The values that are mentioned frequently in daily life are mostly disconnected from their essence and used carelessly. Those who are interested in information with a scientific and practical basis about values can continue reading the article.
They are values that guide people’s decisions and behaviors. There are values and beliefs attached to every important or unimportant decision we make during the day. The decision to take a break from a long meeting at lunch time and go to dinner, or to order a sandwich and eat and work at the same time; Whether or not to report someone who commits corruption in the workplace to management also depends on values.
It is often not possible to recognize the values and underlying belief system in unimportant decisions. Values are realized in important decisions and especially under pressure. However, in this case, people who have not encountered a systematic approach to values turn to an interpretation that will comfort them.
Values in Business Life
There are two institutions that have existed since the world was founded. One of them is the army and the other is religion. The reason why these two institutions continue to exist, getting stronger every day, even if they change shape, is their “rituals”. Ritus means “right action” in Latin. Rituals are actions that the community and individuals perform without discussion and almost automatically, due to the belief systems they have. A soldier saluting his superior whenever he sees him (without considering whether he is worthy of it) or a believer performing five daily prayers (without questioning whether his daily occupations allow him to do so) are examples of rituals.
For example, almost all readers of these lines do not go to bed without brushing their teeth, no matter how tired they are, as an extension of their health belief systems.
Today, business has become the third institution that directs the world. However, modern business life does not have a thousands-year-old tradition and associated rituals, such as religion and the army. While every organization that directs society should have a responsibility, it is difficult to say that today’s business life has such a tradition and role.
The business world has not yet understood the role it has to undertake. According to the basic assumption of capitalism, the dream that the market will regulate itself without intervention is still far from producing the expected results for the whole society.
Unfortunately, the dream that socialism would serve society with an understanding of virtue for the common benefit of people has not been realized. The individual virtues of those who struggled to make socialism dominant were not enough to make virtue collective. The resulting economic inefficiency collapsed socialism and caused capitalism to be perceived as the only correct method. Such a lack of alternatives has led to the emergence of an understanding that everything is permissible in order to make a profit in the market economy.
If religion and the army have existed for thousands of years and are standing stronger than before, this is because they have embedded a values-based understanding at every stage of education. The biggest problem experienced by the secular segment in Turkey today is not having an education system based on values that are actually undermined. Such an understanding was established during the founding years of the Republic, but over time, either the values were emptied or the values that the republic considered as virtues were completely forgotten.
Business life requires doing the right things in the right way. For this to continue, it requires sustainability, good service and, as Richard Barrett defines it, the liberation of the soul of the institution. For this, managers at all levels and all employees must make their decisions based on the values they wholeheartedly believe in. If every decision is not associated with the values of individuals and institutions, it will not be possible for values to live and be implemented.
What do values aim for?
Values are the rules for living and the compass for decisions. Values are the deepest beliefs about the path to follow to achieve a particular outcome. Values are reflected in the world through behavior. The saying “being the same in words” shows that there is no contradiction between a person’s values and behavior. An organization’s values are a clear declaration about how everyone in the organization, including leaders and managers, is expected to behave.
Individuals raised with a secular education approach are mostly unaware of their values. Values, “Who am I?” “What do I want to get out of life?” “What is the path I will choose to achieve what we want to achieve?” and “What do I stand for in front of people and do I act accordingly?” It is shaped by the answers to the questions.
Without asking these questions, it is difficult to gain awareness about values. People reveal their behavior with their values. Similarly, institutions also have written or unwritten values. Institutions reflect these values into life through ways of doing business and relationships that are extensions of the corporate culture.
Values are abstract and open to interpretation by individual. For this reason, decisions and practices that conflict with values within an institution are made by creating conceptual confusion, talking a lot and saying nothing; It is possible to cover up and “prove right” by saying “but” after a sentence that supports the general truth and creating a subordinate sentence that defends the opposite of the message given in the main sentence.
Research has shown that there is a strong relationship between an organization’s business results and the values prevailing within the organization. In addition, the same research has shown that there is a relationship between the values of the employees of the institution and the values of the institution.
When individuals change their beliefs and values, their decisions and behaviors also change. If there is a change in the beliefs and values of a certain number of people in the same direction, the decisions and behaviors of the community and society will change.
Richard Barrett likens the practice of providing parallel change in these four quadrants in individuals or a community to engineering and calls it “whole system change”. Accordingly, “whole system change begins at the personal level of consciousness of the individual and results in changes in the decisions and behaviors of a group”. Barrett argued that there is no change in institutions, people change, but institutions do not change, they transform. This definition means; If a map can be drawn in the areas referred to as the field of consciousness in Table I, it will be possible to make an assessment of the level of consciousness of the individual or the community. Thus, it is possible to raise the level of consciousness from one level to another by managing values within an institution.
This approach, which allows leveling and mapping of values, is a very original and important approach. Because this makes it possible to monitor and measure change over time.
The so-called “cultural change tools” are based on a seven-step system inspired by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
The levels in this system and their main definitions are as follows.
What do values do?
Shared values create trust, thus making it possible to form a community that shares common ground. Values provide harmony and unity and allow people to connect to each other through bonds of sincere friendship. Thus, it is possible to achieve common goals quickly and effectively. The strength of a community is measured by the commitment of the individuals who make up that community to the common values they share. If there are no shared common values, people do not care about each other and remain indifferent to each other’s problems and troubles. Chaos and anarchy occur in communities that share no common values. For example, if everyone tries to get ahead in an issue that requires queuing, there will be more waiting and everyone will be uncomfortable and complain. To create a strong corporate culture, values must be shared by everyone and lived accordingly. However, what is decisive in this regard is the attitudes, behavior and decisions of managers in accordance with the values.
In organizations with a strong corporate culture, values are the rule of being accepted as a member of the organization. In such an organization, those who comply with the rules get good results and rise within the organization. Those who act in accordance with the values but cannot get the expected results are given training to improve their skills. Those who get good work results without behaving in accordance with the values are expected to benefit from behavior regulation training. Those who fail to achieve both must leave the institution as soon as possible.
The purpose of creating a value set is to define principles of behavior to create a cohesive culture that will support and build the vision and mission. Values provide a framework within which every individual within the organization can do their job with a responsible understanding of freedom. When employees internalize the values of the organization, everyone becomes accountable to each other.
Whom should values target?
Values are mainly for employees. R. Barrett compares the values to the collective flight of birds and the swimming of fish as a school. When birds fly in large groups, they act as a single organism. The flock of birds moves as a single harmonious organism as it rises and falls, lands and takes off, as if it were controlled from a single place. Computer simulations have revealed that the collective flight behavior of birds is the same in each bird. In reality, the rules that birds follow are simple. Each bird maintains a minimum distance from the bird next to it and flies at the same speed as them and stays away from fixed objects.
In a way, we can compare these rules of behavior that birds follow in their flights to the “values” they follow to create a harmonious unity. If every employee behaves in accordance with the rules of the institution, it forms a harmonious whole, as in the example of a bird community. In such a community, there is trust because everyone lives according to their oath and promise.
Conclusion
Ethics, just like law, is necessary for everyone. Companies are expected to develop a corporate climate that facilitates and rewards ethical behavior. For this, corporate culture must be measured and human resources and corporate communication strategies must be structured in the targeted direction.
Source:
- R. Barrett, Building a Values-Driven Organization, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2006
- R. Barrett, Liberating the Corporate Soul, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998
