Why You Need to Pay More Attention to Your Organization’s Values

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At first, let’s define what the value is. In this case, I will use “Organizational Value” as the object of discussion. Organizational values are the core beliefs that involve principles that drive the business, including the philosophies used as the fundamentals of thinking in the organization.

The organizational values formed from:

1. The objectives of the organization: What are the purposes of the company? How to achieve those? That might be the important question that arises at the beginning of the organization’s establishment.
2. Structure of the organization: If the organization is traditional hierarchical, they might encourage different values with a modern start-up-like organization.
3. Public image: How does the organization want the world to see them? Do they want to be seen as conservative or liberal one?
4. The culture inside the organization: What kind of people working there? What kind of culture they might bring to the company? This also affects organizational values.

All of the above factors form the organizational values over time. Value might change over time depends on the organization itself. For example, if the executive of a conservative hierarchical company, thinks they need to change their values to be more start-up-like in order to catch up with their competitors, then they change the workplace culture and purposes. By doing so, the values could be changed depending on the needs of the organization.

An employee’s unique perceptions definitely can impact their relationship with their manager. In order to mitigate the impact that differences in perception might have, at first, managers should realize that all individuals have different perceptions. “People are not necessarily successful by attempting to serve their values. People do not, in fact, do what serves their values. They do what they perceive will serve their values.” (Otara, 2011)

According to Berelson and Steiner in their book Human behavior, perception is the complex process by which people select and organize sensory stimulation into a meaningful and rational picture of the world. We react to specific situations based on what we see rather than on what it really is. People do not see the same as we see. Therefore, in order to understand the employee perceptions effectively, managers should learn to be empathetic, listen to their employees, and communicate their vision in a way that would fit the employee’s perception.

In order to foster a positive work environment, leaders should trust their employee’s capability by giving them freedom, control, and avoid micromanaging them. The leader also needs to improve their emotional and social intelligence. Be empathetic with their employees and nurture them by being their mentor or someone they can trust.

In my opinion, it’s definitely okay for the leaders to have negative feelings or behavior in the workplace, however, they should not encourage it. It is normal to have conflicts in the workplace, still, the managers should learn more about conflict management so that they can defuse the conflict without encouraging any negative behavior.

References:

1. What are organizational values and why are they important? (2021, March 18). Workplace from Facebook. https://www.workplace.com/blog/organizational-values
2. Company values: Definition, importance, and examples. The Employee Communications and Advocacy Blog. https://blog.smarp.com/the-importance-of-company-values
3. Otara, A. (2011, September 3). Perception: A Guide for Managers and Leaders. https://sciedu.ca/journal/index.php/jms/article/viewFile/397/187
4. Berelson, B., & Steiner, G. A. (1964). Human Behavior: An Inventory of Scientific Findings. Harcourt, Brace & World.

Note:
This article is written based on University of The People Organizational Behavior (BUS 5113) written assignment by Fristy Tania in September 2021