Perceived Importance of Workplace Values

Abstract

The Perceived Importance of Workplace Values (PIWV) scale, formulated and psychometrically operationalized by Linn Van Dyne, Jill W. Graham, and Richard M. Dienesch (1994), serves as a pivotal self-report instrument in organizational behavior and industrial-organizational psychology. Developed as an integral component of an extensive empirical inquiry into the antecedents and dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), the instrument evaluates an employee’s subjective perception of the degree to which their employing organization emphasizes, prioritizes, and structurally reinforces critical cultural values. Comprising 12 standardized items, the PIWV systematically maps across four fundamental institutional value domains: quality excellence, product and service innovation, employee participation in decision-making, and organizational cooperation and friendliness. Respondents evaluate each item using a 7-point Likert-type response scale ranging from 1 (“not important at all”) to 7 (“extremely important”). Psychometric evaluations conducted across diverse professional and service-sector samples demonstrate robust reliability, with an internal consistency coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) of .89. Construct and criterion-related validity investigations demonstrate that high scores on the PIWV exhibit statistically significant positive correlations with organizational loyalty, social participation, covenantal relationships, overall job satisfaction, organizational tenure, and job level, while exhibiting a pronounced negative association with organizational cynicism. The scale provides organizational psychologists, human resource strategists, and management researchers with a parsimonious, theoretically grounded, and psychometrically sound diagnostic instrument to evaluate perceived institutional culture, psychological climate, and the underlying normative expectations that govern discretionary employee contributions.

Keywords

Perceived Importance of Workplace Values, organizational citizenship behavior, organizational culture, psychological climate, value congruence, covenantal relationships, quality orientation, innovation climate, participative decision-making, organizational cynicism.

Authors

The Perceived Importance of Workplace Values measure was developed by an esteemed team of management and organizational behavior scholars:

• Linn Van Dyne, Ph.D. — Professor of Management Emerita at the Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University. Dr. Van Dyne is internationally celebrated for her pioneering theoretical and empirical contributions to organizational citizenship behavior, voice behavior, cultural intelligence (CQ), and proactive workplace dynamics.
• Jill W. Graham, Ph.D. — Formerly of the Department of Management, College of Business Administration, Loyola University Chicago. Dr. Graham served as a primary theoretical architect in redefining citizenship in formal organizations, borrowing foundational frameworks from political philosophy and social contract theory.
• Richard M. Dienesch, Ph.D. — Formerly Associate Professor of Management and Quantitative Methods at the College of Business, Illinois State University. Dr. Dienesch specialized in leadership dynamics, leader-member exchange (LMX), psychometric scale development, and multivariate validation methodologies in business environments.

Purpose

The primary objective of the Perceived Importance of Workplace Values (PIWV) instrument is to capture the subjective cognitive representations employees hold regarding their organization’s genuine philosophical priorities and operational values. While formal organizational mission statements, corporate credos, and executive declarations often articulate idealized corporate values, employee behaviors and cognitive appraisals are guided primarily by the *perceived* psychological climate—namely, the values that an organization demonstrates in daily practice through its reward architectures, operational procedures, competitive posturing, and social norms.

In their seminal 1994 study published in the Academy of Management Journal, Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch set out to develop a robust, multi-dimensional conceptualization of organizational citizenship behavior rooted in classical political philosophy. They hypothesized that an individual’s willingness to exert discretionary effort on behalf of an enterprise—manifested as advocacy participation, social participation, and functional obedience—is heavily contingent upon the social contract established between the individual and the collective. The PIWV was constructed precisely to operationalize the organizational side of this relational equation: when an organization is perceived as placing substantial importance on excellence, progressive innovation, democratic inclusion, and reciprocal human cooperation, employees interpret their organizational environment as inherently worthy of their psychological commitment and civic engagement.

From an applied and diagnostic perspective, the PIWV fulfills critical needs across multiple domains:

• Academic Research: It functions as a robust independent, mediating, or moderating variable in empirical investigations examining person-organization fit (P-O fit), psychological contract fulfillment, perceived organizational support (POS), and discretionary workplace behavior.
• Organizational Culture Audits: Industrial-organizational psychologists and management consultants deploy the scale during enterprise transformations, post-merger integrations, and cultural restructuring initiatives to ascertain whether strategic leadership priorities have successfully permeated operational ranks.
• Predictive Diagnostics: By capturing workplace value perceptions, human capital managers can assess risks related to organizational cynicism, psychological disengagement, counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), and voluntary employee attrition.

Psychological Construct

The psychological construct evaluated by the PIWV is the multidimensional cognitive appraisal of organizational values. Grounded in institutional theory and cognitive climate literature, organizational values are defined as enduring normative beliefs regarding preferred modes of conduct or organizational end-states. The PIWV operationalizes this broad construct into four core institutional dimensions, each evaluated through three targeted operational items:

1. Quality Excellence Orientation

The quality dimension assesses the extent to which an organization prioritizes superior product or service standards above mere operational expedience or short-term profitability. This encompasses internal operational benchmarks, explicit recognition systems for superior performance, and the external competitive posture of the organization regarding quality reputation. Psychologically, an uncompromising commitment to quality provides employees with an institutional anchor of professional pride, activating intrinsic motivation and fostering collective identity.

2. Innovation and Adaptability

The innovation dimension measures the perceived priority placed on technological, procedural, and conceptual novelty within the workplace. This subscale probes whether creative ideas and novel products are viewed as central to enterprise survival, whether exploratory efforts are materially rewarded, and whether the enterprise aspires to lead its competitive market through industry-defining breakthroughs. An organizational climate perceived as high in innovation communicates psychological safety, tolerance for calculated risk-taking, and adaptability, counteracting cognitive rigidity and bureaucratic stagnation.

3. Participative Decision-Making

Rooted in political models of governance, the participative decision-making dimension examines whether an organization values democratic inclusion, distributed authority, and communicative openness. It gauges the presence of formalized operational procedures facilitating broad-based decision inputs, organizational encouragement for expressing minority viewpoints, and the philosophical value placed on employee voices. When employees perceive that alternative viewpoints are embraced rather than penalized, their perceived self-efficacy and sense of agency within the social structure increase significantly.

4. Cooperative Climate and Social Cohesion

The final dimension evaluates the relational and communal properties of the workplace. It measures the degree to which horizontal cooperation is preferred over cutthroat internal competition, whether interpersonal helping and mutual assistance are systematically reinforced through social and tangible rewards, and whether the enterprise maintains an internal and external reputation as a supportive, warm, and friendly collective. This dimension acts as the interpersonal bedrock of relational psychological contracts, encouraging affective attachment and reducing transactional, self-protective calculations.

Theoretical Framework

The development of the Perceived Importance of Workplace Values is situated at the intersection of several influential theoretical paradigms within organizational sociology, organizational psychology, and political philosophy:

1. Political Philosophy and the Covenantal Relationship Model

Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch (1994) departed from purely economic or transactional perspectives of the employment relationship by drawing upon political philosophy (specifically the writings of Aristotle, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke) and theological models of covenant. Unlike a conventional, calculative contract that specifies an exact economic quid-pro-quo, a covenantal relationship represents an open-ended, mutual commitment based on shared moral and organizational values, profound trust, and reciprocal obligations. The PIWV captures the normative character of the institution: when an enterprise exhibits strong, enlightened workplace values (quality, innovation, voice, and mutual aid), it establishes the ideological prerequisites for employees to enter into a covenantal psychological contract, motivating citizenship behaviors that exceed standard job descriptions.

2. Organizational Culture and Psychological Climate Theory

The theoretical framework draws heavily upon Edgar Schein‘s hierarchical model of organizational culture, which delineates culture into observable artifacts, espoused values, and basic underlying assumptions. The PIWV functions primarily at the level of *espoused and enacted values*. It bridges the gap between organizational-level culture and individual-level psychological climate (James & Jones, 1974), recognizing that employees construct cognitive schemas of their work environment based on observed practices, institutional policies, and reinforcement patterns.

3. Social Exchange Theory and Norms of Reciprocity

Under Social Exchange Theory (Blau, 1964) and the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960), high-quality social exchanges generate generalized obligations. When an organization signals through its day-to-day operations that it prizes the holistic inputs of its workforce (participation), provides an enjoyable and cooperative environment, rewards innovative initiative, and strives for operational excellence, employees experience a cognitive drive to reciprocate with enhanced loyalty, conscientiousness, and contextual performance.

Validity

The construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity of the Perceived Importance of Workplace Values scale was rigorously established through the empirical validation protocols executed by Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch (1994).

Convergent and Criterion-Related Validity

In a heterogeneous sample spanning service, financial, and educational organizations, the authors examined how the PIWV interfaced with key relational constructs and employee work outcomes:

• Covenantal Relationships: The PIWV demonstrated a pronounced, statistically significant positive correlation with employee perceptions of a covenantal relationship (r > .40, p < .001). This validated the foundational theoretical hypothesis that shared high-level institutional values underpin relational, non-transactional employment ties.
• Organizational Citizenship Dimensions: PIWV scores exhibited significant positive correlations with multiple dimensions of citizenship behavior, most notably organizational loyalty (protecting organizational reputation and cooperating toward shared goals) and social participation (active involvement in governance and organizational community events).
• Attitudinal Indicators: Perceptions of workplace values were significantly and positively associated with overall job satisfaction, confirming that environments perceived as prioritizing quality, innovation, participation, and cooperation facilitate positive affective states at work.
• Demographic and Structural Variables: The measure showed positive correlations with organizational tenure and hierarchical job level, indicating that individuals who have invested longer tenures or achieved higher organizational responsibility generally internalize and perceive higher alignment with organizational values.

Discriminant Validity

Discriminant validity was established through factor analytic differentiations from related individual-difference measures (such as generalized positive affectivity and locus of control) and attitudinal variables. Critically, the PIWV demonstrated a substantial and statistically significant negative correlation with organizational cynicism (Van Dyne et al., 1994). Cynicism reflects a pervasive attitude of contempt, distrust, and frustration toward the organization; the strong inverse association confirms that the PIWV successfully distinguishes between employees who perceive institutional integrity and those who view organizational value assertions as hypocritical rhetoric.

Reliability

The reliability of the Perceived Importance of Workplace Values scale has been thoroughly demonstrated across psychometric evaluations:

• Internal Consistency: In the primary validation study conducted by Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch (1994), the overall 12-item scale achieved an internal consistency reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) of .89. This value comfortably exceeds the standard threshold of .70 recommended for exploratory research and the .80 criterion required for mature diagnostic instruments, indicating exceptional item homogeneity and minimal measurement error variance.
• Scale Inter-Item Associations: Average inter-item correlations across the 12 items consistently range within the optimal .35 to .55 corridor, demonstrating that while the items capture cohesive institutional priorities, they do not suffer from redundant or tautological phrasing.
• Composite and Subscale Properties: While frequently analyzed as an aggregate composite index of organizational value strength (as in Van Dyne et al., 1994), subscale-level internal consistency estimates for each of the three-item triads (Quality, Innovation, Participation, Cooperation) routinely exhibit acceptable alpha values ranging from .76 to .84 across independent organizational replications.

Factor Analysis

During the structural validation of the measurement batteries accompanying their citizenship framework, Van Dyne et al. (1994) subjected the workplace value items to exploratory and confirmatory analytic procedures to assess structural integrity:

Factor Structure and Loadings

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) employing principal axis factoring with both orthogonal (Varimax) and oblique (Promax) rotations revealed four distinct yet interrelated first-order factors corresponding to the theoretical quadrants: Quality, Innovation, Participation, and Cooperation. Each item demonstrated substantial standardized factor loadings on its intended latent factor (loadings typically exceeding .65, with secondary cross-loadings remaining well below the conventional .30 cutoff).

Higher-Order Modeling

Because the four first-order dimensions exhibited moderate-to-strong mutual intercorrelations (ranging from .45 to .62), structural equation modeling (SEM) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) evaluated both a four-factor correlated model and a hierarchical second-order model wherein a overarching latent construct—Perceived Importance of Workplace Values—accounts for the covariance among the four primary value dimensions. The second-order model demonstrated excellent goodness-of-fit indices (e.g., Comparative Fit Index [CFI] > .92, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation [RMSEA] < .06), confirming that researchers may defensibly utilize the PIWV either as a multidimensional profile or as a singular, aggregated continuous composite metric representing total perceived workplace value climate.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Instrument Name: Perceived Importance of Workplace Values (PIWV)
• Alternative Titles: Importance of Workplace Values Scale; Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch Workplace Values Inventory
• Authors: Linn Van Dyne, Jill W. Graham, and Richard M. Dienesch (1994)
• Test Type: Psychometric self-report survey / Organizational psychological climate scale
• Total Item Count: 12 standardized items
• Structural Subscales (4 dimensions, 3 items each):
  • Quality Orientation: Items 1, 2, 3
  • Innovation Orientation: Items 4, 5, 6
  • Participative Decision-Making: Items 7, 8, 9
  • Cooperation and Friendliness: Items 10, 11, 12
• Response Scale: 7-point Likert-type scale anchored as:
  • 1 = Not important at all
  • 2 = Low importance
  • 3 = Slightly important
  • 4 = Moderately important (Neutral mid-point)
  • 5 = Fairly important
  • 6 = Very important
  • 7 = Extremely important
• Scoring and Computational Rules:
  • All 12 items are positively keyed; no reverse scoring is required.
  • Subscale Scores: Computed by calculating the arithmetic mean of the three respective dimension items (subscale score range: 1.00 to 7.00).
  • Overall Composite Score: Calculated by summing all 12 items (total score range: 12 to 84) or by averaging all 12 items (composite mean range: 1.00 to 7.00), where higher scores indicate a stronger perceived institutional commitment to positive workplace values.
• Administration Time: Approximately 3 to 5 minutes.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Publication Year: 1994

Copyright and Intellectual Property: The Perceived Importance of Workplace Values scale was published in the Academy of Management Journal (Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 765–802) and is copyrighted by the Academy of Management (© 1994). The full item inventory was reproduced in the scientific appendix of the original publication (p. 801).

Usage Permissions: The instrument is accessible for non-commercial academic research, pedagogical use, and dissertation studies without licensing fees under fair-use scholarly research conventions, provided that appropriate citation and formal attribution are accorded to Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch (1994) and the Academy of Management. For commercial applications, institutional employee assessments, enterprise-wide benchmarking platforms, or reproduction within published textbooks, permission must be formally secured through the Academy of Management via the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC).

References

• Blau, P. M. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. John Wiley & Sons.
• Gouldner, A. W. (1960). The norm of reciprocity: A preliminary statement. American Sociological Review, 25(2), 161–178. https://doi.org/10.2307/2092623
• James, L. R., & Jones, A. P. (1974). Organizational climate: A review of theory and research. Psychological Bulletin, 81(12), 1096–1112. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0037511
• Schein, E. H. (1985). Organizational culture and leadership. Jossey-Bass.
• Van Dyne, L., Graham, J. W., & Dienesch, R. M. (1994). Organizational citizenship behavior: Construct redefinition, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 37(4), 765–802. https://doi.org/10.5465/256600

Items of the Scale