Work values are the rewards, conditions, and experiences you need work to provide for it to feel worthwhile and sustainable. They help explain why a job can look sensible on paper yet feel wrong in practice—and why the same occupation can suit one person in one workplace but not another.
Key points
In brief: Work values describe what you need from work, while personality traits describe broader tendencies. The six values are Achievement, Independence, Recognition, Relationships, Support, and Working Conditions. No value is inherently better than another. Useful reflection requires trade-offs, and fit depends on the particular role, manager, organization, and conditions as well as the occupation.
What is the difference between a work value and a personality trait?
A personality trait is a relatively broad tendency, such as being more sociable, organized, emotionally reactive, or open to new experiences. It can appear across work, relationships, and daily life.
A work value is a preference about what work should supply. A person can be quiet and still care deeply about Recognition. Someone can be highly organized yet place little importance on conventional Working Conditions if autonomy and meaningful accomplishment matter more.
Interests are different again. Career interests describe the activities and subject matter that attract your attention. Work values describe what you need to receive or experience while doing those activities. Our guide to work values versus career interests explains why both matter.
The distinction comes from vocational psychology rather than from a promise that one test can find a perfect career. The University of Minnesota's Theory of Work Adjustment treats work as an interaction: the person brings abilities to meet the environment's requirements, while the environment supplies rewards and conditions that may or may not meet the person's needs. Fit is therefore a relationship, not a label attached to either the person or the job.
What are the six work values?
The O*NET Work Importance Locator grouped work-related needs into six broad values. The wording below is a plain-language Psychdom interpretation of that framework, not a reproduction of assessment items.
| Work value | What it means | What tends to fulfill it | What tends to threaten it |
| Achievement | Using your abilities, seeing progress, and feeling that your effort produced something worthwhile | Challenging but attainable goals, visible outcomes, skill use, useful feedback | Work that feels pointless, chronically underuses your abilities, or never reaches completion |
| Independence | Having room to use judgment, show initiative, and make meaningful decisions | Decision latitude, ownership, trust, choice in methods or sequencing | Micromanagement, needless approvals, scripted work, or no influence over decisions that affect your work |
| Recognition | Receiving respect, advancement, status, responsibility, or acknowledgment for contribution | Fair credit, progression, leadership opportunity, visible responsibility | Invisible effort, blocked progression, status games, or credit being assigned unfairly |
| Relationships | Working with friendly people, helping others, and acting in ways that fit your ethical standards | Collegiality, service, trust, ethical alignment, constructive cooperation | Hostility, isolation, moral conflict, or work that harms people you intend to help |
| Support | Experiencing competent, fair, and considerate management and an organization that stands behind its people | Clear guidance, fair decisions, useful resources, psychological and practical backing | Arbitrary supervision, favoritism, unclear expectations, or being left exposed when problems arise |
| Working Conditions | Having acceptable pay, security, physical conditions, pace, variety, schedule, and a work style that suits you | Sustainable workload, suitable hours and environment, fair compensation, stability | Unsafe or exhausting conditions, unpredictable income, poor tools, unmanageable hours, or a badly matched pace |
These definitions align with the archived O*NET Work Importance Locator score-report guidance. The original framework also connects the six values to more specific workplace needs. A value is therefore a useful summary, not the whole story.
What can high and low importance look like?
High importance means the absence of that value is likely to matter in a decision. Lower importance means you may tolerate less of it when another priority is being met. It does not mean the opposite is desirable.
Achievement
- Higher importance: You want difficult work that uses your strengths and lets you see what changed because of your effort.
- Lower importance: You may accept routine or supporting work when it offers stability, good relationships, or energy for life outside work.
Independence
- Higher importance: You work best when trusted to choose methods, set priorities, or make decisions within clear boundaries.
- Lower importance: You may prefer established procedures, close collaboration, or ready access to a decision-maker.
Recognition
- Higher importance: Advancement, responsibility, professional standing, and visible credit are meaningful signals that your contribution counts.
- Lower importance: You may be content doing valuable work without public acknowledgment, especially if other needs are met.
Relationships
- Higher importance: Warm colleagues, service to others, and ethical consistency are central to whether work feels worthwhile.
- Lower importance: You may tolerate solitary, competitive, or emotionally neutral work when the tasks, autonomy, or rewards fit well.
Support
- Higher importance: The quality and fairness of management strongly affect your willingness to stay and contribute.
- Lower importance: You may function well with minimal supervision and limited organizational involvement, provided expectations are clear.
Working Conditions
- Higher importance: Pay, security, schedule, physical setting, workload, and work style are central rather than merely practical details.
- Lower importance: You may accept uncertainty, irregular hours, or a less comfortable setting for meaningful work, growth, or autonomy.
No column is a character judgment. Wanting security is not timid. Wanting Recognition is not vain. Wanting Relationships is not more virtuous than wanting Independence. Each value can be pursued thoughtfully or expressed rigidly, and every job decision involves constraints.
Can the same occupation satisfy different values?
Yes. “Occupation” tells you far less about daily work than most career lists imply.
Consider two software developers. One works in a small product team, chooses how to solve problems, sees releases reach users, and values Independence and Achievement. Another works in a public-sector technology group with predictable hours, a supportive manager, strong leave provisions, and values Support and Working Conditions. Both are developers, but the sources of fit are different.
The reverse is also true. A nurse who values Relationships may feel fulfilled in a well-supported community clinic and depleted in a chronically understaffed ward. A researcher who values Achievement may thrive in a team that completes practical studies but struggle in a prestigious department where projects repeatedly stall. A manager who values Recognition may enjoy visible responsibility in one organization and dislike a culture in which recognition depends on internal competition.
When work feels wrong, separate the occupation from the employer, team, manager, role design, and conditions. Our guide to work-values mismatch shows how to test those levels before assuming a complete career change is required.
Why does every positive work value feel important?
Because all six describe things most people would rather have than lose. Few people actively want unfair management, meaningless effort, hostile colleagues, poor conditions, no choice, or no credit.
That creates a measurement problem. If you rate each attractive statement independently, your honest answer may be “very important” six times. The result describes an ideal workplace but does not help when two good options supply different benefits.
Prioritization becomes clearer when you make forced choices:
- Would you accept less autonomy for greater security this year?
- Would you choose meaningful service with modest recognition over prestigious work that conflicts with your ethics?
- Would you trade some advancement for a shorter commute and predictable hours?
- When a manager is supportive but the work is repetitive, which problem becomes decisive?
The archived Work Importance Locator used a card-sort procedure that required items to be distributed across importance columns. Its scoring approach made relative priorities visible rather than allowing every item to occupy the top position. Psychdom does not reproduce those items. The useful principle is simply that a priority becomes informative when it affects a choice.
A practical exercise to identify your work values
Use evidence from real weeks, not only an imagined ideal job.
- Find three high points. Write down three moments at work when you felt absorbed, proud, relieved, respected, connected, or secure.
- Name what the environment supplied. For each moment, identify the reward or condition that mattered. Was it accomplishment, choice, acknowledgment, connection, backing, or a practical condition?
- Find three recurring frustrations. Describe observable events rather than global judgments. “My manager changed the deadline without discussing priorities” is more useful than “the culture is toxic”.
- Identify the threatened value. Link each frustration to one or two of the six values. If several fit, ask which missing element would have changed the experience most.
- Make two trade-offs. Choose between two realistic offers or scenarios. State what you would protect and what you could temporarily accept less of.
- Write a minimum, a preference, and a deal-breaker. For your top values, define what “enough” looks like in behavior you could observe.
For example, “I value Support” is broad. “I need a manager who agrees priorities when deadlines conflict, gives usable feedback at least monthly, and does not punish early risk reporting” can guide a conversation or job search.
How the Psychdom Work Values Test uses scores and examples
The Psychdom Work Values Test uses original questions to estimate the relative importance of the six work values. It then asks for written examples because the same score can mean different things in different lives.
Structured scoring provides consistency: the same responses follow the same scoring rules, close values remain visible, and the report does not force a single winner where the evidence is mixed. Your written examples provide context: what is missing now, which trade-offs are real, what has worked before, and which constraint cannot simply be ignored.
The result is a working hypothesis for career exploration and workplace decisions. It is not an official O*NET product, does not diagnose dissatisfaction, and cannot identify a perfect career. You can read more about Psychdom's assessment and report methodology.
Was the O*NET Work Importance Locator retired?
Yes. The National Center for O*NET Development states that the Work Importance Locator career exploration tool was retired on 3 June 2024. Its archived materials are now provided for research purposes, without technical support.
Retirement of a supported tool is not evidence that work values were disproved or abandoned. The six-value framework remains a useful way to organize questions about what a work environment supplies. The original development report describes how the paper-and-pencil locator was built and evaluated, while the Theory of Work Adjustment remains available through the University of Minnesota's vocational psychology archive.
Psychdom's assessment is independently written and is not approved, endorsed, or tested by the U.S. Department of Labor. We use the framework as a transparent starting point and keep interpretation connected to the person's own evidence.
FAQ
Can work values change over time?
Yes. Major responsibilities, health, financial needs, caregiving, and new experiences can change which conditions matter most. A profile is best treated as a current set of priorities rather than a permanent identity.
Are work values the same as company values?
No. Work values describe what an individual needs or prefers from work. Company values are an organization's stated principles. The two can overlap, but a slogan does not prove that a workplace supplies what a person values.
How many work values should I prioritize?
Start with two or three that would materially change a decision. Keep the others visible as supporting preferences or constraints rather than pretending they do not matter.
Does a high work-value score mean I am entitled or demanding?
No. A high score describes importance, not entitlement. The practical question is how to seek enough fulfillment while recognizing trade-offs, role obligations, and what an employer can realistically provide.
Can two people with the same job have different work-value fit?
Yes. They may value different rewards, and their managers, teams, schedules, autonomy, pay, or opportunities may also differ. Occupation title alone does not determine work-value fit.
Sources and further reading
- National Center for O*NET Development. Development of the O*NET Paper-and-Pencil Work Importance Locator (1999).
- National Center for O*NET Development. O*NET Work Importance Locator archived materials (2024).
- National Center for O*NET Development. Work Importance Locator score report.
- Dawis, R. V., England, G. W., & Lofquist, L. H. A Theory of Work Adjustment (A Revision). University of Minnesota.
- Lofquist, L. H., & Dawis, R. V. (1978). Values as second-order needs in the Theory of Work Adjustment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 12(1), 12–19.
- Kristof-Brown, A. L., Zimmerman, R. D., & Johnson, E. C. (2005). Consequences of individuals' fit at work: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 58(2), 281–342.
Ready to turn broad preferences into a usable set of priorities?
Take the Work Values Test