The transitivity of work values: Hierarchical preference ordering of socially desirable stimuli

This research investigated whether or not subjects could logically preference order work values. It is important to a hierarchical conception of work values that individuals exhibit transitivity in their expressed preferences, especially as all work values are considered to be highly socially desirable, and thus, importance ratings may lack variance between values. In Study 1, 97 subjects pair-compared eight values. In Study 2, 86 subjects pair-compared different behaviors that represented four work values. In both cases, subjects exhibited total transitivity in their choices more often than could be predicted by chance, and most intransitivities met at a minimum the criteria of weak Stochastic transitivity.