Name : Rezah Yusniaroh

Class : A2/5
NPM : 1188203075

CHAPTER 7
WORK VALUES
Every culture of every country has its own style in work. As in America there are many work
values that maybe different with other country. Americans love their work the most. No matter how
employees feel about work, their primary motivation to work is to earn a living. The nature of their work
and the rewards they receive are related to peoples attitudes toward their jobs. For the factory worker,
work is a necessary evil which merely ensures survival. Ones job in the United States is an important
facet of personal identity. What do you do? (i.e., for a living) is synonymous with What are you? In
American English, asking a child, What do you want to BE when you grow up? really means, What
kind of work do you want to DO? It cause work is one of the most important activities in an individuals
life. So, what a person does helps to determine that persons prestige.
Work ethic is the one of thing that greatly influences attitudes toward work in the United
States. It also called as the Puritan Ethic or the Protestant Ethic, it motivates people to work hard in
order to become successful. The ethic was an outcome of the religious belief that material success was a
sign of Gods favor, and that those who achieved this success were among Gods chosen and would go
to heaven. Even though it has lost its religious significance, the work ethic is still important. An outcome
of this American work value is materialism: tendency to be concerned with wealth and possessions.
Americans also believe that people are rewarded for working, producing, and achieving. They
believe that there is equality of opportunity that allows anyone to become successful. In nineteenth-
century, this belief is illustrated by stories American novelist, Horatio Alger, who wrote about the
American Dream. His stories describe about poor people who became rich because of their hard work,
honesty, and luck. The stories gave the inspiration for other people that no matter how poor, were capable
of becoming wealthy as long as they were diligent and virtuous. Today, however, the poor generally do
not rise to the middle and upper classes. The American Dream is now described as a myth; it is still
difficult for several million American to get ahead.
Americans can get personal satisfaction or financial reward or get recognized by fellow workers
and society. There are success people who never satisfied with their effort in job. These people are
usually called workaholic. There are pro and contra in this, though. American value workaholic because
they are extremely productive and. Even for not a workaholic, people can be mentally and physically sick
of their job. That happen when people only focused on their job, they would ignored their life with
another people or even their family for gaining personal satisfaction. So that why there is leisure time for
taking a break for a while from the job and does other activities. Nevertheless, work and play are usually
perceived and maintained as separate activities.