Generational Differences Of Personal Values Of Business Students

Abstract

This paper examines the values and value systems of business students from a private mid-western university using the Rokeach Value Survey and the Musser and Orke Typology of Personal Values. The findings of this study are compared with the results of studies in the latter part of the 1990’s and early 2000 in order to provide some insights regarding generational differences. There is evidence of changes in several individual variables during the past decade. For example, the value with the greatest change is National Security. Students in 2010 place more importance on this value than did the students in 1998. We also see a change in value systems where students are more concerned with achieving social goals through competence than with achieving social goals for moral reasons. Implications for accounting educators and practitioners are offered.