Previous research (Sindik, 2013; Horvat, 2018) has found that there are differences between the public and private sectors in the Republic of Croatia, particularly in the areas of promotion opportunities, amount of annual leave/days off and salary levels. Based on the Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA), which assumes that individuals choose a job that best suits their individual work values, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the importance and realization of work values within a given sector and to determine whether there are differences between the public and private sectors in terms of employees' strive for achievement. It also aimed to find out what characteristics of a particular job and the person employed may predict their job satisfaction. There were 272 respondents to the online survey, 163 of whom were employed in the public sector and 109 of whom were employed in the private sector. The following measurement instruments were used to answer the research questions: the Croatian adaptation of the Work Values Inventory (WVI) (Super, 1970; Šverko et al., 1980 ), the Job Satisfaction Scale; (Judge and Klinger, 2008) and the Croatian adaptation of the Gender Role Conflict Scale (GRCS) (O'Neil, 1986; Nikolić et al., 2014). As far as work values are concerned, no differences were found. Workers in both sectors consider intrinsic work values not only more important but also more realized than extrinsic values. Moreover, both sectors emphasize that work values are important overall, but they are not realized to the same extent in their workplace. Moreover, the realization of intrinsic work values proved to be the most important predictor of job satisfaction. Finally, with regard to the strive for achievement, it is much greater among private sector employees than among public sector employees, and it is worth mentioning that private sector employees show their strive for achievement more frequently than managers.