Authors : Jamaliah Abdul Hamid, Jeffrey Lawrence D`Silva and Amer Hamzah Jantan
Abstract: The social contexts of youths in different levels of the education system contain differences and they are exposed to different elements of influence. This study attempts to examine differences in youth’s work values and how this affects their preference of job characteristics in two different contexts: the upper secondary school and the university 0.581 upper secondary school students and 711 undergraduates in four zones of Peninsular Malaysia were randomly chosen from cluster samples of schools and universities as per zone. Survey questionnaires were sent out to respondents. The main findings showed that there were significant differences in the work values aspired by upper secondary school students and undergraduates, except for the importance of having authority at the work place. The preference of selected job characteristics amongst school students and university undergraduates were also significantly different, except for jobs with collegial work environment and jobs that are characterized by authoritative power. Correlation tests for both groups of samples confirmed that most work values had significant relationships to the preferred job characteristic. All eight regression models predicting work values for each of the job characteristic were significant and ranged from moderately strong to strong, thus, confirming the research hypothesis that work values significantly predicted types of job characteristics preferred by school students and university undergraduates.
Jamaliah Abdul Hamid, Jeffrey Lawrence D`Silva and Amer Hamzah Jantan, 2016. Relationship of Work Values to Preferences of Job Characteristics among School and University Youths. The Social Sciences, 11: 4981-4991.