The main difference between personality assessments and motives and values assessments, is that a personality assessment is about “who you are” where as a motives and values assessment is about “what you value and what motivates you”.

• Motives and Values assessments tend to be used alongside personality assessments to understand more about what will motivate you in a role and what types of environments and cultures fit with your values and preferences.
• Motives and values have nothing to do with whether you can do the role, instead they are about what environmental factors will impact on your job satisfaction and motivation. 
• The idea behind this is that you will be more likely to stay in a role if it fits with your motivations and values, irrespective on whether you can do the role or not.
• There are many types of motives and values assessments available and like personality assessments tend to be in a questionnaire format.

Sample One - Motives and Values Questionnaire Items

Different people are attracted to different aspects of work.  This scale lists some of the aspects of work that people consider important.  You have to consider which of these aspects of work you prefer.  When doing this scale it does not matter whether you are working or not.  Just indicate your personal preference.

Each of the aspects of work presented can be rated in the following way:

1 means	Totally unimportant – this work aspect doesn’t matter to me at all and/or I wouldn’t care if a job had this quality or not.
2 means	Of little importance – this work aspect is not very important to me and/or I would like a job only a little more if it had it.
3 means	Moderately important – this work aspect is reasonably important to me and/or I would prefer a job with this quality.
4 means	Quite important – this work aspect is very desirable to me and/or I would look for a job with this quality.
5 means	Extremely important – this work aspect is essential to me and/or a job must have this quality for me to be happy with it.

Work in which you…	Rating (1-5)
…can do it at your own pace
…assists those in need
…are not required to work long hours
…can work in your own way
…are paid a lot of money
…has a high status and power

Answers

There are no right or wrong answers to motivation and values questionnaires.

 

Sample Two Motives and Values Questionnaire Items

This is a questionnaire about your preferences and interests.  There is no time limit, however most people complete this within approximately 20 minutes.

You will be presented with statements which you are to rate on the following scale:

Select “SD” if the statement is definitely false or if you strongly disagree.

Select “D” if the statement is mostly false or if you disagree

Select “IB” if you feel in between agreeing and disagree, without a strong feeling either way.

Select “A” if the statement is mostly true or if you agree.

Select “SA” if the statement is definitely true or if you strongly agree.

	SD	D	IB	A	SA
1. I have a great respect for traditions
2. My salary expectations are fairly modest
3. I am strongly drawn to helping people
4. I am prepared to make personal sacrifices for work
5. I am a very risk averse person

Answers

There are no right or wrong answers to motivation and values questionnaires.