Values and Resources as Factors of Professionals’ Social Well-Being in Russian Business Organizations

Abstract

This paper explores the comparative contribution of basic life and work values, and demographic, social, and professional resources in achieving the economic and psychological well-being of employees. The study is based on a sample of 1,100 professionals from Russian business organizations across 10 sectors of the economy. The findings reveal that both economic and psychological well-being are positively related to the values of honesty, conscientiousness and professionalism, achievement and personal responsibility, and intrinsic work values. On the contrary, the materialistic values of mercantilism, minimizing efforts, and work comfort are negatively related to well-being. The most important resource, which predicts both types of professionals’ well-being, is living and working in Moscow. Being male and married is significantly related to income and the subjective evaluation of living standards, while basic professional education, professional training and work experience are significantly related to psychological well-being. There are also some contradictory relationships. Prestige-related work values and getting a job through social ties are positively related to economic well-being but are also positively related to work-life conflict. The results show that the ‘substitution effect’ is observed only for income levels. Living in Moscow is a strong predictor of income, overwhelming the effect of values. However, for subjective assessments of economic well-being as well as for stress, burnout, and work-life conflict, values and resources are equally important.