diff --git a/awx/main/models/__init__.py b/awx/main/models/__init__.py
index 764e01a85b..04c9c022de 100644
--- a/awx/main/models/__init__.py
+++ b/awx/main/models/__init__.py
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ class VarsDictProperty(object):
                 pass
         if d is None and self.key_value:
             d = {}
-            for kv in [x.decode('utf-8') for x in shlex.split(extra_vars, posix=True)]:
+            for kv in [x.decode('utf-8') for x in shlex.split(v, posix=True)]:
                 if '=' in kv:
                     k, v = kv.split('=', 1)
                     d[k] = v