What does this research mean for the field?

Self-transcendence organizational values, such as benevolence, positively correlate with workplace satisfaction, while self-enhancement values, such as power, negatively correlate, and their structural manifestation at the organizational level partially differs from individual-level theories. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.CONFIRMATORY. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.SUPPORTS_CONSENSUS.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine how Schwartz’s human values manifest at the organizational level through employee-written text and determine how these values correlate with workplace satisfaction.

August 29, 2026German Journal of Human Resource Management Zeitschrift für PersonalforschungOpen Access

Organizational values and workplace satisfaction: A text-based analysis of employee-reported values in German companies

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Authors

MSMichael SchachnerVrije Universiteit Amsterdam HHH. van HerkVrije Universiteit Amsterdam MBMichael BenderTilburg University

Discussion

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Implication

Text-analysis study reveals that benevolence-driven organizational values correlate with higher workplace satisfaction in employees, indicating company culture directly shapes employee morale.

Key Points

To examine how Schwartz’s human values manifest at the organizational level through employee-written text and determine how these values correlate with workplace satisfaction.
Analyzed open-ended text responses from more than 500,000 employees across 880 German companies (2012–2019) using natural language processing and a German adaptation of the Personal Values Dictionary.
Used multidimensional scaling to map organizational value structures and calculated variance components across industry sectors.
Universalism, achievement, and benevolence were the most frequently referenced values, whereas industry classification accounted for only 6.6% of the variance in organizational value expression.
Self-transcendence values correlated positively with workplace satisfaction, led by benevolence (r = 0.39), whereas self-enhancement values showed strong negative correlations, led by power (r = –0.63).
Multidimensional scaling demonstrated that organizational-level value configurations partially diverge from Schwartz’s individual-level theoretical framework.

Cite This Study

Schachner et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9299338e5d7d1fc0c10f76 https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022261476737

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August 29, 2026German Journal of Human Resource Management Zeitschrift für PersonalforschungOpen Access

Organizational values and workplace satisfaction: A text-based analysis of employee-reported values in German companies

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Authors

MSMichael SchachnerVrije Universiteit Amsterdam HHH. van HerkVrije Universiteit Amsterdam MBMichael BenderTilburg University

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Text-analysis study reveals that benevolence-driven organizational values correlate with higher workplace satisfaction in employees, indicating company culture directly shapes employee morale.

Key Points

To examine how Schwartz’s human values manifest at the organizational level through employee-written text and determine how these values correlate with workplace satisfaction.
Analyzed open-ended text responses from more than 500,000 employees across 880 German companies (2012–2019) using natural language processing and a German adaptation of the Personal Values Dictionary.
Used multidimensional scaling to map organizational value structures and calculated variance components across industry sectors.
Universalism, achievement, and benevolence were the most frequently referenced values, whereas industry classification accounted for only 6.6% of the variance in organizational value expression.
Self-transcendence values correlated positively with workplace satisfaction, led by benevolence (r = 0.39), whereas self-enhancement values showed strong negative correlations, led by power (r = –0.63).
Multidimensional scaling demonstrated that organizational-level value configurations partially diverge from Schwartz’s individual-level theoretical framework.

Cite This Study

Schachner et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9299338e5d7d1fc0c10f76 https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022261476737

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