Abstract
For junior designers, friction between personal and organizational values can lead to frustration. This paper addresses job selection choices of junior designers, and how they are affected by an awareness of personal values. An experiment (n=106) shows how an explicit awareness of personal values (based on the Schwartz Value Survey) affects the choices and motivations of junior designers. Results show that, overall, junior designers select vacancies that express values that are congruent with their own values. In addition, a greater awareness of personal values is found to lead to more confidence in one’s choice, and to a greater tendency to look for a match between personal and organizational values based on complementarity (rather than congruence). These findings are to help junior designers to make professional choices based on personal values and ambitions, promoting the best fit for their first job.
Keywords
design management, industrial design, marketing, consumer products
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.115
Citation
Jonkmans, A., Wurl, J., Snelders, D., and van Onselen, L. (2016) Junior designers’ awareness of personal values and their employment choices, in Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Future Focused Thinking - DRS International Conference 2016, 27 - 30 June, Brighton, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.115
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Junior designers’ awareness of personal values and their employment choices
For junior designers, friction between personal and organizational values can lead to frustration. This paper addresses job selection choices of junior designers, and how they are affected by an awareness of personal values. An experiment (n=106) shows how an explicit awareness of personal values (based on the Schwartz Value Survey) affects the choices and motivations of junior designers. Results show that, overall, junior designers select vacancies that express values that are congruent with their own values. In addition, a greater awareness of personal values is found to lead to more confidence in one’s choice, and to a greater tendency to look for a match between personal and organizational values based on complementarity (rather than congruence). These findings are to help junior designers to make professional choices based on personal values and ambitions, promoting the best fit for their first job.