1 
 
 
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA 
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY 
LEGON 
 
SOCIO-CULTURAL VALUES ABOUT WORK AND WORK ATTITUDES: AN 
EXPLORATORY STUDY AMONG GHANAIAN WORKERS 
 
BY 
MARTHA ANYIMIAH ACKAH 
10082778 
 
THIS THESIS IS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON, IN 
PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MPHIL 
PSYCHOLOGY. 
 
 
JULY, 2014
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DECLARATION 
I, Martha Anyimiah Ackah, the author of this thesis, do hereby declare that except for references 
to other people’s work which I have duly acknowledged, the study herein presented is the first of 
its kind to be carried out in the Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Legon, during 
the 2013/2014 academic year under the objective supervision of Prof. Charity Akotia and Dr. 
Maxwell Asumeng. This work has never been submitted in any form, whole, or part for a degree 
in this University or elsewhere. 
 
…………………………………………                            ………………………………………… 
MARTHA ANYIMIAH ACKAH                                                           DATE 
                  (Student) 
This work has been submitted for examination with our approval as supervisors. 
 
………………………………………….                                       ……………………………….. 
 
PROF. CHARITY AKOTIA                                                               DATE 
(Principal Supervisor) 
 
…………………………………………                                .………………………………… 
DR. MAXWELL ASUMENG                                                                        DATE 
(Co- Supervisor) 
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DEDICATION 
This work is dedicated first and foremost to God Almighty for His endless grace and mercies, 
then to Rev.  Dr. Joseph K. K. Baisie for inspiring me and sponsoring this programme, to my 
incomparable family for their support and finally to my dear friends MissYaa Yeboah-Nyamekye 
and MrsYvonne Agbemabiese, you are just amazing. Thank you all. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
My utmost gratitude goes to God Almighty for making it possible for me to pursue this 
programme. My appreciation goes to my supervisors Prof. Charity Akotia and Dr. Maxwell 
Asumeng for their guidance and assistance during the course of this research work, thank you. I 
am also very grateful to Dr. Joseph Osafo for his assistance and contribution towards the 
completion of this work. I would like to express my profound gratitude to my friend Miss 
Jennifer Peprah for making time to proof read my work and also to Mr Richmond Acquah-
Coleman for his expert assistance and guidance with my data analysis as well with the entire 
work. My sincere appreciation goes to my colleague Mr. Richard Appiah for making time to 
audit my work and finally to my friend and mentor, Mrs Akweley Ohui Otoo, you have no idea 
how much you have enriched my life, thank you. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Table of Contents 
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................. i 
DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................ ii 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................................. iii 
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... iv 
LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... ix 
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ x 
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... xi 
CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................. 1 
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 
1.0 Background of Study ............................................................................................................. 1 
1.1 Work values ....................................................................................................................... 4 
1.2 Work ethic beliefs as a work attitude ................................................................................ 6 
1.3 Relationship between values and attitudes ........................................................................ 7 
1.4 Antecedents of work values and work ethic beliefs .......................................................... 8 
1.5 Influence of socio-cultural values on work values and attitudes ..................................... 10 
1.6 Consequences of work values and work ethic beliefs ..................................................... 13 
1.7 Problem statement- Ghanaian socio-cultural values and work attitudes ............................. 15 
1.8 Objectives of study .............................................................................................................. 16 
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1.9 Research questions .............................................................................................................. 16 
CHAPTER TWO .......................................................................................................................... 17 
LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................. 17 
2.0 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 17 
2.1. Theories of socio-cultural values and work attitudes ......................................................... 17 
2.1.1 Hofstede’s model on cultural values ............................................................................ 17 
2.1.2 Schwartz’s theory of cultural values ............................................................................ 19 
2.2.0 Review of related Studies ................................................................................................. 22 
2.2.1 Studies on socio-cultural and work values ................................................................... 22 
2.2.2 Studies on socio-cultural values and work ethic .......................................................... 27 
2.3 Overall critique of literature ................................................................................................ 30 
2.4 Rationale for conducting study ........................................................................................... 30 
2.5 Operational definition of terms ........................................................................................... 32 
CHAPTER THREE ...................................................................................................................... 33 
METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................................... 33 
3.0 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 33 
3.1.0 Population/Organisational setting .................................................................................... 33 
3.1.1 State Insurance Company Ghana Limited (SIC) .......................................................... 34 
3.1.2 Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) .......................................................................... 35 
3.1.3 Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) ................................................................................ 35 
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3.1.4 Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) ......................... 36 
3.2 Sample ................................................................................................................................. 37 
3.3 Research design ................................................................................................................... 38 
3.4 Materials .......................................................................................................................... 39 
Procedure/Data collection ......................................................................................................... 39 
3.5.0 Pilot study ..................................................................................................................... 39 
3.5.1 Main study .................................................................................................................... 40 
3.6 Reliability and Validity of Interview Data .......................................................................... 41 
3.7 Data Analysis Technique .................................................................................................... 43 
3.8 Ethical consideration ........................................................................................................... 44 
CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................................................. 46 
FINDINGS .................................................................................................................................... 46 
4.0 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 46 
4.1 Ghanaian societal beliefs about work.................................................................................. 46 
4.1.1 Work as a source of personal satisfaction .................................................................... 47 
4.1.2 Work as an obligation ................................................................................................... 51 
4.1.3 Status and Contribution ................................................................................................ 53 
4.2.0 Employee work values and goals ..................................................................................... 54 
4.2.1 Extrinsic work values ................................................................................................... 55 
4.2.2 Intrinsic work values and goals .................................................................................... 60 
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4.2.3 Social work values ........................................................................................................ 66 
4.4.0 Work ethic ........................................................................................................................ 69 
4.4.1 Success orientation ....................................................................................................... 69 
4.4.2 Self-reliance and teamwork .......................................................................................... 72 
4.5 Ghanaian socio-cultural values about work ........................................................................ 75 
4.6 Model of how socio-cultural values impact work values ................................................ 76 
CHAPTER FIVE .......................................................................................................................... 78 
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION .......................................................................................... 78 
5.0 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 78 
5.1.0 Ghanaian societal Beliefs about work .............................................................................. 78 
5.1.1 Work as a source of personal satisfaction .................................................................... 79 
5.1.2 Work as an obligation ................................................................................................... 80 
5.1.3 Status and contribution ................................................................................................. 81 
5.2 Employees’ work values and goals ..................................................................................... 82 
5.3 Work ethic ........................................................................................................................... 86 
5.4 Ghanaian socio-cultural values about work- Impact ........................................................... 87 
5.5 Limitations of the study....................................................................................................... 89 
5.6 Significance and implications of the study ......................................................................... 90 
5.7 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 91 
References ..................................................................................................................................... 93 
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APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................. 104 
Appendix 2- Ethical clearance letter .............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. 
Appendix 3- Sample of introductory letter to organisations .......... Error! Bookmark not defined. 
Appendix 4- Interview questions ................................................................................................ 109 
Appendix 5- Sample interview transcript ................................................................................... 110 
TABLES ..................................................................................................................................... 114 
Table 1: General themes of employee work goals and values ................................................ 114 
Summary of main and sub themes derived from data analysis ............................................... 116 
Table 2    Employee work goals and values ........................................................................ 116 
Table 3 Work ethic beliefs ................................................................................................... 116 
Table 4      Societal beliefs about work ............................................................................... 117 
TABLE 5 Employee biographic data ...................................................................................... 117 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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LIST OF TABLES                                                                                                          PAGE 
  
Table 1 General themes for employee work values and goals…………………………….107 
Table 2 Main and sub themes for employee work values and goals………………………109 
Table 3 Main and sub themes for employee work ethic…………………………………...110 
Table 4 Main and sub themes for Ghanaian societal beliefs…………………………….....110 
Table 5 Employee biographic data…………………………………………………………115 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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LIST OF FIGURES 
Figure 4.7………….Model of how socio-cultural values and other factors impact work values 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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ABSTRACT 
The present study explored Ghanaian socio-cultural values about work and work ethic beliefs of 
twenty-six employees of state owned organisations. Ghanaian socio-cultural values were 
investigated by examining societal beliefs about work and employee work goals/values. Work 
ethic beliefs examined in this study include employees’ success orientation and beliefs about 
self-reliance and teamwork. Data was collected through in-depth interviews and analysed using 
the Braun and Clark approach of conducting thematic analysis. Societal beliefs about work 
revealed the psychological function of work and also the view of work as a means of fulfilling 
religious and social obligations. Employee work values were found to be extrinsic (income and 
benefits, environment and security), intrinsic (work design, safety, personal growth and 
development, prestige) and social (interpersonal and contribution) consistent with findings 
obtained in other studies. Work ethic examined showed the Ghanaian belief in hard work and 
learning as vital in achieving success and also teamwork as the most effective way to achieve 
optimum results. Ghanaian socio-cultural values about work were found to express materialism, 
religiousness, respect for status and authority and an orientation towards group. Implications of 
these findings for management are discussed.   
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CHAPTER ONE 
INTRODUCTION 
1.0 Background of Study 
The area of work forms an important aspect of the adult life and for some people, life without 
work is unimaginable. Porter (2004) is of the view that work has attained a role as an integral 
part of personal identity such that loss of work is often equated to loss of personhood. Because of 
this significant role of work in the lives of people, they develop diverse attitudes towards it and 
these attitudes are influenced by underlying values. Values influence people’s perceptions, 
attitudes, and motivations (Ueda & Ohzono, 2012). According to Verplanken and Holland 
(2002), values are cognitions that may define a situation, elicit goals and guide action.  The 
prevailing socio-cultural milieu in a society is influential in the development of individual 
values. 
 
Cultural values have been defined as the broad goals that members of a group are encouraged to 
pursue and they serve to justify actions taken in pursuit of these goals (Schwartz, 1999). House, 
Javidan, Hanges and Dorfman (2002) in association with Project GLOBE (Global Leadership 
and Organisational Behaviour Effectiveness) described culture as shared motives, values, beliefs, 
identities and ascribed meanings to significant events that ensue from common experiences of 
members of a collective group and are transmitted across generations. Norms, practices, symbols 
and rituals that are commonly shared express underlying cultural values (Sagiv & Schwartz, 
2000) and cultural values play a vital role in the way social institutions function (Sagiv & 
Schwartz, 2007). Social values are described as a system of beliefs concerned with issues such as 
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competence and morality and are derived in large part from societal demands (Furnham, 1997). 
Akuoko (2008) is of the view that socio-cultural practices or values refer to the distinctive, 
spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterize a society or social group. 
Socio-cultural values therefore reflect the accepted way of life and standards for behaviour in a 
society and although individual differences exist and contribute to which values are internalized 
and upheld, the constraints that society places on individuals to act in prescribed and proscribed 
ways cannot be dismissed. 
 
The functions of values in the life of an individual contribute to explaining their very nature. 
According to Michod (1993), values increase an individual’s adaptive fitness because it prevents 
behavioural responses from being specified for each environment and situation separately. 
Values provide individuals with a means of choosing a course of action in hypothetical situations 
(Sagiv & Schwartz, 1995). Further, Verplanken and Holland (2002) concluded from a study that 
values had the ability to prime behavior in situations when both values and behavior were 
activated and were central to the individual.   
 
Values are perceived to be stable over time and this was confirmed by Lubinski, Schmidt and 
Benbow (1996) in a study on social values. These researchers observed that in a sample of gifted 
adolescents, their values remained stable over a period of twenty years. Dominant values 
remained either unchanged or only shifted to adjacent ones. Similarly, Schwartz, Bardi and 
Bianchi (2000) explained that cultural values are relatively stable over time. However, Schwartz 
(2006a) cited that due to societal adaptation to epidemics, increasing wealth, contact with other 
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cultures, technological advances among other factors, cultural value orientations are subject to 
change although this change is slow. 
 
It is believed that one of the fundamental goals of every organisation is survival and knowledge 
of the values of the society in which an organisation is nested is crucial to achieving this goal. 
Sagiv and Schwartz (2007) illustrated the important relationship between organisations and their 
societal culture by suggesting that the societal culture surrounding an organisation impacts the 
values of the organisation directly and also indirectly through its influence on the values of 
organisational members. It is in view of this important role of the socio-cultural environment to 
organisations that cross-cultural research on organisational behaviour has generated immense 
interest. 
 
One of the most influential studies on cross-cultural organisational behaviour was carried out by 
Hofstede (1980).  He derived four dimensions for comparing cultures from empirical studies of 
IBM (International Business Machines) in forty countries. These dimensions are power distance, 
uncertainty avoidance, individualism and masculinity/femininity. A similar but a more expanded 
theory was later proposed by Schwartz (1999) on which cultures can be compared based on three 
issues which he believes confronts all societies. These seven values are organized around three 
polar dimensions which are conservatism versus intellectual and affective autonomy; hierarchy 
versus egalitarianism; mastery versus harmony. Schwartz also hypothesized that cultural values 
have implications for the kind of work values or goals that are pursued in a particular society. 
These theories are explained into detail in chapter two. 
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Although some attitudes vary with culture (Hofstede, 1980; Schwartz, 1999), others have also 
been noted to be universal. For instance, studies by Bandura (2002) show that motives such as 
self-efficacy, need for achievement and intrinsic need for competence are universal. However, 
culture has been mentioned as influencing factors that drive these motives. 
 
1.1 Work values  
Work values are more specific expressions of general values (Ros, Schwartz & Surkiss, 1999) 
and hence socio-cultural values in the work setting. They were also described by these authors as 
beliefs pertaining to desirable end-states or behaviour at the work place. Work values are what 
people generally want out of work. Dose (1997) defined work values as standards of evaluation 
relating to work or the work environment by which individuals discern what is good or assess the 
importance of preferences. Another perspective was offered by Wallace and Lowe (2011) in 
which work values were referred to as meanings people impute to work activities.  
 
Theorists have suggested different taxonomies for work values. Hui (1992) proposed that work 
values are of two facets. One facet can be explained in terms of whether the work values concern 
an outcome of work (for example pay) or resource of work (for example reputation of 
organization). The other facet views work values as either being instrumental (for example, 
benefits), affective (for example, interpersonal relationships with co-workers) or cognitive (for 
example, achievement). Further analysis reveals that work values are generally either content or 
context oriented (Hui, 1992). Content-oriented work values focus on aspects of the work itself 
such as seeking challenge in work, achievement, hard work and opportunities for growth while 
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Context-oriented work values are associated with factors external to the work itself such as high 
salary, pleasant working environment and job security. 
 
Dose (1997) also proposed a model of work values which states that these values would differ 
along two dimensions: 1) personal versus social consensus dimension, 2) moral versus 
preference dimension. Social consensus work values are values that members of a particular 
culture accept as relatively important for the entire group as opposed to personal work values 
which are limited to a large extent to personal experience.  Work values that fall to the moral 
dimension of the pole describe standards of right and wrong and moral values may be held 
individually or by consensus. Preference work values are those that include standards of 
importance or liking excluding elements of right and wrong (Dose, 1997).  These two 
dimensions intersect to form an integrated structure comprising four derivatives which include 
social-moral, personal-moral, personal -preference and social-preference quadrants. 
 
Ros et al. (1999) also postulated four types of work values similar in many ways to what had 
already been identified by earlier researchers. These values are (1) intrinsic, for example, 
interesting and varied work, (2) extrinsic, for example, good salary and job security (3) social, 
such as contributing to people and society, (4) prestige, for example the authority to make 
decisions over others and engaging in highly valued work. These work values are compatible 
with the cultural values identified by Schwartz (1999).  
 
 
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1.2 Work ethic beliefs as a work attitude  
According to Buchholz (1976), work ethic is the belief that work is good in itself bestows dignity 
to a person and that success is as a result of personal effort. This researcher identified five beliefs 
about work and one of the indices which accounts for this measure is work ethic. In a more 
current research, Miller, Woehr and Hudspeth, (2001), described work ethic as a constellation of 
attitudes and beliefs that relate to work behaviour. These authors further described work ethic as 
a construct that is multidimensional, pertaining to work and work-related activities in general and 
not being specific to any particular job. Additionally, they mentioned that this construct is 
secular and not necessarily connected to one set of religious beliefs, learned and a motivational 
construct reflected in behaviour. Miller et al. further stated that the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) 
is now generally viewed as work ethic although some researchers are of the view that the two 
constructs are different (for example, Niles, 1999). However, in this study, both work ethic and 
PWE would be considered as synonymous. People who believe in the Protestant Work Ethic are 
achievement as well as success oriented and emphasize the need for efficacy and practicality, are 
likely to be anti-leisure, conservative and conscious about wasting money, time and energy 
(Furnham, 1997). 
 
Miller et al. (2001) based on a review of previous literature on work ethic proposed seven 
dimensions they believe describe the essence of the work ethic construct. These dimensions are 
centrality of work, self-reliance, hard work, leisure, morality/ethics, delay of gratification and 
wasted time. These authors defined centrality of work as the belief in work for its own sake and 
importance. Self-reliance refers to striving for independence in one’s daily work and the 
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dimension hard work describes a person’s belief in the virtues of hard work. Leisure was 
described in terms of a person’s belief in the importance of non-work activities. Morality/ethics 
is the belief in a just and moral existence and delay of gratification refers to an orientation 
toward the future and emphasis on the postponement of rewards. The final dimension which is 
wasted time is represented by a belief in active and productive use of time (Miller et al., 2001). 
 
Work ethic is acknowledged as an important determinant of work-related behaviours (Miller et 
al., 2001). This construct is believed to influence organizational productivity as well as personal 
success at work. It is also believed to directly affect employees’ work performance (Li & 
Madsen, 2009). 
 
1.3 Relationship between values and attitudes  
Values are groups of beliefs about an object or process (Furnham, 1997) and these beliefs form 
belief systems which influence behaviour. Attitudes on the other hand are evaluations or 
assessment of objects or events as good or bad, desirable or undesirable (Schwartz, 2012). 
According to Akuoko (2008), attitudes are the learnt and enduring tendency to perceive or 
respond to persons or situations in a particular way. 
 
Values underlie attitudes and form the basis of evaluations. Schwartz explained the difference 
between values and attitudes by asserting that values transcend specific actions and situations 
unlike attitudes which often refer to specific actions, objects or situations. Again, values are 
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ordered by importance relative to one another to form a hierarchy of priorities and this feature 
differentiates values from attitudes.  
 
Therefore, since values are at the very core of attitudes, it follows that at the root of the work 
ethic beliefs of any particular group are a set of unique socio-cultural values embraced by that 
society. 
 
1.4 Antecedents of work values and work ethic beliefs 
Some factors have been identified that are associated with the development of work values, some 
of which are demographic factors such as gender, age and educational level (Cassar, 2008; 
Hirschi, 2010). Other key factors that have been mentioned as determinants of work values are 
national culture (Hofstede, 1980; Sagiv & Schwartz, 2007; Schwartz, 1999) economic ideology 
(Ralston, Holt, Terpstra, & Kai-Cheng, 2008) and social institutions (Alas & Wei, 2008; 
Parboteeah, Cullen & Paik, 2013). Parboteeah et al. (2013) researched on national differences in 
work values by taking into account the impact of a social institution such as post-
industrialisation. The results showed a negative relationship between increased post-
industrialisation and both intrinsic and extrinsic work values. Post-industrialisation was 
measured in this study by using five items which were: mean years of education of the 
population which is a reflection of the increased level of education in society, number of 
computers per 1000 inhabitants which is a reflection of the increased application of technology, 
per capita energy use, percentage of urban population and percentage of workers involved in the 
services sector.  
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Although national culture has been identified to influence work attitudes of employees, 
according to Fischer, Ferreira, Assma, Redford and Harb (2005), the relationship between socio-
cultural dimensions and organizational behaviour is mediated by organizational practices. These 
researchers hypothesized that the socio-cultural milieu shapes organizational practices and also 
the impact of socio-cultural values on work attitudes is likely to be through organizational 
practices. Fischer et al. hypothesized that the organizational practices of an organization with 
culturally diverse employees are less strongly influenced by national culture as compared with an 
organization with less culturally diverse employees. Consequently, the impact of national culture 
on organizational practices is likely to be minimal if the organization is strongly influenced by 
foreign management practices. 
 
Job category (Ueda & Ohzono, 2012), personality (Bilsky & Schwartz, 1994), work experience 
(Busacca, Beebe & Tornan 2010), spirituality (Duffy, 2010) and socialization (Meglino & 
Ravlin, 1998) are all factors that have been identified to influence work values. 
 
Evidence shows that work ethic is influenced by culture. For example, Ali, Falcone and Azim 
(1995) in a study found that American employees scored higher on both protestant and 
contemporary work ethics than the Canadian sample. The protestant work ethic variable 
measured in this study was also observed to be correlated with the work involvement of the 
sample employees. Research also shows that Protestant Work Ethic is influenced by other factors 
such as gender and religiosity (Aygün, Arslan & Güney, 2008). 
 
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1.5 Influence of socio-cultural values on work values and attitudes 
One of the media through which socio-cultural values in a society are expressed by its members 
is work values. In the view of Matić (2008) work values in actual fact are measures of socio-
cultural dimensions. Socio-cultural values influence work attitudes and hence organizational 
outcomes through work values. Culture has been identified to impact a variety of organisational 
behaviours. For example, McLeod, Lobel and Cox (1996) found that ethnic diversity influenced 
performance by improving creativity on a task. In their study involving two samples, one 
culturally homogeneous and the other heterogeneous, these researchers found that the 
heterogeneous group made up of Anglo Asian, African and Hispanic Americans were more 
creative in their problem solving than the homogeneous Anglo-American group. A similar and 
more recent study by Stahl, Maznevski, Voigt and Jonsen (2009) showed that cultural diversity 
within teams leads to process gains through increased creativity. However, results obtained by 
Stahl et al. also proved that cultural diversity may lead to process losses via task conflict and 
decreased social integration.  
 
De Luque and Sommer (2000) theorized that culture influences feedback seeking behaviour of 
employees. They explained that in individualistic organizational settings or cultures, individuals 
would seek out feedback because of its impact on self-concept. However in collectivist settings, 
feedback-seeking behaviour would be aimed towards the betterment of the group through 
enhancing accuracy and understanding the task.  
 
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According to Aycan, Kanungo, Mendonca, Yu, Deller, Stahl et al. (2000), managerial 
perceptions of socio-cultural dimensions influences some human resource practices such as job 
enrichment, supervision and reward allocation. They observed that managers who perceived the 
socio-cultural context to be fatalistic did not apply job enrichment, empowering supervision and 
performance reward contingency.  The socio-cultural value fatalism was described in terms of 
the fact that it not possible to fully control the outcome of one’s behavior. Aycan et al. also 
observed that managers who perceived their socio-cultural context to be paternalistic and high on 
power distance did not administer job enrichment and empowerment. Paternalism was 
conceptualized in this study as the dyadic and hierarchical relationship that may exist between a 
superior and subordinate in which roles are differentiated.  
 
Results from similar studies conducted in the Ghanaian setting showed that culture influences 
some human resource practices or orgnisational behavior. In a study by Akuoko (2008), it was 
observed that traditional norms or values such as a strong passion for funerals, shared 
responsibility for extended family members, lateness inherent in the concept of time had a 
serious debilitating effect on the role of HRM in public sector organisations. In a related study by 
Amoah (2013), he identified some Ghanaian cultural variables and how they influence 
managerial practices in educational institutions in Ghana. This researcher observed that socio-
cultural values such as familism, ethnicity, respect for age, authority and traditional leadership, 
religious beliefs and fear of the unknown have consequences for work relations and management 
practices in the institutions used for the study. For example, it was observed in this study that 
close to 87% of the managerial personnel interviewed agreed with the assertion that personnel of 
their institutions were not accustomed to taking risks. Employees of the two universities used in 
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this study were oriented towards adhering to tradition and this behaviour according to 
respondents was as a result of fear in making mistakes which could result in their being penalised 
by their superiors. 
Further, research shows that culture impacts other work attitudes such as reward allocation 
(Fischer & Smith, 2003; Sama & Papamarcos, 2000), leadership (House, Javidan, Hanges & 
Dorfman, 2002), goal setting (Kurman, 2001) and organisational commitment (Andolsek & 
Stebe, 2004; Wasti, 2003). Andolsek and Stebe (2004) obtained results from their study of seven 
countries that material job values (extrinsic work values) were better predictors of organisational 
commitment in individualistic societies, whiles post-materialistic job values (intrinsic, social 
work values) were more predictive of organizational commitment in collectivistic societies. 
Kirkman and Shapiro (2001) also examined the relationship between the cultural values of 
members in self-managing work teams and team effectiveness mediated by team members’ 
resistance in Belgium, Finland, Philippines and United States. They found that teams higher in 
collectivism were more productive, cooperative and empowered. 
 
Other studies have sought to examine the moderating role of culture instead. For example, Huang 
and Van de Vliert (2003) investigated the moderating role of culture on the individual level 
relationship between job characteristics and job satisfaction. Results showed that extrinsic job 
characteristics were strongly and positively related to job satisfaction across all the countries 
used in the study. However, the relationship between intrinsic job characteristics and job 
satisfaction was stronger for richer, more individualistic, low power distance countries with 
better governmental social welfare programs. 
 
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Research shows that culture influences work ethic beliefs as well. For example studies by 
Woehr, Arciniega and Lim (2007) and Slabbert and Upkere (2011) provide such support. 
Slabbert and Upkere (2011), based on the findings from their study which compared the work 
ethic of South African and Chinese employees stated that the higher work ethic of the Chinese 
sample in the study could be a contributing factor to the relatively higher economic productivity 
of China. Also, Robertson, Al-Habib, Al-Khatib and Lanoue (2001) found that Saudi Arabians 
have a stronger work ethic than Kuwaitis. 
 
1.6 Consequences of work values and work ethic beliefs 
Employee work values in many ways influence their work attitudes and hence impact 
organisational outcomes. Knowledge and appreciation of employees’ work value patterns could 
fairly equip a manager to anticipate how employees would react to various assignments, 
inducements, and work environments (Lyons, Higgins & Duxbury, 2010). Borgulya and Hahn 
(2008) shared similar views by expressing that work-related values could influence the manner 
in which employees can be attracted, maintained and motivated by a company and also added 
that they may also lead to tensions and cultural conflicts at the workplace. 
 
Sagie, Elizur and Koslowsky (1996) proposed a comprehensive model on the effects of work 
values in which work values could be viewed as antecedents of behaviours such as performance, 
attendance and withdrawal. The model also suggested that work values could be conceptualized 
as consequences, moderators or mediators of behaviour depending on the perspective of the 
researcher. They suggested that a researcher interested in work values as an antecedent of 
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performance could view culture as a moderator whiles work values could be considered as a 
moderator in a situation where the researcher wants to examine the influence of cross-cultural 
differences on performance.   
 
Alas (2009) provided evidence that work values predict attitudes toward change and 
organizational learning. For instance, it was observed that social values predict collective 
learning. Also, ethical work values (honesty, preservation of self-respect and democratic 
management) were noted to be one of the best predictors of attitudes toward change out of nine 
work values examined in the study. 
 
Also, Ueda & Ohzono (2012) examined the impact of work values (intrinsic and extrinsic) on 
work outcomes (job satisfaction, overall satisfaction, sense of personal growth, perceived task 
performance skill, and perceived human relations skill) and observed that intrinsic work values 
generally have a positive effect on work outcomes. These researchers found that the intrinsic 
work values labelled challenging job and self-actualization had significant positive effects on the 
work outcomes labelled as sense of growth, perceived task performance and perceived human 
relations skills. On the other hand, they observed that extrinsic rewards (extrinsic work values) 
had a negative influence on all the work outcomes investigated in the study. 
 
Work ethic beliefs are positively related to personal satisfaction and productivity (Furnham, 
1990). A decline in work ethic has been associated with a rise in counterproductive behaviours 
such as unauthorized breaks and theft (Sheehy, 1990). 
 
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1.7 Problem statement- Ghanaian socio-cultural values and work attitudes 
It is believed that individuals on their own can do little which is a major reason why 
organisations are formed. For this reason, the human resource of every organisation forms an 
important component of its existence and the ability to effectively manage it is fundamental to 
the survival of organisations. Businesses are becoming increasingly global therefore knowledge 
and understanding of the values of members of an organisation plays an important role in 
effective human resource utilization. However, managers of existing times have failed to 
effectively harness the benefits of cultural diversity among employees of their organisations 
(Adewole, 2012) and this may be because of the scarcity of studies that explore deeply employee 
work values and provide adequate information on what employees from diverse backgrounds 
find most fulfilling and rewarding in work.   
Studies by Hofstede (1980) revealed that African countries are high on the dimensions power 
distance, collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and on the masculinity-femininity gap. He asserted 
that high power-distant cultures are more susceptible to organizational behaviours such as close 
supervision, fear of disagreement with a supervisor and mistrust among workers. He pointed out 
that individuals from cultures that are high on uncertainty-avoidance are more opposed to 
change. Hofstede (1980) also identified that people from masculine cultures in comparison to 
those from feminine ones have a stronger motivation to achieve and they view work as more 
central to their lives. Hofstede’s findings although widely accepted are dated. Also, Hofstede’s 
research did not extensively study African cultural values since only one African country (South 
Africa) was used in his study. Currently there is also no known research on work ethic of 
Ghanaians despite its predictive power of certain organisational behaviours. It is in light of these 
observations and gaps that this research is being conducted. 
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1.8 Objectives of study 
The main objectives of this study are: 
1. To explore Ghanaian socio-cultural values about work. This would be accomplished 
through: 
 Examining the work goals/work values of Ghanaians 
 Investigating Ghanaian societal beliefs about work 
2. To examine the Ghanaian work attitude specifically work ethic beliefs. 
 
1.9 Research questions 
1. What are Ghanaian societal beliefs about work?  
2. Which work goals/work values do Ghanaians seek and consider important? 
3. Which work ethic beliefs do Ghanaians hold? 
4. Which socio-cultural values are reflected in the work values, societal beliefs about work 
and work ethic of Ghanaians? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER TWO 
LITERATURE REVIEW 
2.0 Introduction 
Differences in socio-cultural values among employees can pose a major challenge to managers 
who work in multicultural settings because among other things it brings on the added task of 
seeking the most effective way of motivating employees, which forms one of the key roles of 
managers. Theories on cultural values have been employed to explain differences in work-related 
values and attitudes across nations. The first part of this section would discuss two very 
significant theories on socio-cultural values and how these theories are adopted to explain certain 
work attitudes whereas the second part would analyse selected literature on socio-cultural values 
and how they impact work values and attitudes. 
 
2.1. Theories of socio-cultural values and work attitudes 
2.1.1 Hofstede’s model on cultural values 
Hofstede’s (1980) model initially comprised four cultural values namely power distance, 
uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism and masculinity versus femininity. This 
model was later updated to include two other dimensions (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010) 
labelled as long term versus short term orientation and indulgence versus restraint. Hofstede 
(2011) described power distance as the degree of power disparity that is considered normal in a 
society and uncertainty-avoidance as a measure of people’s preference for structured situations 
over unstructured ones. According to Hofstede, individualism is the extent to which members of 
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a group prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of a group. In contrast, individuals 
from collectivist cultures are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups (Hofstede, 2011). High 
masculinity cultures emphasize material things, differentiated sex roles, power, competitiveness 
and assertiveness while high femininity cultures value people, quality of life and nurturance; 
emphasize fluid sex roles, service and interdependence. Long term versus short term orientation 
was defined as being related to the choice of focus for people's efforts in terms of the future or 
the present and past. Hofstede (2011) described indulgence versus restraint as being related to 
the gratification versus control of basic human desires related to enjoying life. These cultural 
values have been found to correlate with other variables. Hofstede however explained that in 
correlating the dimensions with other data, the influence of national wealth (Gross National 
Product per capita) should always be taken into account. 
 
Hofstede (1980) explained how these cultural dimensions reflect in behavior at the work place 
and how work activities are constructed. In high power distance cultures for instance, 
organisations tend to be hierarchical whereas in low power distance cultures, they tend to have a 
flat structure. In high uncertainty avoidance organisations on one hand, written rules and policies 
dominate in order to reduce uncertainty. In low uncertainty avoidance organisations on the other 
hand, there are fewer written rules and rituals. Persons with high individualistic values tend to 
care about self-actualization and career progress in the organisation whereas people low on 
individualism values tend to value organisational benefits more than their own interests. In 
highly masculine cultures, very few women can ascend to higher levels or obtain better paying 
jobs. In highly feminine organisations however, women can attain more equitable organisational 
status. 
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Inasmuch as Hofstede’s (1980) model is widely accepted and employed to explain organisational 
behaviour across cultures, it is also dated. A more recent theory on cultural values by Schwartz 
(1999) which encompasses Hofstede’s theory is explained in the next section. 
 
2.1.2 Schwartz’s theory of cultural values 
Schwartz (1999) proposed a theory for comparing cultures by considering three issues that 
confront all societies and explaining strategies that are adopted in resolving these issues. The 
first issue focuses on defining the kind of relationship between the individual and the group. One 
pole of the dimension related to the resolution of this issue is called conservatism. This value 
type describes a culture that seeks to maintain the status quo and restrain actions that might 
disrupt the traditional order. Conservatism is associated with value items such as maintaining the 
social order, respect for tradition, family security and wisdom. The opposite pole of this 
dimension pertains to cultures in which the individual is considered as an autonomous actor in 
the society and is encouraged to express his/her uniqueness and internal attributes. This side of 
the pole is referred to as autonomy. Autonomy is of two types; 1.Intellectual autonomy which is 
expressed by cultures in which the individual is encouraged to independently pursue his/her own 
ideas and intellectual directions such as creativity, curiosity, broadmindedness. 2. Affective 
autonomy is characteristic of cultures in which emphasis is placed on the pursuit of affective 
positive experience such as pleasure, exciting life and living a varied life. 
 
The second issue that all societies face according to Schwartz (1999) concerns ensuring 
responsible behaviour that would preserve the social fabric. One dimension of the pole which 
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describes how this issue is resolved is called hierarchy. This is expressed through emphasis on 
the legitimacy of unequal distribution of power, roles and resources and is represented by 
upholding value items such as social power, authority, humility and wealth. However, in some 
cultures, this issue is resolved through emphasis on commitment to voluntary cooperation and 
concern for others. This mode of resolution, describing the other dimension of the pole is termed 
egalitarianism and is expressed through preference for values such as equality, social justice, 
freedom, responsibility and honesty. 
 
The third basic issue has to do with the relation of humans to the natural and social worlds. One 
pole of the dimension which describes how this problem is solved is termed mastery. This value 
type is evident in cultures that stress the need to master and change the world, assert control, 
exploit it in order to further personal or group interests. This value is expressed through emphasis 
on ambition, success, being daring and competent. In contrast, the issue could be resolved by 
way of accepting the world as it is and harmoniously fitting into the environment. This 
dimension of the pole is called harmony and is described by value items such as being united 
with nature, protecting the environment and seeking to maintain a world of beauty. 
 
These value dimensions are considered to be opposed to each other and as a result an emphasis 
on a value type in a culture is accompanied by a de-emphasis on the opposite polar dimension or 
value. However, certain value types share similar assumptions and as such could be emphasized 
simultaneously in a particular culture. Schwartz proposed that these cultural values can be 
utilized to predict and understand national differences in work-related issues. 
  
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Schwartz explained that cultural values could be inferred from work centrality, societal norms 
about work and work values or goals individuals pursue at work. Work centrality according to 
the Meaning of Work or MOW international team (1987) refers to the importance and 
significance of work in the life of a person relative to four other areas of life namely leisure, 
community, religion and family. Schwartz hypothesized that work is more likely to be central in 
societies where mastery and hierarchy are important and less where affective autonomy, 
egalitarianism, harmony and conservatism are important. He explained that this was so because 
in most societies, the major legitimate avenue for such assertive, controlling, exploitative activity 
characteristic of mastery and hierarchy cultural values is the area of work. Societal norms about 
work could take the stance of perceiving work either as an obligation or as an entitlement 
(Meaning of Work Team, 1987). Societies which view work as an entitlement regard the 
individual as an equal autonomous actor (Schwartz, 1999). This view is guided by autonomy and 
egalitarianism values. Egalitarianism value is depicted where all workers are viewed as 
deserving similar outcomes whereas intellectual autonomy is represented in societies where work 
provided is expected to be interesting and meaningful. Norms that work is an obligation is 
guided by conservatism and hierarchy values. 
 
Schwartz also hypothesized that the pursuit of intrinsic work goals would reflect the socio-
cultural values intellectual and affective autonomy while the pursuit of extrinsic work goals 
would reflect the socio-cultural values conservatism and hierarchy. Social work value is 
compatible with egalitarianism and harmony and prestige/power work values are emphasized in 
societies where the values hierarchy and mastery are dominant. Therefore, the use of 
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power/prestige as a motivator is likely to be effective in cultures where mastery and hierarchy 
values are emphasized. 
 
2.2.0 Review of related Studies 
2.2.1 Studies on socio-cultural and work values 
Current research on work values seems to be focused on two major arguments. Some literature 
support the idea that work values remain divergent while other authors are of the view that work 
values are rather converging in the face of increased globalisation. Harvey, Carter and Mudimu 
(2000) demonstrated the view of work values divergence in a comparative study involving 117 
Zimbabwean and 82 British managers and management students. The results indicated that the 
values labelled status, position, pride and prestige were more important to the African sample 
than the British. The African respondents were also observed to place more value on social 
approval than the British respondents. One critique of this study is that a total number of 38 
Mann-Whitney U and 32 ANOVA tests were conducted in order to test the hypotheses thereby 
increasing the risk of type one error. As a result of this, there is a possibility that some of the 
observed differences between the samples were due to chance.  
Similarly, Lim (2002) assessed the work values of Japanese and Malaysian employees by 
employing the use of Hofstede’s (1984) Value Survey Module. Data was collected from 204 
employees via mail and by adopting a t-test the results obtained showed that the two national 
samples differed in the cultural dimensions identified by Hofstede (1980). Japan scored higher 
on uncertainty avoidance and individualism whereas Malaysia also scored higher on power 
distance and masculinity cultural dimensions. A critique of this study from the current 
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researcher’s view is that the two national samples used for this study were not matched in terms 
of gender and level of education. For example, 59.3% of the Malaysian respondents had received 
tertiary education as compared to 85.4% of the Japanese respondents. There were also more male 
respondents in the Japanese sample (81%) than in the Malaysian sample (74%). Gender and 
educational level have been cited as some of the antecedents of work values (Cassar, 2008; 
Hirschi, 2010). However, the relative contributions of these variables were assessed during the 
analysis. 
 
Also, Ali and Al-Kazemi (2005) examined work values and orientations of 762 managers 
working in Kuwait and found significant differences in the work values of Kuwaitis and 
expatriates working in the country. Expatriates scored relatively higher on six statements 
concerning feelings of accomplishment, advancement, benefits, prestige, opportunities for 
personal growth and responsibility for decision-making than Kuwaiti nationals. The Kuwaiti 
nationals however scored higher on statements measuring independence at work and job interest. 
 
In a more recent research, Zhang, Straub and Kusyk (2007) compared the work values of 389 
business students from two French regions being Quebec (Canada) and France. By adopting the 
use of an independent- samples t-test, the hypothesis that the life and work values of the two 
samples would vary was supported. The French Canadians were observed to rate more important 
work context values than the French. The French Canadians also attached a greater meaning to 
work content values such as work satisfaction, good work ambience, work- commitment and 
action liberty than the French students. One critique of this study from the current researcher’s 
view concerns the use of student samples in the study. According to Wallace and Lowe (2011), 
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work values are subject to change after employees experience particular work roles. Therefore, 
the work values of the students used in the study are susceptible to change after they enter the 
labour market and different results could be obtained with the same sample after some years. 
 
Some studies have focused on examining how employees who share a common national identity 
but from different ethnic backgrounds differ in their work values. In a study by Adewole (2012) 
examining the impact of cultural differences on work-related values among some Nigerian 
employees, it was found that there was a significant relationship between cultural background 
and work values implying that the cultural background of employees determine their work 
related values. This finding gives some justification to the critique of cross-cultural studies by 
some researchers (for example, Fischer et al., 2005) concerning the assumption of sample 
homogeneity on the basis of participants sharing a common national identity. 
 
Further proof for the divergence of work values was obtained by Borgulya and Hahn (2008) by 
using findings from the 1999/2000 European Value Survey. Differences in work values were 
observed among 14 Central and Eastern European countries in terms of the importance of the 
opportunity to use initiative, the importance of respect for a certain job in society and whether 
the job is useful to society. However, results also showed that both Central and Eastern 
Europeans attach similar importance to high salaries.  
 
Other researchers have sought to investigate how both work values and Protestant Work Ethic 
(PWE) vary by culture. Aygün, Arslan and Güney (2008) evaluated the influence of culture on 
work values and PWE of 477 undergraduate American and Turkish students and obtained results 
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which showed that culture significantly affects PWE and work values. Data collection was 
accomplished through questionnaires and a 2x2 MANCOVA was used to explore cross-cultural 
and gender differences in work values, using three-work values as dependent variables. The 
work values investigated in this study were masculinity, femininity and entrepreneurial 
(achievement orientation). The main effect of culture was found to be significant, (F (1, 457) = 
23.66, p < 0.001). The Turkish sample scored higher on both work values and PWE than the 
Americans. One critique of this research from the current researcher’s perspective was the use of 
undergraduate students as sample for the study. Again, students are generally not in the labour 
force and since work values are influenced by work experience, the work values measured in this 
study could change for both samples after some years of work.  
 
Jaw, Ling, Wang and Chang (2007) investigated the relationship between cultural values 
(Confucian dynamism, individualism, masculinity and power distance) and work values (self-
enhancement, contribution to society, rewards and stability, openness to change and power and 
status). Confucian dynamism was defined as the measure of the virtues of thrift and 
perseverance, respect for tradition and protecting one’s image (similar to conservatism). Data 
was collected via questionnaires from 185 Chinese participants. The two samples used for this 
study comprised Chinese employees living in China and those working or living in Australia. 
The results showed that cultural values impact work values. A structural equation model depicted 
a causal relationship between the four cultural and five work values. All the relationships were 
significant at the p < 0.001 level except for the relationship between masculinity and stability and 
rewards. Masculinity values had negative effects on stability and rewards. The results further 
showed that Chinese respondents living in the western environment scored higher on Confucian 
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dynamism and individualism than those without any exposure to western environment. This 
finding provided support for the hypothesis that there would be cultural and work values 
differences between the two Chinese samples. Results from this study shows that living in a 
particular socio-cultural context regardless of nationality could influence one’s values. One 
limitation of this study is the fact that the samples used were not equivalent in terms of 
demographic variables such as job category, gender and educational level. As a result, these 
variables could have contributed to the observed relationships.  
 
In spite of the compelling evidence provided to support cultural diversity of work values, there 
are other researchers who have also obtained results suggesting that work values are attaining 
homogeneity. For example, Chatterjee and Pearson (2000) obtained findings that suggest that 
there is an emergence of global value paradigms among senior level Indian managers. Also, the 
results suggested that Indian managerial work goals tend to be consistent with attributes needed 
in a market dominated business culture.  
 
In another study, a cross-national comparison of work values among employees from China, 
Indonesia and Korea by Shin (2004), it yielded the results that some work values were universal 
among all the samples included in the study. For instance, it was observed that having a good 
relationship with one’s supervisor had a strong positive association with employee commitment 
for all the employees from the three countries. Similar findings were obtained by Matić (2008) in 
a study examining the relationship between culture and work values. The results showed that 
great similarities existed between the American and Croatian student samples used in the study 
in terms of their value priorities and preferences. The work values labelled working for a 
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company that cares about its employees, opportunity for advancement, interesting work or sense 
of accomplishment and working with people who cooperate well with each other emerged as the 
top four work values, although in different combinations for each group. There were however 
also some significant differences in the responses for both samples. For example, the Croatian 
sample expressed a greater preference for the value item freedom to implement one’s own 
approach than the American group.  
 
The idea as to whether work values are converging or still remain divergent is one of continuous 
debate. In order for a multinational organization to be considered truly global, then the diverse 
individual work values from its various geographic locations must converge into a common set 
of values creating a universal corporate culture (Ralston et al., 2008). This corporate culture is 
thought to originate from the values of organizational members. However, Ralston et al. 
suggested that at present, a corporate strategy that seeks to understand and coordinate cultural 
values would be more beneficial to organisations than attempting to integrate individual values 
into a single corporate culture. This view further endorses value research as vital to maximizing 
the human resource potential of organisations. 
 
2.2.2 Studies on socio-cultural values and work ethic 
The work ethic belief has received little attention in the behavioural sciences in spite of its 
predictive power of some work attitudes. This construct is believed to differ across cultures and 
may account for variations in levels of productivity among employees from diverse cultural 
backgrounds. For instance, Slabbert and Upkere (2011) compared the work ethic of South 
African and Chinese employees and found significant differences between the two samples with 
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the Chinese employees exhibiting a higher work ethic. These authors hypothesized that there 
may be a link between work ethic and national economic success. Similar findings were obtained 
by Niles (1999) in a comparative study involving workers from Australia and Sri Lanka. The Sri 
Lankans seemed to endorse more hard work, self-reliance and independence than the 
Australians. However, the Sri Lankans were not as wholly committed to the belief that hard work 
leads to success as the Australians. 
 
Similarly, Robertson, Al-Khatib and Al-Habib (2002) investigated the relationship between 
individual cultural values and work-related beliefs among 365 employees from Saudi Arabia and 
Kuwait using a quasi-experimental design. By employing hierarchical regression, the hypothesis 
that the more an individual endorses the cultural value masculinity, the stronger the belief in 
work ethic as a valuable ideal was supported. The overall work ethic model was significant (F = 
2.11; p < .05) as well as the masculinity variable (ß = .12; p < .05). One limitation of this study is 
the fact that organisational culture was not controlled for in the study which could lead to the 
observed relationship being open to alternative explanations. 
 
Also, Basabe and Ros (2005), based on results from a meta-analytic study which evaluated the 
relationship between cultural dimensions and social behavior, concluded that success orientation 
and protestant work ethic beliefs are emphasized in developing, collectivist and high power 
distance countries.  
 
In another study by Woehr, Arciniega and Lim (2007) examining the work ethic across three 
cultures namely United States, Mexico and South Korea, using the Multidimensional Work-Ethic 
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Profile inventory (MWEP), substantive differences were found among these cultures. The results 
showed that the South Korean sample was statistically higher on the self-reliance and hard work 
dimensions and statistically lower on the leisure and morality/ethics dimensions than the other 
two groups. All the groups were statistically significantly different on the centrality of work 
dimension, with the participants from United States scoring a significantly lower value than the 
Mexican participants, who also scored significantly lower than the Korean participants. 
However, there were no statistically significant differences across sample means for two of the 
subscales (that is delay of gratification and hard work). 
 
In a qualitative study by Li and Madsen (2010), they examined the perceptions of work ethic of 
eight Chinese managers working in state owned enterprises using a series of in-depth interviews. 
Data analysis by way of a thematic approach identified five emerging themes which were hard 
work, concept of time, self-reliance and cooperation, centrality of work, and morality/ethics. The 
sample managers used for this study generally viewed hard work as important but also 
acknowledged that hard work alone does not bring success. The managers were of the view that 
other factors such as relationship with superiors, family connections and organizational 
profitability all play important roles in personal achievement of success. One emerging sub-
theme under the major theme labelled as hard work was that success is defined by the boss. This 
perception could have serious implications for work ethic of employees and influence the 
amount of effort they invest in their work. 
 
Ceri-Booms (2013) also compared the work ethic of 1507 full-time employees from Russia, 
Azerbaijan and Turkey by using data from the European Value Survey (2008). A Multivariate 
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Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) revealed a multivariate size of 0.14 suggesting that 14% 
of the variability in work ethic across the five items measuring work ethic is accounted for by 
culture.  Further, an average of the scores of four out of the five items measuring work ethic 
showed that Russia had significantly the lowest ratings while Turkey had the highest. One 
critique of this study however is that the samples used were not matched in terms of age, 
education and gender therefore introducing the element of sample bias into the study. 
 
2.3 Overall critique of literature 
A review of the literature reveals that qualitative studies on socio-cultural values, work values 
and work ethic remain sparse. This is because for most cross-cultural studies on work values, the 
objective is not to seek out how individuals construct their own meaning of work but to rate them 
on predetermined ones. In the case of work ethic or attitudes, the goal of researchers is usually to 
examine the relationship between culture and work attitudes but rarely to explore these attitudes 
in depth. It is in view of this observed gap that this study was conducted. 
 
2.4 Rationale for conducting study 
Most management theories originate from the Western world in which American cultural 
stereotypes still prevail (Blunt & Jones, 1997). This implies that some of these theories are based 
on certain prior assumptions about cultural groups which may not be entirely true. Also, some of 
these Western theories have sometimes failed to be fully validated by other researchers. For 
example, Lim (2002) obtained a significantly different score from what was obtained by 
Hofstede (1980) for Japan on the cultural dimension labelled masculinity. Apart from this 
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discrepancy, it has also been contended that Hofstede’s findings on Sub-Saharan Africa are 
atypical because data for analysis was collected from only one African country which is South 
Africa (Harvey, Carter & Mudimu, 2000). Findings from this study will therefore bring to bear 
the exact socio-cultural values that characterize work in the Ghanaian society. Also, most 
research on values have been impaired by issues of measurement and definition (Blunt & Jones, 
1997; Munro, 1986). For example, although Schwartz’s (1992; 1994a) theory of individual 
values has been confirmed by a number of studies, some deviations have also been observed in 
the proposed theoretical pattern among individuals with a low level of education in certain 
countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Schwartz, Melech, Lehmann, Burgess, Harris & Owens, 2001), 
and these researchers attributed the observed deviations to the applicability of the Schwartz 
Value Survey. This study, being a qualitative one will overcome this issue and present a more 
realistic picture of the value system governing work in Ghana. 
 
Another major concern that has been raised about studies on socio-cultural values is the use of 
the average of individual scores of respondents to represent values of a particular society or 
group as is the case in Schwartz’s (1999) study on cultural values. These values are simply a 
reflection of personal value preferences of samples used in such studies. According to Fischer, 
Ferreira, Assma, Redford & Harb (2005), culture level dimensions should reflect properties of 
the larger society. These authors also asserted that individuals are able to provide reliable and 
valid reports on their national cultural characteristics. However, this feature is missing from most 
studies on socio-cultural values. This study seeks to fill that gap because participants would be 
queried on their personal values about work as well as those prevailing in the Ghanaian society. 
 
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Additionally, there is increasing evidence that Western management theories on work values 
need to be adapted to the cultural features of African countries (Munro, 1986) and this study 
would provide valuable insights into the nature of values and attitudes about work which would 
be useful in developing human resource strategies and policies well suited for the Ghanaian 
culture. Findings from this study could also contribute to the development of international human 
resource policies. 
 
Finally, although studies on socio-cultural and work values abound, studies that seek to identify 
particular values which are prevalent in certain societies and also understand their nature are 
limited. This study, being a qualitative one will contribute to identifying and understanding 
Ghanaian socio-cultural values about work and how these values influence work ethic. 
 
2.5 Operational definition of terms 
Work: Any activity that generates income. 
Socio-cultural values about work: This refers to the system of beliefs that pertain to work in 
the Ghanaian society. 
Work values/goals: This refers to what employees want out of work in general. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER THREE 
METHODOLOGY 
3.0 Introduction 
This section provides a detailed description of the sampling techniques adopted, organisational 
setting of the selected organisations, sample size, research design and the materials used for 
conducting the study. Additionally, information on data collection procedure, data analysis and 
approach for handling ethical issues are explained in this chapter. 
 
3.1.0 Population/Organisational setting 
The population for this study consisted of employees from the following state owned 
organisations in branches in the Greater Accra metropolis; State Insurance Company of Ghana, 
Electricity Company of Ghana, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and 
Ghana Revenue Authority. The rationale for using state owned organisations is that national 
culture and hence country of origin of organisation influences human resource choices and 
policies (Aycan, et al., 2000). Aycan (2000a) explained further by stating that organizational 
practices tend to act as a mediator between national culture and work attitudes. Also, Fischer et 
al. (2005) proposed that the influence of national culture on organizational practices will be 
weakened if the organization is strongly influenced by foreign management techniques. Because 
there is a higher likelihood of foreign owned organisations adopting policies from their country 
of origin, it was deemed appropriate that the population for this study be made up of employees 
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of state owned organisations because of the possibility of minimal exposure to foreign policies 
and values. 
 
3.1.1 State Insurance Company Ghana Limited (SIC)  
State Insurance Company Ghana Limited (SIC) is one of the oldest and leading providers of 
general or non-life insurance products in Ghana. The company’s business operations cover fire, 
motor, marine and aviation, accident insurance and specialty insurance products such as hoteliers 
and leisure policy. The company dates back to 1955 when the Gold Coast Insurance Company 
was established. It was then renamed Ghana Insurance Company in 1957 when Ghana gained 
independence. In 1960, Ghana Insurance Company which was primarily a life assurance 
company established a subsidiary company called Ghana General Insurance Company to 
underwrite fire and motor businesses. The government of Ghana in February 1962 per an 
Executive Instrument took over the Ghana Cooperative Insurance Company and reconstituted it 
into the State Insurance Corporation to await the completion of takeover negotiations with Ghana 
Insurance Company and its subsidiary company being Ghana General Insurance Company. 
Subsequently, after a successful takeover of the two private companies; Ghana Insurance and 
Ghana General, the new company bearing the name State Insurance Corporation commenced 
business in November, 1962. In 1995, State Insurance Corporation was converted into a public 
limited liability company as part of the government of Ghana’s divestiture programme. The 
company then adopted the new name of State Insurance Company of Ghana Limited with the 
government of Ghana as the sole shareholder and by a special resolution passed on 22nd October, 
2007, the name of the company was changed to SIC Insurance Company Limited. SIC currently 
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operates in all the ten regions of Ghana and as at 2006, SIC had approximately 40% of the 
insurance industry’s total market share. 
 
3.1.2 Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) 
Electricity Company of Ghana was incorporated in 1963 and became a limited company when 
shares were first sold in the firm in February 1997. However the company is still wholly owned 
by the government of Ghana and operating under the Ministry of Energy. The enactment of the 
Electricity Corporation Decree, 1967 (NLCD 125) and the repeal of the Electricity Act, 
established the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG). For about two decades afterwards, ECG 
remained the entity solely responsible for electricity supply and the distribution networks 
nationwide. Until July 1987, the corporation was responsible for distributing and supplying 
power across the entire country. The Northern Electricity Department (NED) was created in 
1987 as a subsidiary of the Volta River Authority (VRA) to take charge of the management of 
electric power distribution in Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions. 
However, ECG is still responsible for the distribution of electricity in the southern parts of 
Ghana which consist of Ashanti, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra, Volta and Western Regions. 
 
3.1.3 Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) 
In December 2009, the three tax revenue agencies in Ghana being the Customs Exercise and 
Preventive Service (CEPS), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Value Added Tax Service 
(VATS) and the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB) secretariat were merged in 
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accordance with Ghana Revenue Act 2009, Act 791. The Ghana Revenue Authority replaces the 
revenue agencies in the administration of taxes and customs duties in Ghana. 
 
3.1.4 Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) 
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice is a state institution with the sole 
responsibility of protecting fundamental human rights and ensuring good governance for every 
person in Ghana. The Commission was given a broad mandate to achieve this mission by the 
1992 Constitution of Ghana and by its enabling Act, Act 456, in 1993. The Commission’s 
mandate is threefold. It encompasses: 
1. A national human rights institution 
2. An Ombudsman, an agency which ensures administrative justice 
3. An anti-corruption agency for the public sector 
The Commission was vested with this broad and inclusive mandate for several reasons. 
International standards for National Human Rights Institutions, including the Paris Principles, 
recommend that National Human Rights Institutions in developing countries be given a broad 
mandate within the constitution, so they can use their limited resources to the greatest possible 
effect. Additionally, issues of administrative injustice and corruption often occur along with 
human rights abuses and one body can more effectively address all three (3) situations. 
 
 
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3.2 Sample 
As already mentioned, data for the study was collected from branches of State Insurance 
Company of Ghana, Electricity Company of Ghana, Commission on Human Rights and 
Administrative Justice and Ghana Revenue Authority in the Greater Accra metropolis. 
Purposive sampling technique was employed to select a total of 26 participants comprising 14 
males and 12 females from all the organisations. According to Baker and Edwards, (2012), a 
sample size of 30 is an adequate number for a qualitative study especially when the project is 
time bound.  Other researchers however are of the view that for a qualitative research using in-
depth interviews, 12 participants is an adequate number for theoretical conclusions to be drawn 
(Cassell & Walsh, 2004; Millward, Asumeng & McDowall, 2010). It must be noted that although 
the current researcher set out to interview 32 participants only 26 were interviewed due to 
constraints imposed by the nature of the research design in that some employees were unwilling 
to partake in interviews and mentioned that they would have been more comfortable with filling 
out questionnaires. Purposive sampling was deemed an appropriate sampling method because the 
focus of this study was on Ghanaian employees in the public, formal sector. The critical inclusion 
criterion was that participants should be full-time and permanent employees who had worked 
with the respective organisations for a minimum of two years. Another inclusion criterion was 
that participants should possess tertiary education or at least be able to communicate effectively 
in English. This is because interviews were conducted in English and it was believed that 
employees who meet these criteria would understand the questions that were posed and hence 
provide relevant answers.  
 
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Before sampling could proceed, introductory letters were presented to the human resource 
divisions of the selected organisations as well as letters indicating the criteria for inclusion into 
the study. At the GRA head office situated at Accra Ministries, after presenting an introductory 
letter to the human resource directorate, I was given another letter to be sent to the Large Tax 
Payers’ Office at Circle where eight participants including five males and three females were 
selected for the study by the human resource officer in charge of that unit. Three males and four 
females were selected by the human resource department of ECG for participation in the study. 
Seven participants were selected for the study at CHRAJ including four males and three females. 
At SIC, four participants were selected including two males and two females. One female was 
selected from the head office at Osu while the other three participants were selected from the 
Circle Ring Road office under directives from the human resource manager. The ages of 
respondents ranged from 31 to 57 years. The mean age of respondents was 40 years. Out of the 
26 respondents, 25 had obtained a minimum of tertiary education with one respondent being an 
Ordinary level certificate holder. Respondents had worked with current employers for between 5 
to 29 years. Further details about respondents can be found in table 5 (See Appendix). 
 
3.3 Research design 
A qualitative research design was adopted because the goal of this study was to understand and 
explore the nature of the Ghanaian belief systems pertaining to work. Qualitative designs afford 
the opportunity to delve more deeply into the lives of individuals, their settings and socio-culture 
(Baker & Edwards, 2012). Qualitative research employs the concept of inter-subjectivity which 
is interpreted to mean how people may agree or construct meaning to a shared understanding, 
emotion, feeling or perception of a situation in order to interpret the social world they inhabit 
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(Nerlich, 2004, p. 18). According to Joubish, Khurram, Ahmed, Fatima and Haida (2011) 
qualitative methods when used provide insight into the attitudes, value systems, motivations, 
aspirations and culture of people which is the focus of this study. The aim of the present 
researcher is not to generalize findings to other settings because findings from qualitative 
research are usually limited in generalizability. (Maxwell, 2005, p. 245). 
 
3.4 Materials 
A recorder was used to record conversations in order for the researcher to capture accurately the 
answers of respondents. A semi-structured interview protocol was administered to all twenty-six 
participants. A notebook was also carried along and used to record the demographical data of 
participants as well as observations made during the interview process. Also, information from 
side conversations before and after the interviews which were relevant to the goals of the study 
were recorded all in an effort to present a rich description of the phenomena under study. 
 
Procedure/Data collection  
3.5.0 Pilot study 
Prior to the start of data collection for this study, a pilot study was conducted. Maxwell (2005, p. 
227) states that pilot studies allow the researcher to specifically test ideas and methods to be 
adopted in a study. Three employees; one from a bank, another from an insurance company and 
the third from a healthcare centre were involved in the pilot study. In-depth interviews were 
conducted outside working hours and lasted for an average of thirty minutes. A semi - structured 
interview format was employed. Based on the outcome of the pilot study, some questions were 
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modified because it was observed that respondents found it difficult to answer them. (For 
example, a question like ‘what does work mean to you?’ was modified into’ how do you perceive 
work in general?’). Also, respondents complained that the questions posed were too many and as 
a result some of the questions were fused (for example, ‘What meanings do you think people in 
the Ghanaian society associate with work?’ and ‘How would you describe the role of work in the 
Ghanaian society?’ were combined to form the question ‘How do you think work is viewed in 
the Ghanaian society?’). The observations and feedback generated during the pilot study enabled 
the current researcher to fine tune the research instrument in order to enhance the quality. 
 
3.5.1 Main study 
Data collection was executed through the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews and 
interviews were conducted on a one-on-one basis. According to Smith and Osborn (2003, p.56-
57) a semi-structured interview schedule only provides a guide for the interview and therefore 
does not dictate how the interview should be conducted. These authors also stated that semi-
structured interview formats allow for greater flexibility of coverage and also permit the 
interview to explore novel areas. The interview schedule was constructed by carefully examining 
the critical areas and topics to be covered by the study and then questions were developed to 
cover those areas.   
 
Participants were informed about the nature of the study and were given the opportunity to ask 
questions before proceeding to administer the questions. Permission was sought from 
participants to record conversations. Some of the participants were initially hesitant to partake in 
the study when they learned the conversations were going to be recorded. However, after it was 
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explained to participants that this was only to assist in data analysis and to ensure data was 
accurately captured, and that they could be sure of full confidentiality as clearly stated in the 
consent forms which they were provided with to carefully read and sign, they agreed to partake 
in the study. Some however still declined to partake in the interviews and complained that 
researchers who had interviewed them for other studies had misconducted themselves and some 
had manipulated the information they had provided to them to suit their purposes. 
 
The interviews were conducted in one phase and lasted for about a month. During the course of 
the interviews, some of the questions were reframed and repeated to ensure that answers that 
were provided were consistent.  Answers furnished to questions by interviewees were sometimes 
summarized and placed in question form again in order to seek confirmation from participants. 
The interviews lasted for averagely thirty minutes and were conducted at the offices of 
participants. Because of the fact that in some of the organisations quite a number of employees 
were stationed in the same office space, there was noise and other distractions during the course 
of the interviews. Interview sessions were frequently interrupted by other colleagues or 
customers who walked in to be attended to. At the ECG head office (Accra Central) for instance 
where data was collected for this study, noise levels were very high because of the proximity of 
the organisation to a market which affected hearing during the course of some of the interviews. 
 
3.6 Reliability and Validity of Interview Data 
According to Patton (2002) validity and reliability are two factors which any qualitative 
researcher should consider while designing a study, analysing results and judging the quality of 
the study. Reliability and validity have been described as the technical terms that address issues 
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of objectivity and credibility in research (Anssi, 2011, p. 366).  Enhancing objectivity or 
reliability comprises efforts to ensure the accuracy and inclusiveness of recordings that the 
research is based on while ensuring validity addresses issues of  interpretation of observations in 
terms of whether or not observations have been correctly named (Silverman, 2010, p.275-286). 
In order to ensure that the findings of this research are reliable, the present researcher recorded 
interviews and accurately documented all observations relevant to the study that were made in 
the course of the data collection process. Also, to ensure that the findings of this research are 
valid, data was analysed by an independent auditor who was a colleague student specialising in 
the area of Clinical Psychology. Smith (2003, p.235) states that in qualitative research, a measure 
that can be adopted to ensure validity is to allow for an independent audit. The independent 
auditor, usually a researcher who played no role in the study certifies that the analysis produced 
is credible and justified in relation to the collected data. The auditor played no role in this study 
and at that time had completed collecting analysing data for his research work which also 
employed a qualitative design. The role of the independent auditor in this study was to ascertain 
whether conclusions drawn from the data analysis were justified by the data collected from 
respondents. A report from the independent auditor proved that indeed conclusions drawn by the 
current researcher were justified by data collected from respondents. Another measure that was 
taken to ensure validity and reliability of the results was through respondent validation or by 
seeking confirmation of answers furnished to questions by respondents. According to Maxwell 
(2005, p. 244), respondent validation which refers to soliciting feedback or conclusions from 
research participants serves as an important way of ruling out the possibility of misinterpreting 
the meaning of what participants say and do. It also provides a way for the researcher to identify 
personal biases and misunderstandings of observations made during data collection. In this study 
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therefore, answers provided to questions by respondents were reframed and again posed by the 
current researcher to ensure that answers provided were not being misinterpreted. 
 
3.7 Data Analysis Technique 
Data analysis was executed by adopting thematic analysis technique. “Thematic analysis is a 
method for identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns (themes) within data. It minimally 
organizes and describes your data set in (rich) detail” (Braun & Clark, 2006, p. 79). These 
authors outlined six phases for conducting thematic analysis which are; phase 1-familiarising 
with the data which includes transcription, reading and re-reading data; Phase 2- Generating 
initial codes; Phase 3- Searching for themes; Phase 4- Reviewing themes; Phase 5- Defining and 
naming themes; Phase 6- Producing the report. 
 
According to Braun and Clark (2006), when a researcher is working with verbal data such as 
interviews as is the case in this study, the data would have to be transcribed into a written form in 
order for thematic analysis to be executed. These authors also cited that transcription requires a 
rigorous, thorough and verbatim account of all verbal and non-verbal utterances but what is most 
important is that the transcription provides all the information needed to conduct the analysis and 
retains the exact or true nature of the data. This rather gruelling task took many days but 
provided the current researcher the opportunity to familiarize with the data. Transcriptions were 
done in such a manner that the researcher had to play and replay recordings back and forth to 
ensure that written data accurately reflected verbal recordings. 
 
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After transcription, the initial codes were generated. This stage comprised coding features which 
were pertinent to the research questions in a systematic manner. This was carried out for all 
interview transcripts. Data relevant to generated codes were then collated such that the codes 
were placed beside the supporting data. Codes were then searched for themes and sub themes 
and supporting data were paired with their corresponding themes. Themes were then reviewed 
for relevance and accuracy before reporting. Extracts were used to support themes and their sub 
themes in the reporting of research results. The results of the study were then explained using 
theory and relevant literature. 
 
3.8 Ethical consideration 
The present researcher ensured that all the relevant ethical guidelines provided by American 
Psychological Association (APA, 2010) were adhered to in this study. Before the study could 
proceed, ethical clearance was sought for from the Ethics Committee of Institute of Statistical, 
Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana. Afterwards, introductory letters 
from the Department of psychology with details of the study were sent to the human resource 
department of the organisations in question who in turn selected participants to meet the 
inclusion criteria provided by the present researcher.  
 
Before the start of each interview with participants, the current researcher explained the nature of 
the study to respondents and informed respondents that participation in the study was absolutely 
voluntary and that they could withdraw from the study at any point in time without having to 
face any penalty or negative consequences. Permission was sought from each respondent by the 
present researcher for interviews to be recorded. It was explained to respondents that this was 
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only to assist in data analysis. Participants were assured of full confidentiality of information 
provided and were further assured that their identities would be withheld during reporting of 
results. Each respondent was then provided with a consent form to read through, ask questions 
and then sign before the interviews proceeded. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER 4 
FINDINGS 
4.0 Introduction 
This chapter presents a detailed account of the findings of the study. The main and sub themes of 
Ghanaian societal beliefs about work that were derived from careful analysis of interview 
transcripts are presented.  These themes were derived based on their frequency in the interview 
transcripts. Table 4(see appendix) illustrates the themes and sub themes generated for societal 
beliefs.  Findings on themes and sub themes obtained for employee work values and goals are 
also presented. General themes for employee work values were initially generated and after 
further analysis, the main and sub themes were derived. Tables 1 and 2 illustrate these themes 
(see appendix). Results obtained for employee work ethic beliefs are presented as well. Table 3 
in the appendix presents main and sub themes derived for work ethic dimensions investigated. 
All main and sub themes are explained below and are further illustrated with supporting extracts 
from the interviews. In the last section of this chapter a model of how the socio-cultural context 
impacts employee work values and ethic is presented.  
 
4.1 Ghanaian societal beliefs about work 
This study sought to investigate the general beliefs that pertain to work in the Ghanaian society 
and two main themes emerged here namely: 1. Work as a source of personal satisfaction and 2. 
Work as an obligation. Each main theme was found to consist of two sub themes. The main and 
supporting sub themes are explicated below. 
 
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4.1.1 Work as a source of personal satisfaction 
In the Ghanaian society, work is viewed to provide a form of satisfaction and the two sub themes 
which were identified under this theme are: 1. Economic satisfaction and 2. Psychological 
satisfaction. 
 
Economic satisfaction 
Beliefs about work in the Ghanaian society basically highlight the economic gains that are 
derived from work. Work is viewed as a legitimate means of providing income for meeting 
certain needs which are necessary for having a fulfilled life as a person. The following extracts 
are a few of the sampled views of how work is perceived in the Ghanaian society in terms of the 
economic benefits derived from it: 
Work from the perspective of the Ghanaian society for me could be viewed from the 
economic perspective…… what I mean is that like I said work is anything that you are 
doing to earn a living and by earning a living what it means is that there is a 
compensation attached to the effort that you put in so economically, it is the foundation 
upon which you are going to build your economic empowerment as an 
individual…..(Respondent 14). 
 
Respondent 11 also had this to say: “Well I think people have this perception that work is 
something that is necessary for them to make a living so people I should say look at areas where 
they can earn big….” 
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From the statements above it can be construed that for some people, the main goal of working is 
to provide income for satisfying some basic needs needed to survive. Employees were of the 
view that in the Ghanaian society, the focus is more on the financial or material gains to be made 
from work. For example consider the following statement: 
In the Ghanaian society work is viewed as something you do to earn money. It’s like you 
are going to work, the focus is not on the work, the focus is on the reward that is how I 
see Ghanaians, the focus is on the reward and not the work itself. Okay for instance if 
somebody is going to work in a bank or something the first thing they talk about is the 
amount they get. Oh you will be paid 15,000 and this and that and that, that’s what they 
talk about (Respondent 23). 
Although Ghanaian beliefs about work were found to be centred more on the economic 
satisfaction derived, this focus may however be influenced by national economic factors as 
evident from the following extract: 
Ghanaians generally focus on how much they will earn when looking for work, mainly 
salary, the level of income and I think it is so because of the general environment, the 
way the economy is. If you don’t earn some level of income, it becomes very difficult for 
you to even cater for your needs. (Respondent 9). 
 
Psychological satisfaction 
Work holds more meaning for people than just providing financial resources for meeting basic 
needs. For some people, apart from the income and other benefits that they derive from work, it 
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also plays the role of meeting certain psychological needs. Consider for instance the following 
statement: 
Generally I think that work is a necessary part of human endeavour. We do not work 
because we have just needs because there are certain inner satisfaction we also derive 
from working. I have seen that many people work not because they get enough reward 
but because it is dignifying for them to be seen to be involved in some form of work. 
(Respondent 6). 
 
And respondent 9 had this to say about his reasons for working: “I work for self-esteem and I 
mean sometimes when you get up and you dress up even going to work, you leave the house and 
you are going to work it gives you some kind of fulfilment …..” 
From the above statements, it can be gathered that for some individuals, the idea of being 
engaged in work provides a certain fulfilment which is not linked to the income or rewards that 
are derived as compensation for working but is triggered by the fact that they are seen to be 
involved in an activity society considers as useful. Therefore work is perceived as something that 
imparts dignity and enhances self-esteem. In effect work provides a means for individuals to earn 
approval from society which is a great psychological need of every human. People involved in 
work are perceived by society as responsible and as such work forms a basis to earn respect from 
society and affords the opportunity to be viewed in a more positive light as evident from the 
following extracts: 
………if you are working you are seen as more responsible, you are respected, I mean the 
society, you are respected among the society unlike somebody who is not 
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working……..the mind-set that you have that oh, I am working, the fact that you are 
going to leave the house and tell people that oh I am going to work, that alone has some 
psychology and that for me plays a very important role in even your mental make-up, that 
I believe. Compare it with somebody who is in the house, who is not working, thinking, 
you understand, you will be asking yourself so many questions that can even lead to 
stress. Oh you will be asking about your worth (respondent 14) 
 
Work is seen as more or less like an asset because if you even don’t have one people 
make mockery of you and there are a whole lot of things in society you will hardly even 
be given the necessary audience…..In so many places that you go you will be asked 
where do you work, where do you work in that you can see work is very important to 
Ghanaians and work in itself, man ought to work as you have been created but then 
people see people who work as responsible people (respondent 12). 
From the above statements it can be inferred that work is viewed as central to building self-worth 
and thus work provides the opportunity to prove one’s value as a human being. Additionally, 
work imparts identity and this is evident from the fact that people often want to find out where a 
person is working. Knowledge of where a person works provides a means to identify them by 
what they do especially in the Ghanaian setting where people are often addressed by the titles 
they have earned rather than by names. For most people, these functions of work are hidden and 
are made apparent when there is job loss. 
 
 
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4.1.2 Work as an obligation 
Some views that emerged from the data analysis point to the fact that in the Ghanaian society 
work is viewed as an obligation. Two sub themes were identified here which are: 1. Work as a 
social obligation          2. Work as a religious obligation.  
 
Social obligation 
Work in the Ghanaian society is perceived as a duty owed to the society because one has 
depended on society to attain whatever heights one has reached. Individuals are brought up by 
their families and prepared to assume certain socially assigned roles such as providing financial 
support to the family (nuclear and sometimes extended) and work provides the legitimate means 
to earn money to fulfil this role. Individuals are therefore expected to rise to that occasion as 
evident from the following statement: “….. when you start working, …….you are going to 
increase, you are also going to increase other dependents because you have also relied on other 
family ties to get to where you have gotten to…..” (Respondent 14). 
Another respondent had this to say: 
…… For someone in the Ghanaian society, if his children are at home not attending 
school he feels bad. Society wouldn’t accept that so he must do something to earn a living 
to make sure his children are in school, he wants to do that…..(Respondent 19). 
 
 
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The phrase ‘Society wouldn’t accept that’ from the above extract suggests that society expects 
the individual to work to meet his/her family obligations. Work is therefore viewed as a duty one 
has to fulfil in order to be able to meet these responsibilities. Consider also this statement: 
“…….I can’t sit idle. I am a normal human being and a normal human being ought to work to 
increase productivity in the society, in the country…. So work is a necessity. (Respondent 4). 
The above statement suggests that work is viewed as a must for every ‘normal’ human being. 
The statement also suggests that every individual owes it to society or the nation to contribute to 
productivity and work provides the avenue. This view of work as a social obligation is further 
reflected in the manner in which people who are not working are viewed. Respondent 24 shared 
the following comments about this view: “If you live in a compound house and you don’t work 
and you are always at home, it doesn’t speak well of you. It makes you look irresponsible.” 
Consider also the extract below: 
…….Supposing you are not working you are perceived as somebody who more or less, if 
let’s say you have persisted in a way and you have relaxed, people see you to be lazy 
because they think you should pursue till you are able to lay your hands on something. 
(Respondent 12).  
It can be concluded from the above statements that the Ghanaian society views work as an 
obligation an individual needs to meet and as such failure to fulfil that obligation leads to a 
negative perception of that individual for example, being viewed as lazy or irresponsible. 
 
 
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Religious obligation 
Religion permeates almost every aspect of the lives of Ghanaians and as such work was regarded 
from a religious point by some employees. For some, it serves as means to fulfilling a religious 
mandate or command as expressed by the following respondent: 
Work in general terms as a human being I think even the bible talks about we working so 
that we can be able to feed ourselves and then probably the family aspect so work helps 
us to gain an income in taking care of ourselves (Respondent 8). 
 
Respondent 24 also shared this view: “Ghanaians see work as important in human life. The bible 
says that the hands that do not work should not eat so after school, you pick up a job…..” 
From the above statements it can be inferred that although work is instrumental in providing 
basic needs for survival, it also serves as a means for fulfilling a religious order as well. 
 
4.1.3 Status and Contribution 
In order to investigate further which is of much more importance in the Ghanaian society with 
regards to the status imparted by work (for example position acquired at work) or the level of 
contribution one is able to give to society through work, the following comments were made by 
some employees who were interviewed: 
(Speaks in Akan) ‘We like post’ (switches back to English) or? Look at children when 
they are young everybody wants to be either a teacher or a policeman because of the 
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position, the authority it comes with. You know positions come with authority, exactly so I 
think first what matters is the position even before the service. But every position too 
comes with certain obligations and so you should fulfil those obligations. (Respondent 5). 
 
In the Ghanaian society the position one holds is valued more. The position one holds 
because I’ve had the opportunity of speaking to some executive officers, the CEOs and 
stuff and just a few of them are satisfied with the fact that they are helping somebody, 
they are grooming somebody to get to the top also but then the others they want the 
position. (Respondent 26). 
From the above statements, it can be concluded that in the Ghanaian society, the status work 
imparts or the position attained in work is appreciated more than the service or contribution that 
work provides to other lives and society as a whole. Titles are of more importance than the 
opportunity to serve. So essentially, occupying a high position in the Ghanaian society is valued 
more than the opportunity to contribute to the lives of others. 
 
4.2.0 Employee work values and goals 
Another objective of this study was to examine employee work values and the goals they seek to 
accomplish in and through work. Three main themes were derived here namely extrinsic, 
intrinsic and social work values. Under extrinsic work values, three sub themes were further 
obtained which were labelled as income and benefits, environment and security. Intrinsic work 
values were also found to consist of three sub themes namely work design, safety, personal 
growth and development and prestige values. Social work values comprised two sub themes; 
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interpersonal and contribution. The various themes and their supporting sub themes are 
explained below and illustrated with extracts. 
 
4.2.1 Extrinsic work values 
Extrinsic work values in this study consist of employee values about remuneration and other 
benefits derived from working and also ideals about the nature of the work context. Three sub 
themes emerged from further analysis of the general themes and are explained as follows. 
 
Income and benefits  
Employee work values primarily concern the monetary rewards derived from working and how 
much they should earn and for some the meaning of work is strongly associated with the income 
it provides. For most employees, earning a good income was viewed as an essential part of work 
and would inform their choices on where to work. Employee views express how goals of 
meeting their own and family financial needs could be fulfilled through work as captured by the 
following statements: 
My ideal job should be one that would pay, a job that should make me live good. At the 
end of the month I shouldn’t go borrowing, at the end of the month I go and pay back. 
That job should be able to make me live good, be able to eat what I feel like eating, wear 
what I want to wear be able to look after my kids. (Respondent 3). 
 
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You see work is very important to me because without work, if you don’t work you can’t 
earn any income you understand. So you work and earn income........ My ideal job is one 
that the salary will be big, big. (Respondent 20). 
Employee expectations about what should be achieved or derived from work also pertain to other 
incentives apart from remuneration. For example, employee goals of seeking good healthcare for 
themselves and their families could influence their choice of a work place. The ability or 
inability of the employer to meet this need may influence work behaviour and hence work 
output. Take for instance the statement below: 
….if I am working for you and you don’t seem to care about my health, how do you 
expect me to put in enough for you to also get what you want from me? In as much as you 
the employer you expect much from your employees in terms of their output, in return you 
are also supposed to take care of their basic needs; health which is very important. If you 
give only your employee health and you don’t extend it to her immediate family that is the 
nuclear family, maybe his or her children, the husband and the wife, okay you think you 
have done it for your employee you’ve done well. If my child is not well I will not come to 
work and it is going to reduce output at the end of the day. (Respondent 16). 
 
For respondent 24 these are some of the important aspects of work: “If I were to look for work 
elsewhere, I will look out for the benefits like medical, electricity subsidy as we have here at 
ECG, rent allowance subsidy, utility subsidy.” 
The above statements suggest that the provision of certain incentives such as healthcare, rent 
allowance and utility subsidies form part of employees ideals about work and these ideals are 
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influenced by current and past work experiences. These experiences would therefore inform 
employee decisions on choosing a place to work. 
 
Environment 
Employee work values encompasses those about aspects of the physical working environment 
including the logistics that are required for them to be able to work efficiently as evident from 
the following extracts: 
I should have good environment. When I say good environment the office environment 
looks professional, professional in the sense that the front office when you enter, there 
are basic things you should see. The waiting area you know, I mean the temperature 
should be such that, you know not too cold and not too warm like I am sweating now and 
I don’t want to talk about the chair I am sitting on; we were just discussing it. You will be 
sitting there and it caves in like that and my colleague was even saying that sometimes 
the way it happens I sometimes get terrified you see. You will be sitting there and the 
chair just caves in. All those things I think personally if, for me to choose a place of work 
I will look at all those things even before the salary (Respondent 9). 
 
The building is important in choosing where to work; the office, the furniture, the 
surroundings, the machines, you have to get modern ones not archaic ones that when you 
print you have to be pressing before the thing will come out. (Respondent 20) 
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From the above statements, it can be concluded that the prevailing work environment in terms of 
beautiful buildings and the quality of logistics needed to work form part of employees’ concept 
of an ideal work. The statements also suggest that employees seek some level of comfort and 
pleasure from their places of work derived from the physical environment and these beliefs serve 
as a guide in choosing a place to work. This validates the idea that values serve as a guide for 
future behaviour. 
 
Security 
Security in this context refers to the confidence employees believe they should have with regards 
to the permanence of the contract that exists between them and their employers as well as 
whether the work they are engaged in can provide them and their dependents with financial 
security for the future. It stems from employees’ desire to ensure that there is stability in their 
lives in terms of constant supply of the income and benefits that are derived from working which 
are needed for providing certain basic needs. The following statements emphasize the 
importance some employees attach to job security: 
If I were to look for a job, I would look out for job security, yes, job security, number one. 
It is not easy getting a job so once you are assured of security, like I won’t get hired 
today and fired tomorrow. Em I should be comfortable where I am so that I am not 
always on the edge that oh today when I come to work I may be fired…..but there are 
certain jobs you know when you are getting it they don’t have any future and it will be 
very difficult going to look for another one so why don’t you get one that will secure you 
for life. (Respondent 15). 
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I look at job security first when looking for a place to work. That is very very important 
to me. I don’t believe in working, if I can get let me say 20,000 Ghana cedis a month and 
then the next week I am out on the streets and then if I can get let’s say 5,0000 a month 
and I am assured of it coming on regular basis, I would prefer the 5,000 than to take the 
20,000 and be out of job the next week or two. I always look out for job security, that’s 
very very important, very very important (Respondent 16). 
The above extracts suggest that employees believe that they should derive some level of certainty 
from the work they are engaged in. Work should provide them with some level of assurance for 
the future. The above statement also suggests that for some employees constancy of income 
regardless of the amount is preferred over a situation of uncertainty in which huge benefits may 
be accrued. However, the phrase ‘It is not easy getting a job’ as used by respondent 15 suggests 
that the availability of jobs may also have a role to play in the level importance employees attach 
to job security. 
 
Employees’ beliefs express the idea that their jobs should provide them an assurance of constant 
supply of income not only for the present but also for the future. For some employees, work is 
instrumental in providing financial security for the future and the desire to achieve this goal may 
influence which organisations they choose to work for. Consider for instance the following 
extracts: 
And you should look at your future too. The money that you are being paid you should 
think about the future. If you are doing something and you know in future it will not help 
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you, what I mean in future when you are old and you can no longer do it, it cannot take 
care of you again, you cannot get something to do to be able to take good care of yourself 
after you are old it’s better you quit and look for another job. (Respondent 2). 
 
…..before I stop work, I would want to be, I should have enough, enough that I won’t go 
begging, that would sustain me for the rest of my life. I should be able to get property, 
maybe some investments that will be able to sustain me and my dependents for the rest of 
my life. (Respondent 3). 
It can be inferred from the above extracts that employees believe that work should not only 
provide for the present but should be able to provide them with enough to secure the future when 
they are not able to work. Work should be able to provide them with some certainty for the 
future or provide the opportunity to secure the future. 
 
4.2.2 Intrinsic work values and goals 
Intrinsic work values and goals in this study refer to those values of employees that relate 
directly to their work experiences or work content. This theme reflects what interviewed 
employees perceived as desirable or sought to achieve in areas of work that border on work 
duties and responsibilities. Three sub themes are derived here and are further explained below. 
 
 
 
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Work design 
Work design in this context refers to employees’ beliefs about the manner in which work 
activities should be constructed in order to inspire interest in them. Consider for instance the 
following extract: 
…..you wake up and come you do the same thing over and over again, it is no more 
interesting, if you should be doing the same thing like me what I do is that I call 
customers- please come and pay your money, this this, the person comes to pay, the next 
morning I wake up and I go, I see it to be not interesting at all but if I should be rotating 
on the job and all that……(Respondent 15)  
From the above statement, it can be inferred that the interest an employee develops in work is 
linked to the way in which the work activities are constituted. Employee views suggest that work 
itself should be fashioned in such a manner as to generate and sustain interest in it. Consider also 
the following statement: 
 
You see it’s not like you go, you come to work and you go back home and you are asked 
how was work and you just, you reflect, you look backwards and you see you came 
virtually to do nothing, you came, sat down and dallied the whole day and then you went 
back home. That to me will not be work. Work should be something that will be 
challenging. It should have some focus, some direction and at the end of the day you 
should feel happy because you’ve contributed something (Respondent 17). 
The above extract provides insights about what needs and goals employees seek to fulfil through 
work. The extract suggests that employees have the need to accomplish, to excel and to 
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contribute something to the organisation and as such work should be designed in such a way as 
to make it possible to achieve those goals. Employee beliefs express the idea that work should 
offer the challenge needed to be able to accomplish, should impart some responsibility and that 
something meaningful and of value should be produced at work. 
 
Safety, personal growth and development 
This sub theme describes employee beliefs about how their work experiences should lead to 
skills improvement and the development of their mental capabilities and also how the discharge 
of their work duties should impact their health. Employees perceived that work should provide 
opportunities to exhibit innate talents and skills. Additionally, some of the employees viewed 
work as a vehicle for promoting personal growth and development in terms of knowledge 
acquisition and enhancing their skills through opportunities to practice acquired knowledge. 
Consider this statement for instance:  
………..you see there are some jobs you take when you go it doesn’t really impact on 
your life, it doesn’t do anything, you just go, if it’s receiving letters, receiving letters 
doesn’t add anything to you. But there are some works let’s say you are going to the 
field, tax audit and stuffs like that you go and learn so many things, you understand. 
(Respondent 20). 
From the above extract it can be inferred that although employees may have certain requisite 
skills and knowledge before employment, they believe that their work experiences should lead to 
further knowledge and skills improvement. Work should lead to the acquisition of relevant skills. 
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Additionally, work should provide the opportunity to practice and make efficient use of acquired 
knowledge as illustrated by the following extract: 
As a human being, you need to educate yourself. After that, the knowledge that you have 
acquired, you need to utilize the knowledge that you have acquired or the knowledge that 
has been imparted into you, you need to invest the knowledge into or channel it to the 
direction for which you have acquired the knowledge. So that’s the reason why I work. 
(Respondent 12). 
For employees, the opportunity to put to use or practice the knowledge they have already 
acquired to a large extent would determine performance at work. For instance consider the 
following statement: 
…..like going to school now, I am doing accounting and I feel once I am out of school I 
should continue in the line like doing accounting. It would be more interesting than you 
telling me there is no space in accounting, if you need to be promoted we have vacancy in 
maybe HR, do you think I would be able to perform there like if I was given the 
accounting thing to do? So that whatever we study in school should be practiced on the 
field so comparing the practical aspect and whatever you learn in school would be a 
mismatch, it would be difficult performing over there so I feel once I am in this field, I 
should get a job for me like that so that I can give out my best shot. (Respondent 15). 
 
Also, employees were of the view that work should not impact their health negatively. Beliefs 
about maintaining good health as a desirable end state serves as a guide as to which kind of work 
employees would be willing to engage in. For example, consider the following statement: 
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Some work are hazardous. There are some work when you enter after some time you can 
acquire occupational disease.  There are some places you can be infected so I will also 
look at the risks that are involved in the work; whether I can contract any disease out of 
the work I am doing (Respondent 4). 
It can be concluded from the statements above that employees perceive work as something that 
should contribute positively to their lives and not negatively. An ideal work should be one that 
would not lead to ill health in the present or in the distant future but rather add value to their 
lives. 
 
Prestige 
Prestige values in this context describe employee beliefs about end states that are derived from 
excelling ones’ self in work. For some employees, work presents the opportunity to attain a 
certain level of prestige in life. The ability to reach this level of prestige in work depends to a 
large extent on how successful one is in achieving assigned tasks. Such attainments are often 
associated with social approval in that individuals who are able to reach certain heights are 
accorded respect. As a result employees strive to achieve goals of progressing in their work or 
getting to the top as a desirable end state. For example, consider the following statements: 
And as a person I want to, you know, be, everybody aspires to be at the top, okay so in 
terms of career development and all that I should be able to see myself in the next ten 
years as maybe a commissioner or to rise to the top so for me, yes that is one goal also I 
want to achieve….(Respondent 11) 
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This statement suggests that employees perceive work as the perfect platform where they can 
pursue goals of advancement in life. Even as they put in their efforts and contributions towards 
achieving organisational goals, they expect these efforts to yield some benefits such as 
recognition, career progression or rising to a place of influence which are usually associated with 
achieving results or excelling on the job. For instance consider the statements below: 
….I always have the zeal of contributing to the organisational goals, playing a part; a 
very significant role in the organisation. If I should even rise up to become somebody 
who can influence decisions in the organisation I would be very happy…. (Respondent 9). 
 
But me when I am recognized it makes me feel very much like important. You see when I 
am recognized by my boss and then he appreciates although there are some other 
fulfilling factors that may also entice….when there is recognition of what I am doing, 
when I am being recognized in that I realize I am achieving results and I am on course, 
that means whatever I am doing, the person or my manager or whoever I am working 
with says that oh it’s okay so keep it up….. then I become fulfilled in that I have been able 
to achieve results so I am okay, I feel okay. (Respondent 12). 
From the above statement, the sentence ‘when I am recognized it makes me feel very much like 
important’ is an illustration of the fact that work serves as means to achieve significance in 
society and this significance comes as a reward for having excelled in one’s work.  
 
 
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4.2.3 Social work values 
Social work values in this context describe employee values about the role of work in connecting 
them to other people within or outside their working environment and also the role work plays in 
providing the opportunity to give back to society or to serve other people. Two sub themes were 
observed under this theme; interpersonal and contribution. 
 
Interpersonal 
For most people, much of their adult lives are spent at work so invariably they find themselves 
developing strong attachments to the people they work with. Work may serve as a place where 
people form relationships which may last a life time. For some employees, the ideal work 
environment should be the place where social relationships are formed as in the case of the 
following respondents: 
Work should be a place where people go there and socialize as well you know not just on 
a colleague level. You know like if you have a job where your boss would have barbecue 
and you can bring your family, your colleagues and you bond right. I don’t think work 
should just be a place where you just go, you do your daily activities and go back home. I 
think it’s a place where you meet people and you go beyond just meeting people and get 
to know people right. (Respondent 10). 
 
……because you spend more time on work if you keep a good relation with your 
colleagues, they still remember you, they call you whenever, you know, there is an issue, 
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there is a funeral, whatever, you still meet again as a family, you attend each other’s 
funerals, this one’s daughter is having a wedding you are there, you meet a lot of friends, 
colleagues, you know. (Respondent 13). 
Employees also appreciate the fact that the kind of relationship that exists between them and 
other employees in the work environment could potentially affect their motivation one way or 
the other and could even end up influencing work outcomes. For instance, consider the following 
statement: 
My ideal workplace is where there are good human relations. Coming to work, the 
people you meet, it also serves as a motivation, like the people you meet, you can’t come 
to the office, sit with someone who wouldn’t even look at you. You even greet the person, 
I see you and I am like good morning and you are like good morning (harshly), 
meanwhile I sit close to you in the office. When I am working, I am like the next person 
doesn’t like me so I have to be very careful what I do. At the end of the day I go home and 
I am not happy because when the next morning comes and I have to come to work, I 
would be thinking of the next person sitting beside me, how he is going to get to me, how 
the person will affect my work, the work that I do because we work in chains. I may need 
something from him to complete my work but if he is hostile to me how do I approach 
him? And then it demotivates me. (Respondent 15). 
 
For some employees, the people they get to meet through work may even provide support in 
times of need and therefore form an important component of work for them. Work therefore then 
becomes a medium for obtaining social support during periods of need or crisis: 
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My ideal job is a job that …..let me say you are socially attached to your colleagues too 
in that when there’s any other thing apart from office, you can just fall on your 
colleagues and they will be of importance or they will be of assistance. (Respondent 12). 
 
Contribution 
Employee beliefs about work may stress the fact that work should contribute positively to society 
or to the lives of others. Some employees pursue the goal of giving back to society or helping 
build society and as such view work as providing that perfect opportunity. As such, they may 
choose to work for organisations that make it possible to realise this goal. For example, consider 
the following respondent: 
If I am to look for a job somewhere else, I will consider if it’s something that gives back 
to society. For example, I would say I like being here because I know whatever monies 
that are collected goes back to help the country ….. and I like that aspect because going 
to work means you are contributing to your country in making it, right, that is important. 
So that is what I mean by if it gives back to society. I wouldn’t want to work in a place 
where they come here, take all our money and they do nothing for society. Some of them 
even ruin society with the kind of work that they do, I am not interested in that. 
(Respondent 10). 
In the case of other employees, the idea of being able to provide assistance to people in need is 
most rewarding in itself and that is the goal they seek to accomplish. Work makes it possible for 
them to contribute positively or make a change in other peoples’ lives. For example, consider the 
following extracts: 
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I derive satisfaction from the fact that I am doing something good. People come to this 
office, you serve them and you see a certain light in their eyes, a certain relief that you 
have given to them, a certain assurance that oh, all hope is not lost. That for me is very 
satisfying. It’s far more rewarding to me than the money I get. (respondent 6). 
 
Well for me, my goal in life is to make an impact in our society okay, make a positive 
change on the persons that I come into contact with so one goal is doing a work that will 
allow me to make impact on the lives of people okay, so that is one goal because that is 
an objective I want to achieve in life okay…. (respondent 11). 
It can be concluded from the above statement that for some employees, work serves as a means 
for achieving certain important life goals. 
4.4.0 Work ethic 
In addition to examining societal beliefs about work and employee work goals, this study also 
investigated the work ethic of employees. Work ethic dimensions examined included employees’ 
perception of how success can be achieved in work or success orientation as well as their 
perception of self-reliance and teamwork. 
 
4.4.1 Success orientation 
Success orientation in this context refers to employee beliefs about how they can be successful in 
their area of work and one sub theme emerged here which is: success as a function of hard work 
and learning.  
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Success as a function of hard work and learning 
Employees mentioned hard work and constant learning as the key determinants of success. Being 
committed to hard work as well as constant learning from other sources was mentioned as 
important in achieving success in work. The following statement brings this to bear: 
Achieving success in work is about working hard and upgrading your knowledge in the 
work that you are doing, having a very good attitude towards work. Being hard working, 
you talk of positive attitude you work hard wherever you find yourself or the work that 
you are doing, you work very hard, you upgrade your knowledge on whatever task that 
you have been given and work hard. (Respondent 4). 
Similar views were also shared by the following respondents: 
For you to have success in your work you have to listen more, you have to learn all the 
time and don’t think that you are the only person with all the knowledge. First of all you 
have to be hardworking, hardworking person. …make sure that you are able to achieve 
your targets all the time and even exceeding it. (Respondent 9). 
 
I think you can achieve success by constantly learning. Learn around new things. Try to 
see whether you can break new grounds, you understand. Certain things today if you 
were told that I can have a keyboard like this, a wireless keyboard communicating with 
this thing they would say (in Akan). ‘witchcraft’. (Respondent 19). 
An analysis of the statements above suggests that employees believe success, all things being 
equal is dependent on their personal efforts and commitment. All things being equal because for 
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some of the respondents factors such as lack of logistics to work with could impede success. For 
example consider the following statement:  
I can achieve success in my work when I have all the necessary logistics. Let’s take for 
example I am working on a taxpayer’s certificate, clearance certificate and then this is 
what I need to work with; my computer and then the file that must contain all the needed 
information on that tax payer. You go there and the information is not there. There’s no 
computer to even help you with it, how do you expect to achieve success with it? 
(Respondent 16). 
Another employee however was of the view that with determination, all impediments no matter 
how overwhelming can be subdued: 
….there are a lot of factors that can work against my achieving success but I think the 
most important thing is that you yourself, you understand, the factors are there but the 
factors will just let you, you know, go, go, I mean there will be obstacles in the way, but if 
you are determined.. ……. see the millipede, when it is going, some of the worms, they 
say they don’t have eyes but when it hits something, it goes around it, you see, the worm 
will come when it hits something, it cannot see you or maybe the millipede, it will go 
here, go here, when it sees it can go, it will go….. So there shouldn’t be anything that 
should obstruct you. There will be obstructions but if you want to achieve success, if you 
want to achieve your goals, you will definitely get there, you will definitely do it. 
(Respondent 19). 
From the above statements, it can be deduced that employees believe that achieving success in 
work is dependent on their own efforts; constant learning, commitment and dedication to hard 
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work. This implies that employees view themselves as playing a central role in achieving success 
at work. 
 
4.4.2 Self-reliance and teamwork 
Self-reliance in this context refers to an individual’s preference for work situations in which 
there is more independence as compared to instances where the individual works as part of a 
team. Employees were asked questions on their perception of self-reliance and teamwork and 
one sub theme emerged here which is explained below. 
 
Teamwork as the most effective way to achieve optimum results 
For most employees, working as part of a team compared to working independently was 
perceived as crucial to achieving the most effective results in the work setting. This idea is 
supported by the following extracts: 
……the teamwork is always the best because there is always the chance of you sharing 
ideas and sometimes exposure or experiences that one may have you may not have it so 
sometimes when you work alone, you are kind of restricted in some areas but when you 
are a team, you have to discuss issues, deliberate upon it, bring your views then you take 
the best out of the views that you…so I always prefer to work in teams than be working 
individually. (Respondent 7) 
 
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I love teamwork. I like getting to know people and there’s a Ghanaian proverb which 
says that (speaks in Twi) ‘a single stick of broom is easily broken but not a whole broom’. 
You can achieve more as group than as an individual. (Respondent 10). 
 
From the above statements, it can be inferred that employees perceive that working in teams 
provides them with the opportunity to learn and enhance their skills, get to know people and also 
to improve upon the quality of work output because whatever results obtained are a sum of the 
creativity of team members. For employees, teamwork provides unity and hence the opportunity 
to produce more. Although it was apparent to employees that working in teams has a tendency to 
de-emphasize individual ability, output and contribution, employees were of the view that it 
nonetheless provides individuals the opportunity to still put their views across and demonstrate 
their abilities just as when one is in an independent situation: 
I would prefer a team work, yeah because even though it’s a team work that you don’t 
have an opportunity to take a decision you still send your suggestions across and then 
even if the person did not take it instantly, they can go and then after the outcome has 
come they will know that oh okay the suggestion that you gave should have been the best 
option so they can go for it later on so I will prefer the team work to the independent. 
(Respondent 8). 
There were a few employees however who cherished more the idea of working individually 
because of the freedom it provides. These employees were of the view that working 
independently provides the opportunity to be directly responsible for actions and to exhibit 
individual creativity. However, it is evident from the following statements that even in 
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independent situations, employees believe they would still lean on others for information or 
ideas: 
I think it is motivating to work independently. If you have a job that you’ve been given the 
time or the freedom so to speak to operate without unnecessary pressures, without 
unnecessary directives, unnecessary because we are always learning so at a point in time 
there might be some useful suggestions but where unnecessary interruptions come in then 
it’s not good. So if you are allowed to operate within your own domain sometimes it 
helps. (Respondent 3). 
 
…..if you are independent you know you become responsible. You know whatever 
happens it’s a decision that you made, it’s a decision you chose so there is that attached 
responsibility to it so being independent, you know you are responsible for whatever 
actions that happens but in a group type of thing it’s a collective responsibility so that 
one cannot directly link you to that kind of success or that failure so I prefer to be 
independent so that when it is a failure I know that as a result of what I did that I failed. 
If it is success, I know it’s my effort though it does not mean that I might not seek ideas or 
take a thing or two from other sources but I would want to be independent in that 
direction. (Respondent 17). 
A few employees on the other hand opined that the situation would define whether teamwork or 
independence would be preferred. Consider the following statements for instance: 
……there is a place where you must work alone and there is a place where you must 
work in a team. Now it is a question of you knowing when you must work alone and when 
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you must work in a team. When you must work alone if you are waiting for a team to 
work, you will lose the time that you should have used to do that particular work. 
Because by the time that the team comes, the team will not be able to do what you alone 
must do because that is not supposed to be team work. So there is time when the team 
must work and there is time when the individual must also work. (Respondent 6). 
 
The circumstances and the type of job will call for whether as for this one I would prefer 
to work as an independent or little supervision, you understand. There are some work 
obviously you need little supervision depending on your rank; depending on the position 
that you are occupying you understand. So at that level you need that kind of a lot of 
discretion, a lot of independence, yeah. But there are some other works too that need you 
to work as a team. (Respondent 14). 
These statements suggest that self-reliance or teamwork is not a matter of preference but is 
dictated or imposed by the situation. Some work roles may require working independently while 
others may demand teamwork. 
 
4.5 Ghanaian socio-cultural values about work 
In sum, socio-cultural values could be said to manifest in societal beliefs, employee work goals 
and work ethic. Ghanaian societal beliefs about work emphasize the economic and psychological 
benefits of work. Societal beliefs further portray work as being a means of fulfilling both 
religious and social obligations. Also, societal beliefs endorse more strongly the status imparted 
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by work than the contribution work makes to other lives and to society as a whole. Employee 
work goals were found to be mainly extrinsic, intrinsic and social in nature. The success 
orientation of employees examined showed that they endorsed the virtues of hard work and 
perceived learning as key to achieving success in work. Employees also favoured teamwork as 
compared to working independently and viewed teamwork as essential to achieving optimum 
results out of work. Ghanaian socio-cultural values about work evident from societal beliefs, 
work values and goals and work ethic express Materialism (reflected in societal beliefs that for 
most Ghanaians, money is the most important part of work and also in employee beliefs that 
work should basically provide good income), Religiousness (the view of work as a means of 
fulfilling a religious mandate), Respect for status and authority (reflected in views that status and 
authority are valued more than the contribution work makes to society) and Group orientation 
(reflected in views that work is an obligation owed to society and employee preference for 
teamwork compared to working independently). 
 
4.6 Model of how socio-cultural values impact work values  
Figure 4.7 below illustrates how Ghanaian socio-cultural values are manifested in work values 
and attitudes. The model proposes that the socio-cultural values labelled as Materialism, 
Religiousness, Respect for status and authority and Group orientation are reflected in societal 
and work ethic beliefs as well as in employee work values and goals.  
 
 
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Fig 4.7 Model of how socio-cultural values impact work values  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
EMPLOYEE WORK VALUES 
 EXTRINSIC (INCOME & 
BENEFITS, 
ENVIRONMENT, 
SECURITY) 
 INTRINSIC (WORK 
DESIGN, SAFETY, 
PERSONAL GROWTH & 
DEVT, PRESTIGE) 
 SOCIAL (INTERPERSONAL, 
CONTRIBUTION 
SOCIO-CULTURAL VALUES 
ABOUT WORK 
 MATERIALISM  
 
 RELIGIOUSNESS 
 
 RESPECT FOR  
STATUS & 
AUTHORITY 
 
 GROUP 
ORIENTATION 
WORK ATTITUDES (WORK ETHIC) 
 SUCCESS ORIENTATION 
1. SUCCESS AS A FUNCTION OF HARD 
WORK AND LEARNING 
 SELF-RELIANCE & TEAMWORK 
2. TEAMWORK AS THE MOST 
EFFECTIVE WAY TO ACHIEVE 
OPTIMUM RESULTS 
 
 
SOCIETAL BELIEFS ABOUT WORK 
 PERSONAL SATISFACTION 
(ECONOMIC & 
PSYCHOLOGICAL) 
 OBLIGATION (SOCIAL AND  
RELIGIOUS 
 WORK STATUS VALUED 
MORE THAN 
CONTRIBUTION TO 
SOCIETY 
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CHAPTER FIVE 
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 
5.0 Introduction 
Values could be considered to form the basis of human behaviour and therefore work values 
provide a means of understanding and predicting work attitudes of employees. Employers who 
hold this view may sometimes seek out the values of prospective employees before they are 
recruited. Socio-cultural values influence work attitudes (Hofstede, 1980; Woehr, Arciniega & 
Lim, 2007) and this influence is through work values because work values are more specific 
expressions of general values in the work environment (Ros et. al., 1999).This study sought to 
investigate the nature of work values of employees of state owned organisations and Ghanaian 
societal beliefs about work which are in part a reflection of prevailing socio-cultural values. The 
present study also investigated a specific work attitude being the work ethic of employees. A 
qualitative approach was adopted for this study and a careful thematic analysis of interview 
transcripts yielded interesting themes. The findings, limitations and implications of the study are 
discussed below. 
 
5.1.0 Ghanaian societal Beliefs about work 
Two major themes emerged from an analysis of Ghanaian societal beliefs about work namely; 
work as a source of personal satisfaction and work as an obligation. 
 
 
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5.1.1 Work as a source of personal satisfaction 
Under this theme, two sub themes emerged and were labelled as work as a source of economic 
satisfaction and work as a source of psychological satisfaction.  
 
From the results of the study, it was observed that most Ghanaians place much worth on the 
material benefits of work. Materialism may be a reflection of the socio-cultural dimension 
labelled as hierarchy by Schwartz (1999) which is expressed in societies where wealth is 
emphasized. Although the results showed that this may be the case in the Ghanaian society, it 
also worth noting that interviews with employees brought to bear the fact that national economic 
situation played a significant role in shaping the more keen interest of Ghanaians in the amount 
of money they would earn from work. For example, finding a good paying job was deemed 
important because of the high cost of living attributed to prevailing economic situation.  This 
suggests that economic prosperity of a nation could cause a change or shift from materialist 
values to non-materialist ones. This view is in line with Inglehart’s (1990; 1997) work on post- 
materialism which proposes that contemporary, affluent societies are usually characterized by a 
shift from materialist values which endorse economic attainment and physical security to post-
materialist values which emphasize self-expression, independence and autonomy. Evidence for 
the idea that level of national development plays a major role in shaping work values is provided 
by results obtained by Parboteeah, Cullen and Paik, (2013). These researchers examined the 
impact of a social institution such as post-industrialisation in determining national differences in 
work values and obtained findings which showed a negative relationship between increased post 
industrialisation and extrinsic work values. 
 
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Results of the present study further showed that apart from the basic needs work is able to fulfil 
through the income it provides, work in itself provides a form of psychological satisfaction. 
Although this function of work is more or less hidden, it however exists. Jahoda’s (1981; 1982) 
latent need theory explains the implicit functions of work and among the functions work is 
believed to play listed under this theory are that work provides experience of creativity, mastery 
and a sense of purpose and also that work is a source of personal status and identity. Some of the 
implicit functions of work were made apparent in this study. Ghanaian societal beliefs express 
that work contributes positively to self-worth and provides a basis to earn respect from society. 
 
5.1.2 Work as an obligation 
Also, results obtained from this study showed that apart from the economic and psychological 
functions that work plays, it is viewed as means of fulfilling social and religious obligations. The 
view of work as a social obligation ties in with findings by the Meaning of Work International 
Research Team (1987) on societal norms about work in which these norms were discriminated 
based on the extent to which they emphasize work as a right to which everyone is entitled to or 
as an obligation. Schwartz (1999) explained the societal norm of work as an obligation in line 
with his theory by stating that obligation norms express conservatism and hierarchy cultural 
values in the sense that obligation norms presume a view of the individual as an integral part of 
the larger collective who is required to behave according to the expectations attached to his or 
her role. In the Ghanaian society therefore, work is viewed as an obligation one owes to one’s 
family as well as to society. Work provides the opportunity to earn money to cater for family 
financial needs and also to contribute to national productivity. 
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The view of work as a means of fulfilling a religious obligation has not received research 
attention. However, MOW International Research Team in their study on the importance and 
significance of work in a person’s total life employed the use of an index to measure this variable 
which involved comparing work to four other life areas namely leisure, community, religion and 
family. The findings from the present study suggest that for some employees, work is perceived 
as religious order which needs to be obeyed or fulfilled. 
 
5.1.3 Status and contribution 
Results from the present study also showed that the Ghanaian society seems to express more 
value for the status work imparts than the contribution it brings to society. This therefore implies 
that titles, prestige and status are of paramount importance in the Ghanaian society. This finding 
is consistent with what was obtained by Harvey, Carter and Mudimu (2000) in a study in which 
values labelled status, position, pride and prestige were found to be more important to Africans 
in a comparative study involving Zimbabwean and British samples. These researchers concluded 
that intrinsic rewards to the African manager may be less likely to include job satisfaction or 
autonomy but would instead include status, prestigious position and pride. This emphasis on the 
status work imparts may be expressive of the socio-cultural values Schwartz (1999) labelled as 
mastery and hierarchy. According to Schwartz, mastery values stress getting ahead through 
active self-assertion and hierarchy values are expressed in cultures that emphasize legitimacy of 
an unequal distribution of power, roles and resources. The fact that this value is strongly upheld 
in the Ghanaian society may account for the high number of employees who mentioned 
recognition, advancement and achievement as work goals they seek to fulfil. These goals are 
associated with gaining superiority in relation to others. 
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5.2 Employees’ work values and goals 
An exploration of employee work values and goals yielded three main themes with their 
supporting sub themes. The main themes identified by the study include extrinsic, intrinsic and 
social work values. Extrinsic work values were found to consist of three sub themes namely 
income and benefits, environment and security work values. The main theme labelled as intrinsic 
work values were also found to comprise the following three sub themes; work design, safety, 
personal growth and development and prestige work values. The last main theme labelled as 
social work values was also observed to consist of two sub themes; interpersonal and 
contribution. 
 
These findings are comparable with the structure of work values proposed by Elizur, Borg, Hunt 
and Beck (1991). These researchers found work values to consist of two facets namely modality 
of outcome and system performance contingency. Modality of outcome was further 
differentiated into instrumental, affective and cognitive components. Instrumental outcome was 
described as the material or practical consequences of work whereas the affective component 
consists of relations that exist between employees and other people in the work environment. 
The cognitive aspect of work values in this classification refers to values such as interest, 
achievement, responsibility, and independence. The second facet of work values identified by 
Elizur et al. (1991) was called system-performance contingency. This categorisation 
encompasses resources that are provided before or after task performance. Resources provided 
by organisations before task performance may include benefit plans, work conditions, various 
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services, such as transportation, subsidized meals, etc. On the other hand resources that are 
provided after task performance include pay, recognition, achievement and status. 
 
The findings also somewhat concur with the model of work values proposed by Ros et al. (1999) 
categorized into intrinsic (for example, interesting and varied work), extrinsic (for example, good 
salary and job security), social (such as contributing to people and society) and prestige work 
values (for example the authority to make decisions over others and engaging in highly valued 
work). In the present study however, prestige values were classified under the main theme 
labelled as intrinsic work values. Intrinsic work values in this study were also found to include 
employee beliefs about work hazards or work associated diseases which form an important 
component of work. 
 
Lyons, Higgins and Duxbury (2010) based on their research findings proposed a model on the 
structure of work values. One of the facets identified in this model labelled as cognitive, 
instrumental, social, and prestige corroborate the four work values identified by Ros et al. (1999) 
and are therefore consistent with the findings of the present study. 
 
Results obtained by Ueda & Ohzono (2012) by extracting basic work values of employees from 
different job categories yielded results quite identical to what was obtained in this study. Six 
work values were identified by these researchers which include the following; 1. Challenging 
job, reflected in beliefs that something new should be acquired or produced through work, 
2.Self-actualization referring to the quest for the ideal self, 3. Extrinsic rewards defined by the 
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desire for extrinsic rewards such as good pay, a good workplace, and promotion. 4. Power and 
authority, related to the desire for authority and power in an organization. 5. Identification with 
the organization defined as the desire to have a strong sense of belonging to the organization and 
good relationships with coworkers, 6. Contribution to society, related to the desire to help and 
contribute to society. 
 
The results from the present study showed that both intrinsic and extrinsic work values are of 
great importance to employees. This conclusion is based on their frequency of appearance in 
interview transcripts which suggests that the presence of items related to these work value 
categories are crucial in determining the job satisfaction of employees. For most employees 
items that fall under extrinsic work values were observed to influence which organisations they 
would choose to work for. However, based on the findings of the study, it was observed that a 
factor such as nature of labour market influenced employee preference for a value such as job 
security. Because of the scarcity of jobs, some employees deemed it important to seek for 
employment with organisations where they could be assured of job security. Findings also 
showed that items within the category labelled as intrinsic work values play a major role in 
sustaining employees’ interest or desire to continue working for particular organisations after 
employment. This provides an explanation for the preference of most employees for having 
interesting work, opportunities for growth, development and advancement as important elements 
of their work. An alternative explanation for the relatively high preference of employees for both 
intrinsic and extrinsic work values could be accounted for by work experience. As employees 
gain experience in work, it impacts their work values (Wallace & Lowe, 2011). Although 
people’s work values may be mainly extrinsic before they enter the labour market, these values 
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may change gradually after experiencing certain work roles to include more intrinsic values. This 
finding of the importance of intrinsic value of work is supported by work design models (for 
example, the Job Characteristic Model by Hackman and Oldham, 1976) that work design is a key 
determinant of employee job satisfaction. This finding however conflicts with Schwartz’s 
assertion that an emphasis on conservatism (compatible with extrinsic work values) values is 
accompanied by a de-emphasis on autonomy values (compatible with intrinsic work values) 
because for most employees work values were found to be both intrinsic and extrinsic in nature. 
This implies that Schwartz’ theory might not be supported among certain types of employees. 
 
Results of the present study also showed slight differences in the work values of employees from 
the various organisations. For instance the work values of employees of Commission on Human 
Rights and Administrative Justice were observed to be more of social work values as compared 
to the values of employees from the other organisations suggesting that the nature of work has a 
tendency to impact or influence the values of employees. This finding is consistent with findings 
obtained by Ueda & Ohzono (2012). These researchers observed differences between work 
values of employees from different job categories. This finding is also supported by the idea by 
Wallace and Lowe (2011) that work values or the meanings people ascribe to work are 
constructed in an ongoing manner before, during and after they experience particular work roles. 
 
 
 
 
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5.3 Work ethic 
One other goal of this study was to examine two important components of work ethic which are 
success orientation and perception of self-reliance and teamwork. Employees’ perception of how 
success can be attained in work yielded one sub theme which is success as a function of hard 
work and learning. For most employees, the attainment of success was perceived to be as a result 
of personal effort and as such they believed that their own behaviours played a major role in 
whether or not they could achieve success in work.  
 
Perception of self-reliance and teamwork also yielded a sub theme; teamwork as the most 
effective way to achieve optimum results. Employees were of the view that pooling human 
resources or working with other employees in the form of a team was the best means to inject 
more creativity into work and also to be more productive. This view therefore means that 
employees would tend to be cooperative in teams and this preference for team situations over 
independent ones may suggest a collectivist cultural value. The preference for teamwork in 
collectivist cultures may be a contributory factor to the effective results it yields in such cultures 
and this was demonstrated in a study by Kirkman and Shapiro (2001). These researchers 
examined the relationship between the cultural values of members in self-managing work teams 
and team effectiveness mediated by team members’ resistance among workers from Belgium, 
Finland, Philippines and United States and found that teams higher in collectivism were more 
productive, cooperative and empowered. 
 
Results from a review of cross-cultural studies by Basabe and Ros (2005) showed that 
competitive and success-centered attitudes are more common in collectivist, hierarchical, 
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materialist and less developed societies. Further, these researchers found self-reliance to be 
positively associated with hierarchical and less developed countries rather than developed ones. 
The results obtained by Basabe and Ros are however conflicting with findings obtained in the 
present study in that employees showed preference for team or group work which is reflective of 
cooperative rather than competitive attitude although for most employees, work goals consisted 
of materialistic ones. The argument therefore is that based on the findings of this study, 
competitive attitudes may not be characteristic of collectivist, hierarchical, materialist and less 
developed societies. Also, self-reliance may not be positively associated with hierarchical and 
less developed countries as claimed and further research may be required to investigate the 
nature of the relationship between cultural values and the variable self-reliance. 
 
5.4 Ghanaian socio-cultural values about work- Impact 
It is evident from the findings of the study that work values and societal beliefs are more 
expressive of Materialistic socio-cultural values. Materialism which emphasizes wealth bears 
semblance to the socio-cultural value hierarchy as described by Schwartz (1999). Status and 
authority appears to be more valued in the Ghanaian society than one’s contribution to society. 
This relatively higher respect for status and authority reflects the cultural values Schwartz 
labelled as hierarchy and mastery. It also reflects a power distant culture. However, the extent or 
degree of this cultural value (identified by Hofstede, 1980) prevalent in the Ghanaian society 
needs to be further investigated. The view of work as an obligation one owes to the society and 
the preference of teamwork over working independently or the Group orientation view is similar 
to the cultural value labelled as conservatism (collectivism) by Schwartz (1999). Finally, work in 
the Ghanaian society is viewed as a means of fulfilling a religious order. The relationship 
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between work values and religiousness has not received much research. Future research 
therefore may be geared towards that direction. These socio-cultural values which manifest in 
work values and attitudes have consequences. For instance a high respect for authority and status 
may influence the kind of relationship that exists between superiors and subordinates. Because 
those in authority are held in high regard, subordinates may fear to report unfair treatment at the 
work place or provide those in leadership with feedback which could assist in enhancing 
leadership performance. According to Hofstede (1980), individuals from cultures high on power 
distance manifest organisational behaviours such as close supervision, fear of disagreement with 
superiors and mistrust among workers. 
 
A group oriented value may be expressive of a culture where group interpersonal relationships 
are cherished. For example, results obtained by Hui and Yee (1999) showed that a warm and 
congenial work group produced higher satisfaction among people from collectivist cultures but 
lower satisfaction among those from individualist cultures. In collectivist cultures, individuals 
tend to have stronger social support networks which they can lean on in times of crisis. Higher 
levels of cooperation have also been observed in teams with a relatively high percentage of 
collectivist members leading to higher performance (Eby & Dobbins, 1997). A collectivist 
orientation however has its downside. For instance in a study by Amoah and Afranie (2015), 
they found that the collateral relational orientation of the Ghanaian (where primacy of the goals 
and welfare of the laterally extended group prevails) influences certain human resource practices 
such as appraisal. As a result of this socio-cultural value (similar to collectivism), objectivity and 
fairness are compromised by superiors during appraisal of subordinates. 
 
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5.5 Limitations of the study  
The aim of this study was to find out Ghanaian socio-cultural values about work by exploring 
societal beliefs about work, work values/goals and work ethic of employees of state owned 
organisations. Because this study employed a qualitative design and involved a relatively small 
sample size of 26 participants, it is limited in generalizability in terms of the fact that the views 
expressed by the selected sample may not be representative of the views of the larger population. 
This limitation is one main weakness of qualitative studies. “The generalizability of qualitative 
studies is usually based not on explicit sampling of some defined population to which the results 
can be extended, but on the development of a theory that can be extended to other cases” 
(Maxwell, 2005, p. 246). Further, Maxwell is of the view that the value of qualitative research 
might depend on this lack of generalizability in the sense of being representative of a larger 
population and providing an illuminating account of a setting as an extreme or ideal case. Future 
research may be directed towards exploring the work values and attitudes of employees in 
private organisations.  Another limitation of this study is the fact that time constraints did not 
permit analysis of other components of work ethic and therefore future research should be 
targeted at examining the other dimensions of work ethic in the Ghanaian setting. 
 
Finally, because the interviews conducted in this study were carried out at the work setting, there 
were a lot of interruptions and distractions. Also, some employees were a bit cautious in 
answering questions and as a result spoke in low tones in order to avoid being heard by other 
employees sitting close to them. This may have influenced the answers of participants and also 
limited the amount of information that could have been obtained from them. Future research may 
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therefore adopt alternative methods of data collection which would shield participants from such 
distractions. 
 
5.6 Significance and implications of the study 
Based on findings from the present study, a conceptual model was proposed on how socio-
cultural values impact work values and also influence work attitudes. In this model, the socio-
cultural milieu is observed to impact work values directly. These findings can therefore serve as 
a spring board for future research on the exact nature of the relationship among these variables in 
the Ghanaian setting. 
 
Findings from this study provide more insights about the meanings Ghanaians ascribe to work. 
Results showed that apart from the explicit functions of work such as providing income to meet 
basic needs and financial support to dependents, work also has implicit functions. The 
implication of this is that in planning retirement and downsizing programmes for affected 
employees, they should be designed to factor in elements that address the loss of the implicit 
value of work that affected persons might experience. 
 
The present study also provides knowledge about Ghanaian socio-cultural values and how these 
values influence employee work goals.  For most employees extrinsic work values are important 
as well as the intrinsic values which were observed to contribute greatly to employee satisfaction 
with their work. The implications are that in as much as attractive incomes and benefits are 
important in motivating employees, work design also plays an equally active role. There is 
therefore the need to design jobs to be interesting, varied and challenging enough to keep 
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employees motivated. The finding that status and authority are held in high regard in the 
Ghanaian society means that on average the Ghanaian is likely to appreciate more status, 
recognition and authority achieved in work than the opportunity to impact other people’s lives 
positively. Therefore, the use of status or recognition as a reward is likely to be more motivating 
to the Ghanaian worker than providing the opportunity to mentor other people. 
 
This study also explored two important components of work ethic namely success orientation 
and perception of teamwork and self-reliance which are critical in determining employee 
productivity at the work place. The extent to which employees perceive success as dependent on 
their efforts would determine how much effort they would be prepared to exert while the 
willingness of employees to cooperate and work effectively with other team members has great 
benefits for performance and attaining organisational goals. The results of the present study 
suggest that Ghanaian employees value learning and teamwork. The implication of this is that 
constant organisational learning is deemed necessary in maintaining motivated and productive 
employees.  Placing Ghanaian employees into work teams therefore may provide the ideal work 
situation to increase performance and organisational productivity.  
  
5.7 Conclusion 
This study sought to investigate Ghanaian socio-cultural values about work and a specific work 
attitude being work ethic. The findings of this study identified particular socio-cultural values 
that prevail in the Ghanaian society and how these socio-cultural values influence work values 
and work ethic. Ghanaian socio-cultural values about work were found to express materialism or 
a relatively high focus on the explicit benefits of work, respect for status and authority, a 
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preference for work team situations and the view of work as a religious calling which has to be 
fulfilled. A conceptual model was proposed to suggest how the socio-cultural context impacts the 
work values and attitudes of individuals. Findings from this study should inform managers on 
how to design work to motivate Ghanaian employees to be more productive. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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APPENDIX 
Appendix 1- Consent form 
             UNIVERSITY OF GHANA 
  
OFFICE OF RESEARCH, INNOVATION AND DEVELOPMENT 
Ethics Committee for Humanities (ECH) 
 
PROTOCOL CONSENT FORM  
 
 
Section A- BACKGROUND INFORMATION 
 
Title of Study:  
 
 Socio-cultural values about work and work attitudes: An exploratory study among 
Ghanaian workers. 
Principal Investigator: 
 
Martha Anyimiah Ackah 
Certified Protocol 
Number 
 
 
Section B– CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE IN RESEARCH 
 
General Information about Research 
The purpose of this study is to explore Ghanaian socio-cultural values about work by investigating 
the work goals of participants and examining societal norms about work. The study also seeks to 
examine work ethic beliefs by exploring the value placed on work in the Ghanaian society and the 
view of employees on how to achieve success in work.  
The estimated duration of interviews with participants is forty-five minutes. 
Participants would be engaged in one on one in-depth interview in which they would be expected 
to answer questions in line with the research questions. 
Benefits/Risk of the study 
Findings from this research would contribute to existing knowledge on the best way to motivate 
Ghanaian employees and also identify key socio-cultural values and how they influence work 
related attitudes.  
There are no anticipated risks to participants involved in this study. Participants would however be 
debriefed on what the research is about at the start of the interviews. 
Official Use only 
Protocol number 
 
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Confidentiality  
All participants involved in this study are assured of full confidentiality. The researcher will ensure 
that names of participants are not mentioned in the research report.  
Information on this research work would however be open to all those in academia and 
organisations who may find the results of the study useful. 
 
Compensation  
All research participants would be provided with snacks after interview sessions. 
Withdrawal from Study 
Participation in this study is voluntary and participants reserve the right to withdraw from the 
research at any point in time without having to bear any consequences or penalty. 
Participants are not under obligation to partake in this study and would not suffer any adverse 
consequences for declining to participate or withdraw from the study at any point in time. 
Participants or their legal representatives would be promptly provided with updates on the study 
which could in anyway influence their decision to partake in the study. 
Participants would be withdrawn from the study without regard to their consent if they are 
perceived in any way to be posing a nuisance to the progress of the session, misconducting 
themselves or posing a threat to the researcher. 
 
Contact for Additional Information  
In the unlikely event of any research-related injury or should the need arise for any further 
enquiries about the research, the following people could be contacted:  
Prof. Charity Akotia                                         
Department of Psychology, 
University of Ghana, Legon  
Mobile number- 0208127695 
 
Dr. Maxwell Asumeng 
Department of Psychology 
University of Ghana, Legon 
Mobile number-0248674405 
 
 
 
 
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Section C- VOLUNTEER AGREEMENT 
 
"I have read or have had someone read all of the above, asked questions, received answers 
regarding participation in this study, and am willing to give consent for me, my child/ward 
to participate in this study. I will not have waived any of my rights by signing this consent 
form. Upon signing this consent form, I will receive a copy for my personal records." 
 
________________________________________________ 
Name of Volunteer 
_________________________________________________    _______________________ 
Signature or mark of volunteer     Date   
                                                                         
If volunteers cannot read the form themselves, a witness must sign here:  
I was present while the benefits, risks and procedures were read to the volunteer. All questions 
were answered and the volunteer has agreed to take part in the research.  
_________________________________________________ 
Name of witness 
 
________________________________________________   _______________________   
Signature of witness       Date 
 
I certify that the nature and purpose, the potential benefits, and possible risks associated with 
participating in this research have been explained to the above individual.  
 
__________________________________________________  
Name of Person who Obtained Consent 
 
___________________________________________    ______________________ 
Signature of Person Who Obtained Consent    Date   
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APPENDIX 2 
 
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APPENDIX 3 
 
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Appendix 4 
 Interview questions 
 
1. How do you perceive work? 
2. How do you think work is viewed in the Ghanaian society? 
3. What are some of the things you think you should derive from work in general? 
4. When you are looking for a job what are some of the important things you look out for 
in that job and why? 
5. What are the things most Ghanaians look out for when looking for work? 
6. How would you describe your ideal job? 
7. What are some of the goals you think you can achieve through work? 
8. Which do you think is valued more in the Ghanaian society; one’s position at work or 
the contribution one’s work makes to others? Please give reasons for your answer.  
9. How do you think you can achieve success in work? 
10. Which one do you prefer; working individually or in a group? Please give your reasons 
11. How would you describe morality and ethics in work? (your own definition) 
12. How do you perceive the concept of time? When would you say you have made good 
use of your time? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Appendix 5 
 Sample interview transcript- Respondent 6 
Q: Please I would like to know how you perceive work, work in general. 
A: Generally I think that work is a necessary part of human endeavour, we do not work because 
we have just needs because there are certain inner satisfaction we also derive from working. I 
have seen that many people work not because they get enough reward because it is dignifying for 
them to be seen to be involved in some form of work. 
Q: Okay and how do you think work is viewed in the Ghanaian society? 
A: There are quite a number of people, not many though who see the value of work and therefore 
enjoy work. They see that work is a good thing for anybody to be involved in. Others only see 
work as just providing their needs and so they tend to emphasize the need or the reward that they 
will get more than the contribution they are making towards making the society a better place 
and so you find people sometimes avoiding work, staying at home, prioritizing other things 
ahead of work and it’s because of that understanding that they have. 
Q: What are the things you think you should derive from work in general? 
A: For me satisfaction, a certain dignity and the third will probably be the rewards that you also 
get from the service that you are providing. 
Q: Could you please elaborate the satisfaction and dignity? 
A: I see that when you are not working, sometimes it even becomes like a burden for you. “For a 
long time I have not been getting a job”, you hear people complaining so when they are out of 
work it becomes a great concern for them because they find that there is a certain quality of life 
that is missing in their life or a certain quality missing in the absence of a job. Of course when 
they get a job, their expectation also changes but you find some who see the job as something 
that adds value to their lives and so they love to work. They enjoy work. When even they are not 
well and they have to stay home they feel that they are losing something so they want to come to 
work. That is the type of people I admire, with the understanding of the value of work. When it 
comes to the satisfaction, many people think that it is the rewards that should bring the 
satisfaction to the work, I don’t think so. For me I believe that we can derive a lot of satisfaction 
if we value what we do. I do not think that spending 8 hours or 7 hours in the office a day should 
amount to nothing to me. It is my life that I am investing so if it is something that I do not see the 
value in it, why am I investing in it? Are you getting the picture? But for a lot of people it is just 
the reward that pulls them to work. I derive satisfaction from the fact that I am doing something 
good, people come to this office you serve them and you see a certain light in their eyes, a 
certain relief that you have given to them, a certain assurance that oh all hope is not lost. That for 
me is very satisfying. It’s far more rewarding to me than the money I get. 
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Q: So if you were to look for a job what are some of the important things you would look out for 
before you think of taking up the offer? 
A: Probably the first thing I will look out for is am I needed in the job? I wouldn’t want to come 
and waste my time if I am not needed in the job, I will not come. The second thing I will look out 
for is can I put enough in that job? That is where probably your skills, your qualifications, your 
background will have to come in. If you think from your background, from your skills from your 
qualification you cannot contribute sufficiently to the job, why are you taking it? So I look out 
for those things. The third one I look out for is whether I can work with other people to make the 
job as satisfying, as good as we are required to perform. I will give you an example to explain 
what I am saying. If you put me in a team and I find that the team members are lazy, they are not 
interested in the job, all they are interested in is money, all they are interested in is probably what 
they can get out of it, I will hesitate in going to work in such an environment. Because you most 
likely to be influenced negatively. When you are going to work you would be feeling that what 
am I going to do? But you go and you find an enthusiastic group of people, you go to add more 
enthusiasm to the existing enthusiasm. So for me these are the things I look out for before the 
money comes in. I don’t know, probably because I have worked in public service all my life. 
You know in public service sometimes you don’t even get to know of the salary that you are 
going to get before you start the work. Usually everything is already pre-calculated so sometimes 
you get to know of what you are going to get way down the line after you have started work. So 
within that environment I have usually not even seen what I am going to get for me to say that I 
like the salary or not. But I look at the work environment, I look at what I can bring to the work, 
I look at the need that exists for my services before I take up the job. 
Q: And what do you think Ghanaians generally look out for when they are looking for work? 
A: I see different signals. Some, I have seen quite a number of people who have similar attitude 
than I have. They want to contribute, they want to enjoy the work, they want to feel that they are 
valued in the work. Others it is the money and so they can come here, pick the job, start working 
and then be looking for other opportunities elsewhere. Sometimes even when they are supposed 
to be in the office, they will leave the office and go and do moonlight a bit and come back all 
because they want more money out of what they are doing. 
Q: And how would you describe your ideal job or ideal work? 
A: I cannot speak about what I have not experienced so far but from what I have experienced so 
far, I have come to enjoy the work I do at this commission. For me, it is a job that I have had the 
opportunity to leave on previous occasions but because of the fact that I was enjoying the work, 
because of the fact that I felt that I was being valued and my services were needed, I decided to 
stay on so for me this is my ideal job. 
Q: And what are some of the goals you think you can achieve through work? 
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A: Societal goals, personal goals? 
Q: Any of them 
A: Societal goals, I find that our work contributes a lot to building an equitable society and for 
me some of the ideals that the founding fathers of this land held appeal to me a lot. Freedom, 
justice are ideals that still for me are relevant and so in promoting and protecting human rights, I 
am contributing to enlarging freedoms in society and so for me it is something that I enjoy doing. 
Fighting corruption, improving governance, holding public offices accountable are values that I 
think go to reinforce the justice component, the equity component of the society that we seek to 
build and so for me these are the goals that I see myself as contributing to. Personal goals-
because of the work that I do sometimes, even when I am tempted to digress and pursue things 
that I find to be conflicting to the values that I hold here, they hold me in check. And a lot of the 
people sometimes say as for you everything human rights or everything corruption but I find that 
the work has made me a better person, the work has defined my values. I brought values to the 
work but the work has also reinforced the values that I held dear when I was coming to the work 
and that has also contributed to my personal goals of being a person who has integrity. 
Q: What are some of the goals you would like to achieve in your work life before you finally 
leave the area of work? 
A: Laughs. If I can influence and affect as many people within this organisation and outside this 
organisation, within this country and outside this country, for me that will be…one of the things 
that I have set, personal goals that I have set for myself is to try and improve persons that I come 
into contact with in the course of my life so anytime I come into contact with somebody and I 
leave I ask myself was I able to deposit anything of value in the person’s life or not. So these are 
some of the things I hold dear in this work and I should be able to influence people here and I see 
people who have already been influenced by my mind set, my attitude to work, my attitude to 
life and certain values that I hold. I have also seen people, colleagues outside this country who I 
believe I have somehow either influenced or affected by certain values that I hold so I believe 
that I am still on track. 
Q: Which one do you think is valued more in the Ghanaian society; the position one holds or the 
contribution one makes to other people, which one do you think is valued more in the Ghanaian 
society? 
A: I am happy you are asking this question because sometimes I ask myself what is, in Ghana it 
appears that we allow positions to go to their head. They put the position so high and forget the 
responsibilities that go with the position. I think that it should be the other way round. We are 
called to serve not to lord over people. We are called to add value to our office, not to exploit our 
office for our personal gain. But in Ghana I am sure you have seen quite a lot of this. Somebody 
who before he gets to office had a different, modest lifestyle, then when he gets to office, the 
first thing he starts looking for are the pegs, are the privileges and sometimes even go to the 
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extent of abusing office to take more than it is allowed for that particular office. I have seen a lot 
that is why people who get into public offices often engage in corruption or abuse the office to 
improperly benefit themselves. 
Q: So you think position is valued more than service? 
A: That’s what is happening and that is also the reason why people go to every extent to borrow 
money to corruptly influence people to put them in certain positions or to elect them to certain 
positions. I mean you see it in our elections, political system, I mean people, why will somebody 
say that I spent so much money campaigning when it doesn’t make sense to spend that money if 
you calculate how much the person has invested in the political campaign and you look at how 
much the person will earn in office for the four year term that the person is going to be in office, 
you find that there is no wisdom in doing that and yet they go and do it because they want to 
come to office and come and abuse office to make more money. 
Q: How do you think you can achieve success in work? 
A: For me, the first path that anybody who wants to be successful is to love the work that he 
does. If you see your work as a burden or a bother, there’s no way you can be successful. But if 
you can love the work and enjoy doing it, all the inconveniences that sometimes come with the 
work you will be able to ride on them very successfully and that’s what can contribute to success 
in work. Two, many people think that when we talk about success, it is about money, it is about 
making a name or probably, the trappings that come with certain offices, no. For me if you have 
been appointed for example to be a minister for a particular department or particular ministry, if 
the purpose for which the ministry has been set up, that if you able to deliver on that purpose, if 
you are able to meet the demands of that mandate that for me is when you can say you are being 
successful. But if you are making all the money in the world, if you are able to make all the noise 
in the world for people to get to know you and you consider that one as success- no. Success at 
what?  At making noise, at making a name, at making money? That is not success. The purpose 
for which you have been called to office or for which you have been called to work is what must 
define you success. 
Q: And which one do you prefer; working individually or working in team? 
A: Both because there is a place where you must work alone and there is a place where you must 
work in a team. Now it is a question of you knowing when you must work alone and when you 
must work in a team. When you must work alone if you are waiting for a team to work, you will 
lose the time that you should have used to do that particular work. Because by the time that the 
team comes, the team will not be able to do what you alone must do because that is not supposed 
to be team work. So there is time when the team must work and there is time when the individual 
must also work. 
Okay that will be all. Thank you so much. 
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TABLES 
Table 1: General themes of employee work goals and values 
PARTICIPANTS THEMES GENERATED 
Respondent 1 Good income, health, job security, knowledge and skills improvement, 
career advancement, meeting basic and family needs, contribution to 
organisational growth. 
Respondent 2 Good income, opportunity to use ability, achievement, acquisition of 
knowledge, job security, opportunity for advancement, organisational 
image, provision of healthcare and other incentives, provision of basic and 
family needs, service, productivity, future security. 
Respondent 3 Good income, status, basic and family needs, achievement, secure future, 
contribution to society, minimal stress, personal growth. 
Respondent 4 Good income, productivity, health safety, moderate job demands, 
interesting work, knowledge acquisition. 
Respondent 5 Logistics, good income, interest, challenge, appreciation, knowledge 
acquisition or expertise, marketability. 
Respondent 6  Reward, contribution to society, impact, opportunity to use ability, 
efficient work team, interesting work. 
Respondent 7 Opportunity to practice acquired knowledge, social interaction, learning, 
income, career advancement, job security, healthcare and other incentives, 
interesting work, knowledge acquisition. 
Respondent 8 Fulfilment of religious duty, good income, meeting basic and family 
needs, personal growth and development, beautiful work environment, 
logistics, interesting work. 
Respondent 9 Building self-esteem, good income, meeting family needs, learning, sense 
of accomplishment, contribution to society, recognition, logistics, 
influence. 
Respondent 10 Meeting individual and family basic needs, well-structured organisation, 
less stress, challenge, contribution to society, developing relationships, 
expertise, interesting work. 
Respondent 11 Good income, meeting basic and family needs, contribution to society, 
good human relations, acceptance, opportunity to share knowledge, 
personal development opportunity, opportunity to use abilities, career 
advancement, interesting work, future financial security. 
Respondent 12 Recognition, income, feedback, knowledge utilization, achievement, good 
interpersonal relationships, acceptance, logistics, job security, interesting 
work, career progression, meeting family and social obligations, dignity, 
responsibility, educational advancement, less stress, personal growth and 
development. 
Respondent 13 Income, meeting basic and family needs, opportunity to use skills, work 
preference, effective and cooperative work team, comfortable work 
environment, building good human relationships, 
Respondent 14 Income generation, meeting family needs, opportunity to use ability, 
respect, recognition, career advancement, incentives, responsibility, 
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increase in self-worth, interesting work. 
Respondent 15 Good income, personal growth and development, job security, incentives, 
good interpersonal relationships, challenge, knowledge acquisition, future 
financial security, meeting basic needs and security, varied work, 
opportunity to utilize/practice acquired knowledge, feedback. 
Respondent 16 Fulfilment of religious command, income, meeting basic and family 
needs, interest, provision of healthcare for self and family, job security, 
career advancement. 
Respondent 17 Challenge, responsibility, impact, contribution, good income, good 
supervision, good interpersonal relationships, opportunity to apply 
knowledge, effective organisational policies, challenge, career 
advancement. 
Respondent 18 Practice of acquired knowledge, good income, learning and experience, 
building human relationships, job security, status, career advancement, 
organisational reputation and credibility, excellence. 
Respondent 19 Income, meeting family needs, opportunity to exhibit skills and talents, 
contribution to others and society, creativity and innovation, 
organisational reputation, opportunity to practice acquired knowledge, 
contribution to organisational success, challenge, pleasure and recreational 
activity. 
Respondent 20 Income, work experience, personal growth and development, job 
demands, beautiful work environment, human relations, responsibility, 
career advancement, promotion. 
Respondent 21 Productivity, income generation, promotion, incentives, challenge, 
opportunity for career progression, more initiative, expertise or 
knowledge, flexibility and less stress, varied work. 
Respondent 22 Good income, meeting personal and family needs, incentives, less stress, 
promotion, contribution to organisational success, good external work 
environment 
Respondent 23 Good income, opportunity to solve problems, responsibility, meeting basic 
needs, interest, creativity. 
Respondent 24 Good income, meeting personal and family needs, incentives, good human 
relationships, religious duty, interesting work, results. 
Respondent 25 Good income, productivity, results, impact, interesting work, work 
schedule, impact in organisation, career advancement, practice of acquired 
knowledge, logistics. 
Respondent 26 Interesting work, excitement, challenge, promotion or advancement, self –
improvement. 
 
 
 
 
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Summary of main and sub themes derived from data analysis 
 
Table 2    Employee work goals and values  
Theme 1 
Extrinsic work values 
Theme 2 
Intrinsic work values 
Theme 3 
Social work values 
Sub themes 
1. Income and benefits 
2. Environment 
3. Security 
 
Sub themes 
1. Work design 
2. Safety, personal 
growth and 
development 
3. Prestige 
Sub themes 
1. Interpersonal 
2. Contribution 
 
 
Table 3 Work ethic beliefs 
Theme 1 
Success orientation 
Theme 2 
Self-reliance and teamwork 
Sub theme 
1. Success as a function of hard work and 
learning.  
 
Sub theme 
1. Teamwork as the most effective way to 
achieve optimum results 
 
 
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Table 4      Societal beliefs about work 
Theme 1 
Personal satisfaction 
Theme 2 
Obligation 
Sub themes 
1. Economic satisfaction 
2. Psychological satisfaction 
Sub themes 
1. Social obligation 
2. Religious obligation 
 
 
 
 
TABLE 5 Employee biographic data 
RESPONDEN
T 
SEX AG
E 
EDUCATIO
NAL LEVEL 
MARITA
L 
STATUS 
ORGANI
SATION 
NUMB
ER OF 
YEARS 
WITH 
ORGN. 
JOB TITLE 
Respondent 1 Female 38 2nd Degree Married CHRAJ 8 Principal Investigator 
Respondent 2 Male 32 Degree Married ECG 6 Data Analyst 
Respondent 3 Female 48 2nd Degree Married CHRAJ 7 Head of Public 
Relations & Comm 
Respondent 4 Male 52 2nd Degree Married CHRAJ 15 Senr Legal Officer 
Respondent 5 Female 37 2nd Degree Married CHRAJ 10 Asst Legal Officer 
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Respondent 6 Male 57 2nd Degree Married CHRAJ 21 Dep Commissioner 
Respondent 7 Male 33 MBA Single GRA 9 Tax Officer 
Respondent 8 Female 49 Degree Married ECG 24 Telephonist/Receptionist 
Respondent 9 Male 36 MBA Married GRA 8 Principal Rev Officer 
Respondent 10 Male 31 2nd Degree Married GRA 5 User Support Engineer 
Respondent 11 Male 31 Degree Single CHRAJ 6 Senr Investigator 
Respondent 12 Male 39 MBA Married ECG 13 Asst. HR Officer 
Respondent 13 Male 45 Diploma Married SIC 15 Senr. Insurance Off 
Respondent 14 Male 41 MBA Married SIC 14 Insurer 
Respondent 15 Female 35 Degree Single ECG 13 Account Asst. 
Respondent 16 Female 36 Degree Married GRA 8 Revenue Officer 
Respondent 17 Male 37 MBA Married GRA 10 Asst Revenue Officer 
Respondent 18 Female 41 Degree Single ECG 13 Data recorder 
Respondent 19 Male 45 Degree Married ECG 18 Principal technician 
Respondent 20 Female 31 Degree Married GRA 6 Revenue Officer 
Respondent 21 Male 31 MBA Single GRA 6 Asst. Revenue Officer 
Respondent 22 Female 55 O’ Level Widow SIC 29 Stores Keeper 
Respondent 23 Male 37 Degree Single CHRAJ 8 Senr. Research Officer 
Respondent 24 Female 48 Diploma Married ECG 22 Customer Care Rep 
Respondent 25 Female 35 MBA Single GRA 8 Senr. Revenue Officer 
Respondent 26 Female 40 Degree Married SIC 12 Underwriter 
 
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