Adapting Schwartz' Portrait Value Questionnaire In China And Locating Shanghai Young Employees In Their Value Priorities

Value studies have been flourishing in recent years. However, such studies on Chinese values have mostly focused on student and teacher's samples, which cannot represent the general Chinese public with various educational and social backgrounds. In this regard, this thesis aims to investigate the values of Shanghai young employees born after the 1980s, who can serve as representatives of Chinese values in change, considering that they have just stepped into the real society for several years and are in the middle of value transition and transformation.Schwartz's Portrait Value Questionnaire (PVQ) at individual level analysis is applied for the first time to mainland Chinese non-student subjects. Based on the data collected from 90 young employees working predominantly in multi-national companies in Shanghai, the internal reliability check is conducted to find that two portraits does not positively correlate with other portraits within two value types, thus being dismissed from later data analysis after elaborate discussions. A quantitative research method is employed with SPSS software to test the value priorities of Shanghai young white collar employees in four value dimensions (self-transcendence, self-enhancement, openness to change and conservatism) and in ten motivational value types (power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, benevolence, universalism, tradition, conformity and security). The result is compared with the universal pan-cultural value baseline that Schwartz has drawn out (Schwartz, 2001) to investigate the similarities and differences. This thesis concludes that Shanghai young employees demonstrate salient preferences in both dimensions of self-enhancement and self-transcendence, which is indicative and supportive of the co-existence of seemingly opposing value dimensions. In comparison, Chinese samples show accordance with the universal baseline in benevolence, universalism, stimulation and power, but lower preference in self-direction, tradition and security, and higher preference in conformity, achievement and hedonism.