Organisational Values

Identifying company values has become an integral part of identifying the company culture. Deciding on what those values should be is equally popular in helping mould that culture. Many companies have embraced this approach, especially in response to growth and diversification of their staff and the markets in which they operate.

For example, the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell group of companies has as its core values honesty, integrity and respect for people. Shell companies also firmly believe in the fundamental importance of the promotion of trust, openness, teamwork and professionalism, and in pride in what they do.

Airplane manufacturer Boeing has a slightly different set of values: leadership, integrity, quality, customer satisfaction, people working together, a diverse and involved team, good corporate citizenship and enhancing shareholder value.

Drawing up a list of values for an organisation is not a phenomenon confined to the realm of business. The US army has put forward a similar list, consisting of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honour, integrity and personal courage. Many religious organisations are also value-driven. They derive their values from the religion that they follow.

The list of values of an organisation can be drawn up in a number of ways. By far the most common approach is for the people who hold the most decision-making power to decide on that list. Once drafted, the list is then communicated to all members of the organisation, who are expected to abide by those values.

A more democratic approach can also be followed. In 2003, some 50,000 IBM employees took part in the process of discussing and deriving the company values. The values that they came up with – dedication, innovation, trust and personal responsibility – have subsequently been adopted as the official list.

It might be useful at this point to take a step back and ask what it means for an organisation to have certain values. It makes sense to me that these are the values according to which the organisation conducts its affairs. Because an organisation acts through its people, its values are the values of the people who comprise it. These may or may not correspond to the values that they profess, aspire to, or are told to adopt.

Seen in this light, the values touted by organisations are more accurately perceived as values that they aspire to than values that they actually have. Typically, these are the values that the leaders of the organisation would like all members of that organisation to have. Indeed, consideration of company values can play an important role in the recruitment of prospective new employees.

Regardless of how values are derived, the end result is that a small number of them are adopted as the official list for the organisation as a whole. This is done with the expectation that all members of the organisation will proceed to embrace them as their own. This relies on the implicit assumption that values originate from outside of us, and that our task is to internalise them.

What does it take for us to adopt a given value as our own? Firstly, we have to understand it. If the value in question is integrity, for example, we need to understand what it means to act with integrity. This is probably the least controversial requirement. All it takes is our desire to learn and a bit of reading on the subject.

In addition to understanding the value, we also need to agree that it is a good idea. This is more likely to cause difficulties than merely understanding it, but is generally unproblematic. Organisational values, like the ones that introduce this article, are well thought out and difficult to fault. They send a clear message of what the organisation is supposed to be about. Members of the organisation generally have little difficulty agreeing with them.

It is not sufficient to agree with the message that a value tries to convey, however; one must also be able to relate to it based on personal experience. Otherwise the value lives purely in the realm of ideas and remains a theoretical construct with no practical application. It needs to be felt if it is to influence behaviour.

Even relating to it doesn’t take us all the way; the value must stand out from the crowd of other competing values. We need to perceive it as worthy of paying attention to. This hurdle is even more difficult to negotiate than the previous one. Because organisations can involve large groups of people that play very different roles, imposing a single set of values on the organisation as a whole is likely to be an imperfect match for any one person.

The first two of the above requirements are relatively easy to meet. The last two can present formidable challenges. The extent to which these prerequisites are not met is the extent to which we will be unable to internalise – and therefore apply – the values that are given to us.

If all we have is a general concept that we should adhere to, we will struggle to apply it in a wide variety of specific and intricate situations, and may apply it the same way regardless of circumstances. For example, we may be tempted to carefully follow a detailed protocol because this is recognised as the best practice, not realising that doing so is inappropriate in an emergency situation.

If we cannot relate to a value based on personal experience, we will struggle to adjust our behaviour in line with the demands that it places on us. Rationalisation of that behaviour can become far more attractive. Instead of using the value to shape the behaviour, we simply become adept at appealing to the value to justify the same things we’ve always done. Even Enron had lofty values, one of which was integrity.

If we manage to resist the lure of rationalisation, obscure values are still more likely to be sidelined than actively lived. If our job is to sweep the floors or field phone calls from irate clients, enhancing shareholder value will not feature prominently on our minds. It is simply too far removed from the daily work experience.

Another difficulty is that different values sometimes conflict. If we are committed to both quality and fostering the growth of people that we work with, for example, how do we decide when to allow them to deliver substandard work in order to let them learn from their mistakes?

If we are committed to following organisational values, we may be tempted to give them preference over values that seem important to us, but do not enjoy a place on the company-wide list. This can cause problems if the disregarded value is actually more applicable to the task at hand than the company-wide value that was adhered to in its place.

It should be apparent that adopting values at the conceptual level is no substitute for being intimately familiar with them. It becomes clear why this is the case if we take another step back to consider what values really are and how they come about.

Like rules and regulations, values have their origin in specific situations that we have lived through. We may have covered up the truth with disastrous results, or suffered the indignity of being lied to. From this, we concluded that honesty is a good idea, and that we should conduct ourselves according to this value at all times.

This is a useful conclusion to reach. It helps us to identify patterns in our past experience that can be used advantageously in the future. What must be remembered is that the power of these patterns lies in their ability to beneficially supplement our experience. They cannot substitute for it. An attempt to do so exposes us to all the problems outlined above.

Adopting externally derived values constitutes an attempt to borrow other people’s conclusions without having the necessary tools to make proper use of them.

If our goal is to have an organisation that is built on worthwhile values, then a different approach must be taken. Rather than formulate a list of values at the top and expect it to filter down to each individual, they should be formulated by each individual and allowed to permeate all the groups that these people are a part of, including the organisation as a whole.

The focus of this effort is not so much on helping each individual discover worthwhile values as on helping them master the process of doing so. Mastering the process begins by taking personal responsibility for it. It comprises paying attention to our experience and evaluating its desirability. It never ends.

This is a monumental task. It is orders of magnitude more involved than letting someone else derive values on our behalf. The rewards are as great, however. It enables us to arrive at our own values, understand why and how they work, and improve on them with the aid of life experience. This is a critical skill to have, one that is indispensable for our growth, the evolution of our organisations, and that of our society.