VALUING VALUES
An interesting piece from Rosbeth Kanter in Business Week ( Getting Values from Values 15/6/10) in which she articulates a view on the tendency for statements of organisational values to be nothing more than décor with no real practical business focussed impacts. She goes on to offer ten approaches that might enable more meaningful linkage between value statements and behaviours.
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jun2010/ca20100615_753260.htm
Stripped down to a much simpler and straightforward approach one of the ways in which I use my organisations' values is as a decision making model for those ethically challenging problems that were never envisaged when Standard Operating Procedures were being drafted.
How do other members apply their organisations' values in a practical context ?
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It's a tough one isn't it? If all companies followed their vision statements we'd have a world of perfect companies.
Hello Laura
You certainly make a valid point.
However, in terms of values what I'm trying to get at is how do individuals actually use these as a practical point of reference for decision making. Chair any promotion/selection interview and candidates can usually recite organisational values. However, what I would like to explore is how and to what extent do members actually use the values of their organisations in a real and practical context.
Culture takes time to embed I guess. The recruitment process would be a great way to ensure that you bring in people of a similar cultural bent but I suppose even then it's difficult because some people may act how they think you want them to act etc.
Culture may take time to embed but it takes even longer to change and often evolves to become an unhealthy "corporate immune system". Beware the "we do things this way here.....".
Values in such a situation are window dressing and often in such cases a short scratch below the surface in areas such as investment in people development in terms of time and money, promotions across areas outside of HO locations etc can show the real story.