-direction, and power will be negatively related to organizational commitment.

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Method Subjects and procedure The participants in this study were police officers enrolled in an undergraduate program in an Israeli university – one of several academic programs designed for the force following a decision by the police administration that to be promoted above entry-level rank, officers would be required to have an academic degree. We approached six classes, each with 40 to 60 students, and asked the students to complete questionnaires. Of the 300 questionnaires distributed, 271 usable questionnaires were returned, a response rate of 90 percent. The questionnaires were in Hebrew (a forward and backward translation procedure was performed for the commitment scale and the PWB scale). The questionnaires took about 15 minutes to complete. As for the participants’ demographic characteristics, 67 percent of the respondents were male, the average age was 33.2 (SD ¼ 8:36), and the average tenure in the police force and in their present job was 7.47 (SD ¼ 10:78) years and 5.05 (SD ¼ 5:66) years, respectively. With regard to family status, 59 percent of the respondents were married. The vast majority – 87 percent – were born in Israel, and 79 percent of respondents already held higher than entry-level rank. Measures Dependent variables. Affective organizational commitment was measured using Meyer et al.’s (1993) six-item scale. One of the six items was omitted to increase reliability (“I would be very happy to spend the rest of my career with this organization”). Psychological well-being was measured by the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, a revised version of the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI), which includes 29 items (Hills and Argyle, 2002). It should be noted that factor analysis of this scale performed by Hills and Argyle (2002) revealed a single higher-order factor, which suggests, according to the authors, that the construct is unidimensional. The two scales were measured on a seven-point scale (1 ¼ strongly disagree to 7 ¼ strongly agree). Three control variables were included in the analysis: (1) age; (2) gender; and (3) marital status. Two of these – age and gender – are regarded as having an effect on both commitment and values (Becker, 1960; Schwartz, 1992, 1996). Marital status has been frequently examined as a determinant of organizational commitment (Meyer et al., 2002).

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Individual values. The Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) was applied to measure the ten basic values (Schwartz, 2005; Schwartz et al., 2001). The PVQ comprises brief verbal portraits of 40 different people, gender-matched with the respondent. The verbal portraits describe their fictional subjects in terms of what is important to them, focusing on goals and aspirations that point implicitly to the importance of a particular value. The respondent is asked to answer “How much like you is the person?” on a six-point scale, ranging from “not at all like me” to “very similar to me”. Thus, the questionnaire captures the respondent’s values without explicitly identifying values as the topic of investigation. The score for the importance of each value is the average rating given to those items designated a priori as markers of that value. The number of portraits per value ranges from three (stimulation, hedonism, and power) to six (universalism), reflecting the conceptual breadth of the values. All the value items have demonstrated near equivalence of meaning across cultures in analyses using multi-dimensional scaling (Schwartz, 2005). As recommended by Schwartz (2003) in his scoring key for the PVQ and in his questionnaire development package, internal reliabilities for the values were calculated based on the raw scores. Another recommendation of Schwartz, ipsatization of the values and use of the ipsatized values for the analyses, was only partly followed because of recent criticism of this process. It should be noted that ipsatization has several advantages (Cheung, 2006). Ipsative data are effective in minimizing response bias and social desirability bias. Even if response biases are present in the raw data, transforming this data into ipsative measures reduces the response bias substantially. Despite these advantages, works that have examined the implications of ipsatization have raised certain concerns. Fischer (2004) argued that ipsative scores are not comparable across individuals and may be used for intra-individual comparisons only. Chan (2003) and Cheung (2006) likewise pointed out that although ipsatized data are appealing to researchers, information on inter-individual differences is removed with ipsatization, thus making many researchers wary of using ipsatized data as normative data in personality tests or to predict job performance, for example. The absence of inter-individual comparability on ipsatized data limits the usefulness of ipsatized scales in regression analysis; Fischer notes that correlational analyses, such as factor analysis and regression, that are based on ipsative scores produce results which are ambiguous and difficult to interpret. This problem is aggravated if the scales used for ipsatization are highly intercorrelated. Considering these arguments, together with the recommendations of Schwartz in his scoring key, we decided to use the following strategy in analyzing the current data. The correlation matrix based on the raw data showed only one negative and non-significant correlation among the ten values, with all other correlations being positive. This demonstrated response bias in the data, because Schwartz’s theory does argue that negative relationships between contradictory values should be expected. Therefore, in the case of the correlation matrix we decided to follow Schwartz’s suggestion in the scoring key: . . . 3c. In publications, it is advisable to provide a table with the correlations between the centered values and the dependent variables in addition to any regression. These correlations will aid in understanding results and reduce confusion due to either multicollinearity or to intercorrelations among the values.

For the regression analyses, we decided to use the raw data. In light of the argument that with ipsatization information on inter-individual differences is lost (Chan, 2003; Cheung, 2006; Fischer, 2004), it is extremely difficult to produce interpretable regression equations with ipsatized data. The fact that only four of the raw intercorrelations exceeded 0.60 and none exceeded 0.70 reduces the risk of multicollinearity in the raw data.

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41 Data analysis The main statistical analyses in this study were multiple and hierarchical regressions between the independent variables and the dependent variable. Results Table II presents the basic statistics for the variables and the ipsatized inter-correlations among them. The results show acceptable reliabilities for the research variables. As for individual values, Table II shows that the reliabilities for all the values, based on the raw data, are above 0.60. This is a positive indication, considering Schwartz et al.’s (2001) warning not to expect high internal reliabilities for the values. Schwartz et al. (2001) found reliabilities below 0.60 to be not unusual, for two reasons: (1) the indices include only a few items; and (2) many values have conceptually broad definitions, encompassing multiple components. Therefore, the relatively high reliabilities found here are encouraging and can be attributed to the homogeneity of the sample. To establish further the discriminant validity of the individual values scales applied here, several procedures recommended by Podsakoff et al. (2003) were applied. First, confirmatory factor analysis was performed using the AMOS structural equation-modeling program. In this analysis, we compared the fit of a ten-factor model for the ten individual values to the alternative fit of a single, one-factor model. The results for the ten-factor model revealed the following fit indices: x 2 ¼ 1; 846:07 (df ¼ 695); x 2 =df ¼ 2:66; CFI ¼ 0:76; IFI ¼ 0:77; RMSEA ¼ 0.078. In the second model tested, all 40 values items were loaded onto a single factor, producing x 2 ¼ 2; 837:76 (df ¼ 740); x 2 =df ¼ 384; CFI ¼ 0:56; IFI ¼ 0:57; RMSEA ¼ 0:10. The findings, while not providing high fit indices for the ten-factor model, support the superiority of the ten-factor model over the one-factor model. To further examine this contention a x 2 difference test was conducted. The x 2 difference test indicated that the five-factor model fit significantly better than the one-factor model (x 2 difference ¼ 991:69; df ¼ 45; p # 0:000). To further examine the validity of the Schwartz model for our study, we performed multidimensional scaling (MDS) using ALSCAL (SPSSX). The objective of MDS is to array points in multidimensional space such that the distances between points on the scatter plot(s) reflect as closely as possible the subjective distances obtained by surveying subjects. That is, MDS shows graphically how different objects of comparison do or do not cluster. The two-dimensional analysis in Figure 2 on the one hand supports the general model of Schwartz, and, on the other, some differences in the clusters obtained that can be attributed to the specific sample. Interestingly, all the

Table II. Descriptive statistics, reliabilities, and inter-correlations among research variables

0.75

1.25

5.07

3.34 20.05

20.07

20.04 20.00 20.06 0.23 * * * 0.08 20.20 * * * 20.23 * * * 20.19 * * 20.07 0.29 * * *

0.44 * * *

20.01

1

0.16

2 0.09 *

0.05 0.16 * 2 0.07 0.03 2 0.14 2 0.05 0.04 2 0.16 * * 0.04 0.03

0.13 *

2

0.01

20.11

0.05 20.04 20.04 0.09 0.07 20.11 20.18 * * 20.11 20.03 0.19 * *

3

20.10

20.03

(0.68) 0.15 * 0.10 0.07 20.35 * * * 20.40 * * * 20.23 * * * 20.27 * * * 20.26 * * * 0.13 *

4

0.08

20.24 * * *

(0.66) 20.01 20.12 * 20.38 * * * 20.14 * 20.24 * * * 20.36 * * * 20.18 * * 20.06

5

20.14

*

0.21 * * *

(0.71) 0.20 * * * 20.02 20.20 * * * 20.12 * 20.29 * * * 20.48 * * * 0.01

6

Notes: n ¼ 268  271 due to missing values. *p # 0:05; * *p # 0:01; * * *p # 0:001; reliabilities are in parentheses

Outcomes 14. Psychological wellbeing (PWB) 15. Organizational commitment

0.58 0.81 0.49 0.55 0.54 0.79 0.79 0.66 0.73 0.55

0.49

0.58

0.08 20.79 0.34 0.04 0.35 0.12 0.12 0.17 20.43 0.25

8.09 0.46

SD

33.1 0.70

Mean

20.12

20.03 *

(0.79) 20.16 * 2.37 * * * 20.35 * * * 20.38 * * * 20.42 * * * 0.18 * *

7

0.04

0.15 *

(0.73) 0.17 * * 0.03 0.08 20.01 20.17 * *

8

0.04

0.02

(0.69) 0.26 * * * 0.20 * * * 0.14 * 20.45 * * *

9

0.12

0.04

(0.82) 0.11 0.37 * * * 20.25 * * *

10

20.10

0.14 *

(0.84) 0.31 * * * 20.29 * * *

11

0.20 * * *

20.18 * *

(0.69) 20.23 * * *

12

42

Individual cultural values 4. Conformity 5. Tradition 6. Benevolence 7. Universalism 8. Self-direction 9. Stimulation 10. Hedonism 11. Achievement 12. Power 13. Security

Control variables 1. Age 2. Gender (male) 3. Marital status (married)

Variables

0.03

0.05

(0.67)

13

20.42 * * *

(0.89)

14

(0.71)

15

PIJPSM 33,1

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Figure 2. Two dimensional analysis of Schwartz’s values

conservation and self-transcendence values are concentrated on the right-hand side of the figure, and all the openness-to-change and self-enhancement values on the left-hand side. This finding provides good support for the Schwartz model (see Figure 1). Power, hedonism and stimulation form the strongest cluster. Security, benevolence and universalism seem to represent a second cluster, though not as strong; and two other relatively weak clusters are represented by tradition and conformity and by achievement and self-direction. The fit measures show a less satisfying stress (phi) of 0.31 and a more satisfying squared correlation index (RSQ) of 0.72 (considering that any RSQ above 0.60 is considered good). It should be noted that when we extracted three- or four-dimension solutions, the stress measure improved significantly (to a stress of 0.17 and RSQ of 0.83 for the former, and a stress of 0.097 and RSQ of 0.93 for the latter). However, we decided to present the two-dimensional model because the three- and four-dimensional models are difficult to read and to interpret. To test for common method variance, we performed a Harman’s one-factor test (Harman, 1967; Podsakoff and Organ, 1986), the most widely used technique for addressing this potential problem (Podsakoff et al., 2003). All the items of the individual values, commitment, and PWB scales were entered into a principal components factor analysis with Varimax rotation. According to this technique, if a single factor emerges from the factor analysis or one “general” factor accounts for most of the variance, common method variance is deemed present. However, the results of the analysis revealed 18 factors with eigenvalues greater than one (accounting for 68 percent of the variance), and only one factor accounting for more than 15 percent of the variance (18.9 percent). These results are consistent with the absence of common method variance. In short, three tests were performed for a deeper examination of the scales applied here. The findings of the three methods described above showed that the respondents were able to differentiate among the scales and that the data are not inflated with common method errors.

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The correlations between the individual values and PWB showed a negative and significant relationship with tradition (20:24; p # 0:001) and with power (20:14; p # 0:05). The positive correlations with benevolence, self-direction and achievement should also be mentioned. As for the relationship between the values and commitment, one should note that the positive correlations with benevolence (0:21; p # 0:001) and power (0:20; p # 0:001), as well as the negative correlation with universalism (20:14; p # 0:05), were not expected. Finally, a correlation that is worth mentioning, although it was not included in the conceptual framework advanced here, is the strong negative relationship between PWB and organizational commitment (20:42; p # 0:001). This finding illustrates an interesting conflict between happiness and organizational commitment. Table III presents the results of the regression analysis. In this analysis, the independent variables were regressed on the two dependent variables in two steps. In step 1, the three demographic control variables were regressed on PWB and on organizational commitment, and in step 2, the ten individual values were added to the equations for both dependent variables. H1 was in general supported by the findings. As expected, the values of benevolence, self-direction, and achievement were positively related to PWB, and the values of tradition and power were negatively related to PWB. The only value that was not related to PWB in accordance with H1 was security. We expected a negative relationship between the two, while the findings revealed a positive relationship. It should be noted that the independent variables explained 25 percent of the variation in PWB, and 23 percent was explained by the individual values. H2 was partly supported by the data. As expected, achievement was negatively related to commitment. However, the positive relationship between power and

Outcomes independent variables Control variables 1. Age 2. Gender (male) 3. Marital status (married)

Table III. Forward stepwise regression results (standardized coefficients) of individual cultural values on foci of commitment in the workplace

Psychological well-being Step 1 Step 2 20.04 20.08 20.08

Individual values 4. Conformity 5. Tradition 6. Benevolence 7. Universalism 8. Self-direction 9. Stimulation 10. Hedonism 11. Achievement 12. Power 13. Security R 2 (adjusted) F DR 2 F for DR 2

20.01 0.01 20.07

Organizational commitment Step 1 Step 2 20.05 0.15 * 0.01

0.03 20.24 * * * 0.31 * * * 20.15 0.17 * 20.00 0.07 0.20 * 20.28 * * * 0.17 * 0.02 (0.01) 1.58

0.25 (0.21) 6.59 * * * 0.23 7.97 * * *

20.09 0.11 0.00 20.16 0.09 20.15 20.10 0.08 20.02 0.05 20.26 * * 0.22 * 0.11

0.03 (0.02) 2.36

Notes: n ¼ 268  271 due to missing values. *p # 0:05; * *p # 0:01; * * *p # 0:001

0.13 (0.09) 2.96 * * * 0.11 3.08 * * *

organizational commitment was not expected by this hypothesis. It should be mentioned that only these two values were related to commitment, in comparison to six values that were related to PWB. Also, the independent variables explained 13 percent of the variation in commitment (11 percent of the variation was explained by the individual values), in comparison to the 25 percent of the variation in PWB explained by the same model. It should also be noted that the control variables did not have a strong effect on the findings. No significant relationships were found between any of the demographic variables and PWB. The significant effect of gender on commitment in step 1 disappeared when the individual values were entered into the equation. This finding suggests a strong, direct effect of the values on the two dependent variables. Discussion The current study continues an important research agenda aimed at examining the effects of individual-level values on employees’ attitudes and behaviors (Ang et al., 2003; Clugston et al., 2000; Cohen, 2007b; Farh et al., 2007). One difference between this study and previous research in the subject is the use of Schwartz’s values theory. In addition, this study uses a more advanced tool for measuring the values, the PVQ, advanced by Schwartz et al. (2001). This study presents a broad perspective on the relationship between values and PWB and commitment by looking at all ten individual values. Another contribution of this study is its focus on Israeli police officers, a population in which these research questions have rarely been examined. The findings of this study are quite encouraging regarding the application of Schwartz’s theory and its advanced measurement tools to a better understanding of PWB and organizational commitment in the workplace. Regarding PWB, the findings showed strong support for the self-determination and psychotherapy theories. The strong negative relationships between PWB and power and tradition are worth noting and buttress the theory of the psychotherapists. These are values that express a desire for order and control to compensate for uncertainty or a sense of threat to one’s psychological, material, physical, or social welfare. The fact that they were negatively related to PWB in our study suggests that they are a cause or a product of a poor sense of well-being (Sagiv and Schwartz, 2000). The positive relationship between security and PWB was not expected. A possible explanation for this relationship is that people who face potentially threatening situations, such as police officers, cherish security because it emphasizes the order, harmony, and non-threatening relations that they feel are missing in their lives. The positive relationship between benevolence, achievement, and self-direction and PWB accords with the emphasis of self-determination theory on autonomy and competence as promoting well-being. These relationships are also compatible with the idea that people who enjoy a positive sense of well-being focus on personal growth rather than on self-protection, and the idea that such people have the emotional resources to pursue challenging, autonomous goals. Alternatively, Sagiv and Schwartz (2000) noted that people are likely to experience a positive sense of well-being when they prize the same values that prevail in their environment – that is, when they inhabit an environment that allows them to attain the goals to which their values are directed. Sagiv and Schwartz called this the congruity explanation. The findings regarding commitment are somewhat surprising because of the values that were not related to affective organizational commitment and because of the

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somewhat lower variance in commitment explained by the model (11 percent). The relatively low R 2 can be attributed to the fact that studies (Cohen, 2003; Meyer et al., 2002) suggest that organizational commitment is explained best by situational variables such as organizational justice, leadership, and other determinants that reflect the effectiveness of exchange relationships between the individual and the organization. This said, our finding that 11 percent of the variance was explained by individual values which were not expected to be strong determinants of organizational commitment does show the usefulness of including values in future research on commitment. Individual values might not be the main determinant of commitment in any setting, including the police context, but without doubt they can increase our understanding of the roots and development of commitment in the workplace. Regarding the specific variables that were related to commitment in this study, it was anticipated – following Cohen (2007b) – that benevolence would be strongly related to commitment here. Benevolence is a value that has a great deal to do with relationships with other people; it recalls the concept of collectivism-versus-individualism advanced by Hofstede (1980). Yet benevolence did not prove related to commitment in the regression analysis, and the correlation analysis even showed a negative relationship between the two. Similarly, even though commitment as an attitude fits well with the values of conformity and tradition (Cohen, 2007b), no significant relationships were found between those values and organizational commitment. This unexpected absence can perhaps be attributed to the specific sample examined here. In other words, in the case of Israeli police officers, the roots of commitment may differ from those that are commonly expected. Some findings from other Israeli samples bolster this contention. For example, Cohen (2009) found that benevolence was strongly related to organizational commitment in Israeli bank employees. Similarly, Cohen and Keren (2008) found a strong relationship between high collectivism, a value similar to benevolence, and organizational commitment among a sample of Israeli teachers. This suggests that while values that reflect the importance of the group are not related to commitment in Israeli police officers, they are related to commitment for other occupational groups. Future research should further explore the meaning of this finding. The negative relationship of commitment with achievement and its positive relationship with power suggest an interesting profile of values that increases the commitment of Israeli police officers to their organization. It should be noted that this pattern of relationships is the opposite of the pattern found between these values and PWB. This finding is intriguing and suggests some interesting directions for future research. One possible explanation for this pattern can be found in Sagiv and Schwartz’s (2000) congruity explanation for PWB: a person-environment fit that can override the expected role of individual values. In our case, the congruity between the police officers’ values and their environment, the police setting and police work, promotes their organizational commitment. Congruity also explains the negative relationship found here between organizational commitment and PWB. Higher levels of power and lower levels of achievement increase the congruity between the police officers and the police force. In so doing, it increases their commitment levels, but does not necessarily make them happy in life. It is high levels of achievement and low levels of power that were positively related to PWB. Being committed to the police because of values that reduce one’s happiness in life may be the reason for the negative relationship found here between organizational commitment and PWB.

The above finding has important practical implications. The finding points to the existence of some conflict between the work and life domains among the police officers examined here. Police administrators should look for ways to reduce this conflict, which is likely to have negative consequences on work performance (Allen et al., 2000). For instance, police officers could be trained in strategies to help them cope better with the inherent conflict between their work and nonwork lives. In addition, the value systems of candidates could become an important input in the selection of police recruits, with higher priority given to those whose value system shows a better fit with the values of the police force. Future research should further study the impact of value congruity on commitment and PWB in other work environments. It would be more than interesting to replicate the findings of this study in police forces in other countries. This would enable us to see whether the current findings are typical of the occupational group examined here or whether they characterize Israeli culture. For example, Malone and Paik (2007) found among American and Japanese service academy students, an occupation that might be similar in its values to police officers, that the value achievement is very important to members of both groups. In this study too, achievement was important in the sense that it was related to the two outcomes. This shows that specific attention should be given to this value in future research that examines values in police forces. Power was likewise an important value here because it was also related to the two outcomes. However, in Malone and Paik’s (2007) study it was ranked very low for both the Japanese and Americans. This difference should also be further explored. Can one argue that achievement is an important value across police forces in many cultures while power is a value that differs across cultures? Which cultures and why? Future research should also examine more specifically whether police officers who identify with the police force, but are unhappy, are potentially at risk for dysfunction and/or burnout. This study has several limitations. First, it relied upon a snapshot-in-time survey design. Such a design consists of a single observation and has limited control over the effects of variables, and no control groups. However, individual values are quite stable constructs that are not easily affected by situational changes, and therefore, we need not assume that measuring them in more than one time frame would yield different findings. Second, only one professional group, police officers, was examined here, and one should be cautious about generalizing the results to other occupational groups. Third, the study was performed in one culture, and its findings might be pertinent only to this particular culture. Therefore, this study must be replicated numerous times before a firm conclusion can be made regarding its findings. Despite its limitations, this study demonstrates the importance of individual values in understanding PWB and commitment in the workplace. Naturally, more research into values at the individual level is needed. Explorations of variables that mediate and moderate the relationship between values and PWB and commitment would make a particularly valuable contribution to the understanding of this relationship. References Allen, T.D., Herst, D.E.L., Bruck, C.S. and Sutton, M. (2000), “Consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: A review and agenda for future research”, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Vol. 5, pp. 278-308.

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