DESIGN ATTRIBUTES IN RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING The Effects of Colour and Font on P-O fit

DESIGN ATTRIBUTES IN RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING The Effects of Colour and Font on P-O fit

Master thesis, Marketing Management and Human Resource Management University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and Business

June 15, 2014

MYRTHE MARKSLAG Studentnumber: 1849093 Paterswoldseweg 310

9727 BX Groningen Tel: +31636008636

Email: Myrthemarkslag@hotmail.com

Surpervisor B.A. Nijstad

Second Supervisor

D. Trampe

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, most research about advertisements is focussed on the mechanisms that affect consumers. However, organizations need to attract and recruit talented applicants as well in order to survive and to gain a competitive advantage. Today, we still miss a clear understanding of how and why recruitment advertisements affect job seekers. The current paper studies the effects of colour and font used in recruitment advertisement on organizational attractiveness. This paper proposes that through colour and font in the recruitment advertisement the job seeker forms a perception of the values of the organization. When these perceived organizational values match the personal values of the job seeker, the job seeker is more attracted. An online survey is used in order to collect the data. The results showed effects of style attributes on organizational value perceptions of the job seeker. Remarkable, this research found opposites effects of font on organizational attractiveness.

Keywords: Colour, font, organizational attractiveness, recruitment advertisement, values

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ... 2

1. INTRODUCTION ... 4

2. THEORY ... 7

2.1 Organizational and Personal values ... 8

2.2 Colours and fonts used in the recruitment advertisement ... 11

3. PRE-TEST ... 17

3.1 Method ... 18

3.2 Results ... 19

4.1 Participants ... 20

4.2 Design and Procedure ... 20

4.3 Measures ... 22

5. RESULTS ... 24

6. DISCUSSION ... 30

7. MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS ... 35

8. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS ... 37

9. CONCLUSION ... 38

10. REFERENCES ... 40

1. INTRODUCTION

An important role of marketing communication is building and maintaining relationships with multiple stakeholders, including customers and employees (Reid, Luxton and Mavondo, 2005;

Belch and Belch, 2003). The goal of marketing communication is to attract attention and build interest among customers. However, in order to attract customers and gain a competitive advantage, organizations need a high quality workforce. Therefore, firms do not only need to attract customers, companies need to attract and recruit talented employees as well.

Organizations are using advertisements to communicate to the customer the personality of their products or also referred to as the organization’s image (Dowling, 1993; Duncan, 2002;

Belch and Belch, 2003). In addition, in order to attract the right employees, organizations may want to communicate their organizational image in recruitment advertisements. Despite the fact that there is already a great amount of research in consumer advertising about the

different mechanisms that affect consumers (Hubert and Kenning, 2008), we still miss a clear understanding of the effects and techniques in recruitment advertisements that might affect job seekers.

Today, research efforts on the effects of recruitment advertising are growing (Breaugh and

Starke, 2000). It is acknowledged that recruitment advertisement can affect the quality of the

workforce by creating a pool of applicants from which the organization can choose (Carlson,

Connerley and Mecham, 2002; Kirnan, Farley, Geisinger, 1989). Thus, creating a high quality

candidate pool early in the hiring process may have important consequences for developing a

talented workforce. Therefore, we can state that recruiting talented people is one of the most

The attributes of a recruitment advertisement can have large impacts on the job seeker’s attraction towards the job or the organizations (Cober, Levy, Brown, Cober and Keeping, 2003; Feldman, Bearden, Hardesty, 2006). For example, Feldman et al. (2006) studied the effects of the specificity of information in recruitment advertisements. They found that the specificity of information in a job advertisement influences the number of potential recruits.

However, a recruitment advertisement does not only contain information about the job. For example, recruitment advertisements consist of other attributes as well, such as colour and font.

It is important to study the effects of colour in recruitment advertisement since colour plays an important role in affecting our perceptions (Bagchi and Cheema, 2013). Colours are used everywhere, they are a part of our daily lives. In the context of marketing of products and services, the effects of colours and other design attributes on consumer perceptions have been studied extensively (Feldman et al. 2006). For example, using colour helps differentiating brands and products and influences brand evaluations (Macklin, 1996). In addition, Hall and Hanna (2004) found that the use of preferred colours in the backgrounds of web pages led to higher ratings of aesthetic quality and purchase intentions. In sum, colours can influence an individual’s perception to a large extent. However, in the context of promoting job

applications, there is a lack of research that studies the effects of these ‘style’ or ‘aesthetic design’ attributes in recruitment advertising (Barber, 1998).

Therefore, this study advances recruitment research by considering the impact of style attributes. This research focuses on the effects of colour and font in recruitment

advertisements on the attractiveness of the organization in the eyes of a job seeker. Cober et al.

(2003) demonstrated that both content and style attributes of a company website are important precursors of attractiveness to the organization. However, their research found no evidence that explains how style attributes lead to attraction towards the organization. A theory for how applicants are attracted towards an organization is the signaling theory of Spence (1973).

Signaling theory suggests that individuals who are faced with uncertainty look for information or cues about unknown organizational attributes in order to reduce this uncertainty. Cober et al. (2003) explains that even factors without any direct relevance to a particular job or organization are influential determinants of organizational attraction. In conclusion, people seek for cues to find more information about the organization in order to reduce uncertainty and this in turn influences their attraction towards the organization. Therefore, design attributes can act as a cue for job seekers to make inferences about the quality of an

organization as an employer (Cober et al., 2003) and are therefore more attracted towards the organization. Zeithaml (1988) studied perceptions of price, quality and values in consumer markets. In her research she indicates that a consumer’s value perception consists of cues that signal quality. Applicants may search for cues as well, cues that signal the quality of the organization as an employer.

As a consequence, the central focus of this study is how colour and font used in a recruitment advertisement may influence the attractiveness of an organization. In particular, this study examines the effects of colour and font on the perceptions of the job seeker of the

organization its values and the person-organization (P-O) fit. The research question of this

paper is:

Does the colour and font used in a recruitment ad influence the attractiveness of an organization through a perception of the company’s values and is this moderated by the personal values of job seekers?

The conceptual model of this research is illustrated in figure 1. I conclude this research with discussing the findings, the managerial implications and by making suggestions for future research.

2. THEORY

This research is about the influence of colour and fonts in recruitment advertisement on the attractiveness of the organization advertised, through a perception of a person-organization fit of the jobseeker. Since I want to link colour and font to perceptions of organizational values, it is necessary to first explain the values an individual and collective can have before

explaining the value perceptions of colour and fonts.

Colour and font used in Recruitment

advertisement

Perceived

organizational values Attractiveness of organization

Personal Values

Figure 1 Conceptual Model

2.1 Organizational and Personal values

Schwartz (1992) defines values as ‘concepts or beliefs that pertain to desirable end states or behaviours, transcend specific situations, guide selection or evaluation of behaviour and events, and are ordered by relative importance’ (p.4). According to Boer and Fischer (2013), values are ‘basic motivational orientations that guide actions and evaluations.’ These

definitions indicate that values are determinants of attitude and behaviour. Indeed, multiple studies showed that personal values are important predictors of attitudes and behaviour (Schwartz, 1992; Bardi & Schwartz, 2003; Sagiv, Sverdlik, and Schwarz, 2011). Schwartz (1992) developed a structure of personal values across nations (see figure 2).

Figure 2 Schwartz's Value Model

Schwartz identified ten motivationally distinct personal values types

. The personal values identified by Schwartz are: benevolence, conformity, tradition, security, power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction and universalism. Schwartz, Caprara and Vecchione (2010) suggested that each value has distinct motivational goals that it expresses. In table 1, I adopted the list of the ten values and their distinct motivational goals of Schwartz et al. (2010).

Table 1 Motivational Goals of Schwartz's (1992) Ten Values

Power: social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources.

Achievement: personal success through

demonstrating competence according to social standards.

Hedonism: pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself.

Stimulation: excitement, novelty, and challenge in life.

Self-direction: independent thought and action—choosing, creating, exploring.

Universalism: understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature.

Benevolence: preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with whom one is in frequent personal contact.

Tradition: respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion provide the self.

Conformity: restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses likely to upset or harm others

Security: safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships, and of self.

1Schwartz de veloped a refinement of his basic individual value theory. He extended his ten values model to a nineteen values model

(Schwartz, Cieciuch, Vecchione, Davidov, Fischer, Beierlein, Ramos, Verkasalo, Lonnqvist, Demirutku, Dirilen-Gumus and Konty, 2012).

Although, the refinement shows greater and more precise insights into the value underpinnings of beliefs, the ten values model of Schwartz (1992) is used in this research. The reason for this is that the new model is an extension, not a replacement. In this paper the level of ten values is used for practical reasons.

and violate social expectations or norms.

Moreover, Schwartz (1992) identified two underlying motivational dimensions of the ten personal values (see figure 2). According to Boer and Fischer (2013), the self-enhancement dimension interferes with self-transcendence. The self-enhancement dimension consists of values that promote personal interests (power and achievement) and self-transcendence values promote the acceptance and welfare of others as equal, close as well as distant others

(benevolence and universalism). In addition, they explain that openness to change is opposed to conservation on the other dimension. Openness to change values promotes novelty and personal autonomy (self-direction, stimulation and hedonism). On the contrary, conservative values stimulate people to seek stability and social order (tradition, security and conformity).

Besides the personal values an individual holds, collectives such as organizations may have values too. Studies have shown that it is in the best interests of both individuals and

organizations to attract and retain employees who share the same values as the organization.

When there is a gap between personal and organizational values, attitudes will be formed which suppress motivation, hinder performance and cause turnover and stress (Posner, 2010).

Furthermore, Cable and Judge (1996) studied job seekers and new employees subjective

perceptions of Person-Organization fit (perceived fit). The results of the study indicates that

the Person-Organization fit perception of job seekers is determined by the congruence

between their values and their perception of the recruiting organization values. Moreover, if

Therefore, I predict that in the eyes of the job seeker, the more the values of the recruiting organization and the personal values of the job seeker match, the more attracted the job seeker is to the organization.

H1: When the perceptions about the organizational values match the personal values, the job seeker is more attracted to the organization.

However, personal values originate from shared culture and personal unique experiences and therefore they differ from values that a collective may have (Schwartz, 1992). In order to compare personal values with organizational values in order to explain the P-O fit, we need to know if we can use the values proposed by Schwartz for organizational values. A distinction can be made between supplementary P-O fit and a complementary P-O fit (Cable and

Edwards, 2004). A complementary fit means that one has what the other wants, for example a person may have skills that are important to a particular organization (De Clerq et al., 2008).

A supplementary fit means that a person and organization are similar (De Clerq et al., 2008).

An example of a supplementary fit is that a person and an organization share the same values.

The study of De Clerq, Fontaine and Anseel (2008) suggest that the value model of Schwartz (1992) might be an appropriate comprehensive framework for studying supplementary person-organization fit.

2.2 Colours and fonts used in the recruitment advertisement

In the context of marketing of products and services, the effects of colours on consumer

perceptions have been studied extensively (Feldman et al. 2006). For example, Lajos and

Chattopadhyay (2010) studied the effect of colour on consumer’s perception of packaging

volume. They found that when using the colour red for packaging, the participants estimated the package volume significantly higher than when using purple. Moreover, they found that colour influences the participants’ willingness to pay for the product. In addition, multiple studies concluded that colours play an important role in affecting our perceptions (Macklin, 1996; Hall and Hanna, 2004; Bagchi and Cheema, 2013). Colour gives us different

impressions of how we see in the world.

Aslam (2006) examined the meaning and psychological associations of colours. According to Aslam (2006), colours may have different meanings in different countries. This research will focus on the Western perspective of colours. Furthermore, companies use colours in their logos and communications in order to influence an emotional response. Aslam explains that colours communicate corporate positions. For example, in Western society, blue stands for solid, responsible financial services. Green stands for innovative, caring and environmental friendly companies. Yellow communicates young, bright and exciting firms. According to Bachgi and Cheema (2013), red signals dominance and induces aggression.

I can conclude that green leads to the perception of a caring organization, an organization that

is environmentally friendly and cares about people and the environment. These values can be

linked to the self-transcendence dimension in the value-theory of Schwartz (1992). The self-

transcendence dimension consists of universalism and benevolence values, which means that

preservation and enhancement of the welfare of others is important to that person or collective

(De Clerq et al. 2008). Moreover, these values promote understanding, appreciation, tolerance

and protection for the welfare of all people and nature (De Clerq et al. 2008). Therefore, the

changed its company colour from red to green since McDonalds wants to promote a more eco-friendly image. In addition, red is associated with dominance and aggression (Bachgi and Cheema, 2013), which can be linked to the Schwartz (1992) value-dimension: self-

enhancement. Self-enhancement consists of power and achievement values, which means that status, personal success and prestige are important (De Clerq et al. 2008). Personal success can be achieved through demonstrating competence. This can be seen as aggressive and competitive. Moreover, the value type ‘power’ expresses social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources. These values match the values that are associated with the colour red.

Therefore, I predict that when using the colour green in recruitment advertising, this leads to a perception that the recruiting organization promotes self-transcendence values. In addition, when using the colour red in recruitment advertisement, this will lead to a perception that the recruiting organization promotes self-enhancement values.

H2: The colour green leads to a perception that the organization values self-transcendence and the colour red leads to a perception that the organization values self-enhancement.

Organizations may use different types of fonts in their recruitment advertisements. Henderson,

Giese and Cote (2004) state that the only conclusion previous research agrees upon is that

typeface design influences responses. Therefore, Henderson et al. (2004) have developed

empirically based guidelines to help organizations select typefaces that have an influence on

strategically valued impressions. The selection of a typeface is based upon six underlying

dimensions: natural, harmony, flourish, elaborate, weight and compressed. Examples of the

design characteristics are shown in table 2.

Table 2 Examples of design characteristics

Design factor Design characteristic High Low

Elaborate Ornate/plane

Elaborate Special use/common use Elaborate Depth/flatness

Elaborate Distintive/not distintive

Elaborate Conveys meaning/does not convey meaning Elaborate Readable/not readable

Harmony Balanced/unbalanced

Harmony Smooth/rough

Harmony Symmetrical/asymmetrical

Harmony Uniform/not uniform

Natural Organic/geometric

Natural Looks typed/looks

handwritten

Natural Active/Passive

Natural Slanted/straight

Natural Curved/angular

Weight Heavy/light

Weight Short and fat/tall and thin

Weight Repeated/no repeated

elements Flourish Serif/sans serif

Flourish Ascenders are

pronounced/not pronounced

Flourish Descenders are

pronounced/ not pronounced

Compressed Condensed/extended Compressed x-Height: tall/short

In turn, these six dimensions can evoke different responses: pleasing/displeasing (e.g. warm,

and engaging and a negative effect on prominence. In addition, elaborate characteristics have a positive effect on engaging and negative effects on pleasing and reassuring. Moreover, harmony design characteristics have positive effects on pleasing and reassuring and negative effects on engaging and prominence. Flourish characteristics have positive effects on pleasing, engaging and reassuring. However, flourish characteristics has a negative effect on

prominence. Weight has a positive effect on prominence and at last the compressed design factor has a positive effect on engaging. However, when compressed has only moderate values than it has a positive effect on pleasing as well. In conclusion, the study of Henderson et al. indicates that trade-offs should be made when selecting a typeface since they affect different responses.

Therefore, companies should carefully select the font they use in advertising in order to influence perceptions. In addition, previous research illustrated that typeface affects the perceptions of brands, influences readability and memorability of advertisements (Childers and Jass, 2002). Does this also apply to recruitment ads? Does the use of fonts in recruitment advertisements influences value perceptions of the recruiting company? Although there is much research about the readability of typefaces, there is not a great amount of research on what association’s people have with different types of typefaces.

The typeface Times New Roman is the standard typeface in Microsoft Word document writing. Therefore, people may associate Times New Roman as a more traditional typeface than for example the fonts Verdana or Batang. Verdana may appear more modern and casual.

Unfortunately, there is not a large amount of scientific research conducted about the

perceptions associated with fonts. Therefore, I will conduct a pre-test in order to identify the

perceptions people associate with which typeface.

I predict that a link can be made between the traditional font Times New Roman, and

Schwartz (1992) value dimension ‘Conservation’. The conservation dimension consists of the values tradition, security and conformity. These values represent safety, harmony, stability, respect, commitment and acceptance of customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion provide the self (De Clerq, 2008). Moreover, it means restraint of action, inclinations and impulses that are likely to upset or harm and violate expectations (De Clerq, 2008). Times New Roman, is a standard and traditional font and is associated with stability and formality.

In addition, the typeface Verdana may be linked to the value dimension ‘openness to change’

since this dimension promotes the values: self-direction, stimulation and hedonism. These values mean independent action, independent thought choosing and autonomy. Moreover, it promotes excitement, novelty, pleasure, sensuous gratification and challenge (De Clerq, 2008).

Verdana may be seen as more modern and casual, which can be linked to organizations that value autonomy and independent action.

Therefore, I predict that the use of different typefaces in recruitment advertisements leads to a perception of conservation as an organizational value or openness to change as an

organizational value depending on the typeface’s design.

H3: The use of different typefaces in recruitment advertisement leads to a perception of conservation or openness to change as an organizational value.

Cober et al. (2003) demonstrated that both content and style attributes of a company website

seeker towards the organization. An explanation that Cober et al. give is that peripheral aspects of recruitment advertisement can have a large impact on an individual’s reaction to an organization. In addition, Cober et al. state that style attributes may increase the attraction towards an organizations when it improves the usability of the website. However, these are all assumption and therefore, their research does not explain how style attributes lead to

attraction towards the organization. Cober et al. recommend further research where aesthetics attributes of employment websites are explicitly manipulated and measure affective responses to those manipulations in order to measure the effect of aesthetics on attractiveness towards the organization. As explained above, I predict that the physical appearance (colour and font) of the recruitment advertisement affects the job seeker’s perception of organizational values and the more these values match with the job seeker’s personal values, the more attracted he/she is to the recruiting organization.

H4: The physical appearance of a recruitment ad (colour and font) will account for a significant variance in the attractiveness of an organization through a perception of the organization values by a job seeker, moderated by the job seeker’s personal values.

3. PRE-TEST

Since there is not a large amount of scientific research about which perceptions are associated

with different types of fonts, I conducted a pre-test in order to identify the perceptions people

associate with certain typefaces. This pre-test investigates which typefaces are associated with

the values ‘conservation’ and ‘openness to change’.

3.1 Method

The pre-test was conducted among 21 participants, 11 females and 10 males. The average age was 27.5 (range= 22 - 56). All participants received a survey in which they rated twelve different types of fonts. The respondents had to rate how conventional or unconventional the fonts appeared to them. The fonts were shown in random order to the participants.

Participants had to rate the following four questions for each font in order to test associations with conservation or openness to change values: ‘I think this is a formal typeface’, ‘This typeface is a traditional typeface’, ‘This typeface seems conventional to me’ and ‘I associate this typeface with informality’. Moreover, a control question for readability was included in the survey. The participants were asked to rate: ‘This typeface is hard to read’. All question included a 7-point scale in which 1=totally disagree and 7=totally agree. The survey took 10 minutes of the participant’s time. Table 3 presents the type of fonts used and the results.

Table 3 Type of fonts and their means used in the pre-test

Type of font Example Traditional (M) Readability (M)

Times New Roman Abcdefg 5.88 1.30

Verdana Abcdefg 5.38 1.65

Lucida Handwriting Abcdefg 3.00 3.71

American Typewriter Abcdefg 4.91 1.76

Brittanic Bold Abcdefg 3.83 2.57

Brush Script MT Abcdefg 2.69 5.14

Bookman Old Style Abcdefg 5.27 1.57

3.2 Results

The question ‘I associate this typeface with informality’ was rescored, and a reliability analyses was conducted among the four items that measured the level of conservation of a typeface. Results showed that the four items are highly correlated, α= .91. In addition, a correlation analysis was conducted between the level of conservation and readability. Results showed a high correlation between level of conservation of the typeface and its readability, r=-.604, p< .001.

Since readability correlates with the level of tradition, it is important to select two fonts that differ as much as possible on tradition, however not on readability. As a result, the font Times New Roman is chosen to represent traditional values since this font scored high on

conservation and was very readable. Curlz MT had the lowest score on tradition and therefore represented informality. However, this font was rated as very hard to read. Therefore,

Bauhaus93 was chosen to represent openness to change values since it had a low score on tradition and showed a better score on readability than Curlz MT.

4. METHOD

Copperplate Abcdefg 4.45 2.00

Herculanum Abcdefg 3.11 2.10

Curlz  MT Abcdefg 1.86 4.86

4.1 Participants

This study used an online survey in which 178 people participated, of which 113 completed the entire survey. The survey was conducted among 82 females and 96 males. The average age was 24, the youngest participant was 18 years and the eldest 61 years, sd=5.68. The survey took 30 minutes to be completed. All respondents were living in the Netherlands. Each participant was asked if they knew if they were colour-blind. One of the participants was colour-blind, and was removed before the analyses. 135 of the participants had a university education and 95 participants were students.

4.2 Design and Procedure

First, the survey included an introduction without revealing the topic of this research. The introduction informed the participants that the survey would take 20-25 minutes of their time and that anonymity was guaranteed. Additionally, they were asked to fill in the survey. The survey started by asking the participants to answer some demographic questions. Then, the recruitment advertisement was presented to the participants. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of the six conditions. These six conditions contained different recruitment advertisements in terms of colour and font. This research has an experimental 3 (colour:

green/red/black) x 2 (font: Times New Roman/Bauhaus93) between participants design. The text that was used in the recruitment advertisement was the same in every condition. A

fictional consulting company was presented to the respondents. The descriptive information in

the recruitments advertisement in this study was compiled from actual recruitments

the different responses towards general or specific information in recruitment advertisements (p.328). Some modifications were made in order to not reveal any values:

Nalfix is a consulting firm with offices around the world. We are looking for analytical and customer oriented new talents. Nalfix is involved in strategy development as well as the implementation and execution of projects and programs. The projects of Nalfix are very diverse ranging from innovation, re- organization of company structures and to large-scale change programs.

The company offers a broad range of benefits and programs to help you achieve a healthy and balanced life. Our company takes its training responsibility seriously, investing millions each year in world-wide training programs so that all

employees may achieve recognition and success. We offer employees convenient job-related training and information resources to help them to lead our world-class company into the future. Our company provides a world of opportunity with unlimited challenges and endless possibilities. We will provide you with resources to guide you and developed your potential, helping you move forward with your career.

After reading the recruitment advertisement, the participants were presented with question

about the attractiveness of the organization and a question about the readability of the type of

font in the recruitment advertisement. These questions were followed by questions about the

organization its values and then they were asked about their personal values. The survey

concluded with thanking the participants for their participation.

4.3 Measures

4.3.1 Demographics. The participants were asked about their age, gender, nationality and educational level. In addition, they were asked if they knew if they were colour-blind.

4.3.2 Attractiveness of the organization. For measuring the attractiveness of the job to the

jobseeker the questions formulated by Cable and Judge (1997) about organizational attractiveness were used. Three items were used in order to measure organizational attractiveness (α= .884). The first item was ‘Pease rate your overall attraction to this organization’ (1 = not attracted to 7 = very attracted). In addition, participants were asked:

‘Please rate the likelihood that you would accept a job offer from this organization, if it were offered’ (1 = very unlikely to 7 = very likely) and to rate: ‘This organization is attractive to me as a place for employment’ (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree).

4.3.3 Readability. For measuring the readability of the type of font one item was used.

Participants were asked to rate the following statement: ‘The type of font presented in the recruitment advertisement was hard to read’ (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree).

4.3.4 Perceived organizational values. For this variable, an adapted version of the Value

survey of Schwartz (1992) was used. The survey was adapted by asking participants about the

perceived values of the presented organization, rather than their own values. The Value

you think are less important to that organization? Each of a total of 57 values was rated on a 9 point-scale (-1= opposite to my values, 0= not important, 7=extremely important).

Furthermore, the introduction explained that the survey would present them with two lists of values. Participants were asked to read all the values in advance and choose the value that they thought would be most important to the organization presented and rate that value with a 6 or a 7. In addition, the participants had to choose the value for which they would think was least important to the organization, and rate it with -1 or 0. They then proceeded to rate the other values.

The scoring and scaling of Schwartz (1992) was used to compute the scores on ten different values. Moreover, I standardized the scores per person by subtracting the means across each separate value, to account for response bias. Cronbach’s alpha was computed for each of these values separately. Moreover, the values ‘Universalism’ (α = .80) and ‘Benevolence’ (α

= .78) were combined into the value dimension ‘Self-transcendence’ (α= .52). The values

‘Achievement’ (α = .74) and ‘Power’ (α = .77) were factored into the value dimension ‘Self- enhancement’ (α= .52). The values ‘Conformity’ (α = .58), ‘Security’ (α = .78) and ‘Tradition’

(α = .77) were translated into the value dimension ‘Conservation’ (α= .65). Finally, the values

‘Self-direction’ (α = .73) and ‘Stimulation’ (α = .74) were combined in the value dimension

‘Openness to change’, leaving out the value ‘Hedonism’ (α = .78), since this improved the reliability from α= .35 to α= .61.

4.3.5 Personal values. In order to measure the personal values of the participants, the Value

Questionnaire of Schwartz (1992) was used as well. Again, the Value Questionnaire of

Schwartz gave a short introduction to the participants with instructions for filling in the

questionnaire. The participants were asked to rate each of 57 values by answering to

themselves: which values are important to me and which are less important to me? The rest of the survey was the same as explained above.

Again, the scoring and scaling of Schwartz (1992) was used to order all the questions in values. Moreover, the values ‘Universalism’ (α= .80) and ‘Benevolence’ (α= .75) were

transformed into the value dimension ‘Self-transcendence’ (α= .45). The values ‘Achievement’

(α= .73) and ‘Power’ (α= .69) were factored into the value dimension ‘Self-enhancement’

(α= .61). The values ‘Conformity’ (α= .71), ‘Security’ (α= .80) and ‘Tradition’ (α= .59) were translated into the value dimension ‘Conservation’ (α= .39). At last, the values ‘Self-direction’

(α= .55) and ‘Stimulation’ (α= .74) were transformed in the value dimension ‘Openness to change’ (α=.48). As well as indicated above, the value ‘Hedonism’ (α= .73) was taken as a separate value.

5. RESULTS

Table 4 represents an overview of the descriptive statistics and correlations of the variables

presented in this study.