when working with clients. Once the cultural values and other in-
formation such as language proficiency are determined, assessment
strategies and interventions should be designed that are in accord
with the values and the language proficiency of the individual. In
this assessment, special attention should be given to social values,
time orientation, and activity values. Finally, career counselors need
to be aware that the values in the workplace are primarily Euro-
centric and that people with different values systems may be disad-
vantaged in these settings.
Career counselors need to be prepared to
- Help their clients become familiar with the values-laden
expectations in the workplace - Identify ways that their values may diminish their success in
the Eurocentric workplace - Encourage clients to maintain their cultural values while
adapting to the Eurocentric workplace in some instances - Become advocates for change in the workplace so that people
who hold values that may not be those of the dominant cul-
ture can be successful
Specific recommendations regarding the selecting of counseling
techniques and the design of interventions can be found in Srebalus
and Brown (2001).
Not unexpectedly, given the foregoing discussion, several basic as-
sumptions guide my career counseling activities (Brown, 1996; Brown
& Crace, 1996a). These are discussed in the sections that follow.
Assumption 1
The decision maker is the person who will make the decision and
may not be the individual who will implement the choice.
Gati and Saka (20001) describe the ideal career decision maker
as one who (1) is aware of the need to make a career decision, (2) is
motivated to make the decision, and (3) is able to choose a career
commensurate with his or her personal resources. This is not my
THE ROLE OF WORK VALUES AND CULTURAL VALUES 491