Work ethic has received increased research attention in recent years because of its importance in a wide variety of settings. It is an important determinant that motivates an individual and ensures one’s professionalism in both the classroom and workplace. Work ethic was explored in this study as a predictor of student academic performance and behavioral engagement. Academic performance was expanded to include student organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in addition to high school grade point average (GPA). A sample of 229 high school students from Vietnam completed surveys on work ethic, behavioral engagement, OCB and GPA. Results indicated that specific dimensions of work ethic were related to the two dimensions of student OCB (i.e., OCB-I and OCB-O), student behavioral engagement, and GPA among Vietnamese high school students. These findings provide support for the importance of non-cognitive predictors such as work ethic in the academic context, particularly when considering expanding the performance domain to include non-cognitive elements. Furthermore, results provide additional empirical evidence for the nature of work ethic as a multidimensional construct. Implications of the study’s results, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

Work ethic has received increased research attention in recent years because of its importance in a wide variety of settings. It is an important determinant that motivates an individual and ensures one’s professionalism in both the classroom and workplace. Work ethic was explored in this study as a predictor of student academic performance and behavioral engagement. Academic performance was expanded to include student organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in addition to high school grade point average (GPA). A sample of 229 high school students from Vietnam completed surveys on work ethic, behavioral engagement, OCB and GPA. Results indicated that specific dimensions of work ethic were related to the two dimensions of student OCB (i.e., OCB-I and OCB-O), student behavioral engagement, and GPA among Vietnamese high school students. These findings provide support for the importance of non-cognitive predictors such as work ethic in the academic context, particularly when considering expanding the performance domain to include non-cognitive elements. Furthermore, results provide additional empirical evidence for the nature of work ethic as a multidimensional construct. Implications of the study’s results, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

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