Types Of Work Ethic

Front 1

Protestant

Back 1

work for the glory of God and personal salvation (came with the various religious groups settling early America – the harder you worked, the more Godly you were)

Front 2

Craft

Back 2

oriented to savings and self-sufficiency, to independence and self-control and to rewards on earth (came with the agricultural movement where self-sufficiency was highly valued)

Front 3

Entrepreneurial

Back 3

risk taking valued, exploitation of people and opportunities, dislike of bureaucracy and red tape (came with the industrialization of America where people believed in enterprising behavior reaping the most rewards, no matter how it effected other people)

Front 4

Career

Back 4

value in other-directedness; get ahead in the market place; what makes you more valuable; survival of the fittest (a movement in the ‘50s and ‘60s related to finding a company, remaining loyal to that company, and working your “butt” off to be successful with that company – kind of the old “family” values where the organization and its employees were considered a family)

Front 5

Self-fulfillment

Back 5

oriented to seeing challenge, growth, respect from the work place and work not to the exclusion of family, community and other aspects of life (hypothesized as the current work ethic orientation – movement toward a “me” attitude, meaning if you do good for me, I’ll do good for you or I’ll leave; a change from being other or company directed to me or self-directed)