Exploring the Intention to Engage in Policy Practice: The Role of Values and Career Motivations

This study expands knowledge on what motivates engagement in policy practice (PP) by exploring the place of personal values, which reflect individuals’ general motivations and context-specific motivations—the motivations to study social work—in predicting the intention to incorporate PP into their practice. The sample of this cross-sectional study comprised 280 BSW students in Israel, and the study employed the Portrait Values Questionnaire–Refined, Social Work Career Influence Questionnaire, and the PP Intention Scale. Path analysis showed that personal values were associated with PP intention both directly and indirectly through the motivations to study social work. However, the mechanisms differ for self-transcendence versus self-enhancement and openness to change versus conservation values. A stronger PP intention was associated with a higher preference for openness to change versus conservation values mediated by the social change motivation to study social work. The total effect of the preference for self-enhancement versus self-transcendence values on PP intention was nonsignificant. This resulted from the contradiction between the negative direct and positive indirect effects (through the social change motivation) of these values on PP intention. The study results underscore the place of personal values and motivations to study social work in explaining PP intention.