I was wondering - what, exactly are values, and how relevant are they to what we do, and what we want to encourage others to do...here's my attempt to answer those questions. Cheers, Stewart

1. Do values matter?
Stewart Forsyth
January 2012

2. Do values matter?
Values are common place in individual’s explanation of their
attitudes and behaviour, and in what organisations espouse as their
approach to doing business.
Values are clearly potentially powerful in influencing people in
complex environments such as network organisations (where
‘command and control’ is counter-productive). But has the
potential of the power of values blinded us to important questions?
• Are there ‘universal’ or agreed values?
• How do you measure them?
• Can values be developed or changed?
• Do they make a difference to what people do?
The next slide indicates that, holding personality constant, values
can influence performance…I also attempt to answer the other
questions…
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3. Values predict academic performance
The grades of undergraduate US management students were moderately predicted by ‘goal striving’, which was in
turn influenced by (the personality factor of) conscientiousness, by the students’ achievement goals and their
years in school (Solid lines indicate statistically significant relationships). Achievement goals were strongly
influenced by achievement values (Parks and Guay, 2012)
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4. What are values?
Corporate
“trans-situational goals that personality:
vary in importance and serve as honesty,
guiding principles in the life of a prestige,
person or a group” (Schwartz, innovation,
2007) power (Otto et
al, 2011)
Morals
Personality
Relationship Personality and Values
Openness Self-direction, Universalism
Conscientiousness Achievement, Conformity
Extraversion Achievement, Stimulation
Agreeableness Benevolence, Tradition
Neuroticism (v. Emotional Stability)
Roccos et al (2002), and: “...Values may influence more strongly attitudes and behaviors that
are under cognitive, volitional control (e.g., values have a stronger relationship with
religiosity than personality traits) whereas traits may affect more strongly tendencies and
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behaviors subject to little cognitive control” (e.g., stronger correlations with ‘wellness’)

5. Defining values
Meg Rohan:
‘Used as a verb, value refers to the process of ascertaining the merit of an
entity with reference to an abstract system structure. Used as a noun, value
refers to the result of this process. These value judgments may be formed
or amended when people encounter new entities or existing judgments are
challenged.’
For example ‘I value that ring’ (verb); ‘security is an important value for me’ (noun).
(2000, P 258; A rose by any name? The values construct)
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6. Is there a values ‘value chain’?
The values of Customers and other
Innovation, service
individual employees Task and team stakeholders view of
and other valued
and the organisation’s behaviour the organisation’s
deliverables
values ‘personality’ or brand
The four dimensions of corporate personality (empirically
developed – Philipp Otto and others, 2011):
Honesty Prestige Innovation Power
Fair, helpful, Luxurious, high Fresh, energetic, Dominant,
supportive vs. tacky, status, formal vs. fashionable vs. established, popular
exploitative cheap, tacky formal, sleepy vs. cheap, tacky
Correlates business Correlates business
size (.56), and profit sales growth over 3
(.75) years (.52)
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7. Where do values come from?
Possibly the ‘human super organism’ that is a part of our evolutionary history:
“The new theory suggests that all moral actions are based on the
fundamental need to ‘police’ society in order to keep the ‘super organism’
functioning properly, and that everyone in human social groups
inadvertently plays the role of ‘unofficial policeman’ by making
judgements about how others behave.
“Moral action, according to this theory, is driven by the expectation of
punishment if we don’t properly carry out our roles within the ‘super
organism’ properly.” ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/articles/morality/
Also - http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/classes/econ362/hallam/Readings/HaidtScienceArticle.pdf
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8. Morals
The evolution of morals (from Pinker, 2011)
Shweder’s Divinity Community Autonomy
Ethics
Haidt’s Purity / Sanctity In-group loyalty Authority / Respect Harm / Care Fairness / Reciprocity
Moral
Foundations
Fiske’s Communal Sharing Authority Ranking Equality Matching Market Pricing /
Relational Rational-Legal
Models
Small, conservative groups Modern, educated societies
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9. Are morals a subset of values? It’s
complicated…
“Values reflect what people believe to be good or bad, and what should or should
not be done (Hitlin & Piliavin, 2004). Values, however, are not identical to moral
principles: They are cognitive representations of basic motivations and broad
personal goals. Therefore, they may refer to a broader spectrum of guiding
principles than what is usually encompassed by theories of morality.” (Sverdlik,
Roccas and Sagiv, undated pdf; quote and table below):
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10. Morals and values
• To paraphrase Sverdlik and colleagues – morals are more absolute,
and attract punishment if broken (think murder), however what one
group sees as a moral issue, another might see in terms of a value
(young men being urged to enlist, not to kill people but to do their
duty to their country).
• Conflict between groups can result when one proposes actions that
another sees as immoral (e.g., genetic engineering, coal-fired
power, civil unions between gays) – morals are a part of our ‘core
self-definition’ – so transgressions are a blow against our self-
defined self.
• Conflict resolution is helped when this is explicitly brought into the
process; Ginges and others (2007) found that when Palestinians and
Israelis were presented with a compromise solution to the current
conflict they were more likely to accept it if they understood that
the other side was not only also making a compromise, but that
they were actually trading of something that was “sacred to them”.
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11. Some empirical results
Sverdlik’s positive and negative correlations (>
.30) between Haidt’s moral dimensions and
Schwartz’s (1992) values:
Haidt Fairness / Harm/Care In-group / Authority / Purity /
Reciprocity Loyalty Respect Sanctity
Schwartz: Universalism Universalism Tradition Security Tradition
Positive Conformity
correlations Tradition
Negative: Hedonism Universalism Hedonism
Self-direction Self-direction Self-direction
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12. Values seem to be the basis of people
getting along, and fitting in
People get along more on the basis of matching values than matching personality
(young people’s shared taste in music indicated similar values; Boer et al, 2011).
Presumably this is the basis of ‘social acceptance’ leading to new hires performing
successfully, being satisfied with their job, committed to their organisation and
both intending to remain and not leaving (Antonacopoulou & Guttel, 2010)
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13. Value fit
Teacher’s Alignment of teacher’s
Teacher’s
views of perceptions predicted reported
personal value job stress, job commitment and
school’s value satisfaction
priorities
system
Principal’s Not such a good relationship with these
views of outcomes for alignment of teacher’s
personal value perceptions and the
school’s value Principal’s views of the school’s value
system system
(Rohan and Maiden, 2000 - unpublished)
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14. Which values? Some examples:
Leadership Recognition
Achievement Efficiency
Location Religion
Adventure Ethical practice Loyalty
Empathy Reputation
Affection (love & caring) Market position
Excellence Meaningful work Responsible/ accountable
Arts
Excitement Merit Science
Challenging problems Modesty Security
Change and variety
Fame
Nature Self-respect
Close relationships
Financial gain Openness
Freedom Serenity
Community Order
Fun Peace
Sophistication
Competence Spirituality
Growth Personal development
Competition Physical challenge Stability
Family
Cooperation Pleasure Status
Helping other people
Country Power and authority Time freedom
Humour Privacy
Creativity Truth
Honesty Public service
Decisiveness Wealth
Independence Purity
Democracy Quality of what I take part in Wisdom
Influencing others
Ecological awareness Quality relationships Work under pressure
Inner harmony
Economic security Recognition Work with others
Integrity Religion
Effectiveness Working along
Intellectual status
Involvement
Justice
Knowledge
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15. Schwartz’s theory of universal values
“Ten motivationally distinct value orientations that people in all cultures recognize” (quote and figure: Schwartz, undated).
Used with over 270 samples in 70 countries with different measurement instruments. The values are ordered according to
two dimensions: Self Transcendence v. Self Enhancement; and Openness to Change v. Conservation. Values are positively
related if they are close together, and antagonistic if they are on opposite sides of the circle.
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16. Some results
More than 35,000
respondents to the
European Social Survey in
2002-3 survey (ESS), who
completed a values scale,
were asked the extent to
which they agreed with
the following statement:
“Gay men and lesbians
should be free to live their
own life as they wish.”
From (Schwartz, undated).
Note: SVS is Schwartz Value Survey (Schwartz, 1992); recent
researchers have added items to scales to improve internal consistency
reliability (Parks and Quay, 2012), while Spini (2003), found that
measurement consistency across cultures is compromised by the
number of items in the SVS; and other researchers have found an 11 th
dimension (‘Self-Fulfilled Connection’ – a measure of post-material
wellbeing; Vauclair, 2011).
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17. Potential match to organisational
culture
Internal
Security Power
Conformity Achievement Feudal
Bureaucracy
Tradition
Control Flexible
Benevolence Self-direction
Universalism Stimulation
Network
Team Hedonism
External
Schwartz values (green) superimposed on organisational culture model: Internal v. External
orientations, and Control and Flexible priorities (based on Charles Handy, 1996; Fons Trompenaars,
1998; and Geert Hofstede, 1990).
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18. National culture
Universalism
Achievement Self-direction
Stimulation
Hedonism
Conformity
Tradition Benevolence
Security
Power
Schwartz values (green) superimposed on national culture model: the World Values Survey
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19. Changing values
At the level of individual or team or organisational development it is relevant to consider how to influence
values, and related behaviours. While a lot of work has been done in this area, there is a lack of empirical
evidence (Bardi and Goodwin, 2011).
A possible model, with some suggestive evidence:
Related goal-
Related belief
directed behaviour
Salience- Value
enhancement
Salience can be enhanced in a coaching session (or workshop), for example by asking for behavioural
examples of a value. There is evidence that preparing people to argue for a value (or reading supportive
evidence) generalises their support for related attitudes (Bernard et al, 2003).
Of course very effective salience-enhancements are provided by leader and group behaviours. As Stan Slap
says, “the purpose of leadership is to change the world around you in the name of your values” (2010).
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20. Leveraging values
People strive to maintain consistency between values and behaviour, and avoid
‘hypocrisy’; so identifying inconsistency between values and behaviour can motivate
behaviour change.
A: Personal behaviour (e.g., recent examples, diary record, 360-degree feedback; may indicate not acting independently, instead
following ‘cookie-cutter’ approaches)
B: Values (e.g., highest ranked from Schwartz ‘universal’ summary; Self-Direction, particularly freedom of action and thought)
C: Development of more creative, independent behaviours will contribute to better alignment of behaviour with priority personal
value
Polonius:
‘This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.’
Hamlet Act 1, scene 3, 78–82; http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/thine-own-self-true
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21. Leveraging values
Is leadership effectiveness behaving effectively in a way that other’s may see as
‘moral’, or is it aligning with the values of the organisation, or is it showing
alignment between behaviour and values, no matter what those values might be?
Authentic leadership, as defined by Bruce J. Avolio includes:
Self Awareness: To what degree is the leader aware of his or her strengths, limitations, how others see him or her and how
the leader impacts others?
Transparency: To what degree does the leader reinforce a level of openness with others that provides them with an
opportunity to be forthcoming with their ideas, challenges and opinions?
Ethical/Moral: To what degree does the leader set a high standard for moral and ethical conduct?
Balanced Processing: To what degree does the leader solicit sufficient opinions and viewpoints prior to making important
decisions?
Effective leaders are seen to behave in ways that are aligned with ‘spiritual’ values,
including integrity, honesty and humility (Reave, 2005)
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22. •Are there ‘universal’ or agreed values? The Schwartz model and associated
research suggest, ‘Yes’.
•How do you measure them? Various researchers have built on Schwartz’s
tool, there are reliable and valid measures available.
•Can values be developed or changed? Yes – the research on attitude change,
including ‘cognitive dissonance’ is relevant.
•Do values make a difference to what people do? Yes; they are not the only
influence – social context matters (and expectations about what values are
operating in that context), but people seem to operate on the assumption
that there is a strong relationship between what they value and what they do,
and often this is the case.
The title page image: “This masterpiece contains inherent human values as exhibited by a human figure we see at
right with an expression of sadness. His tears are of gold and represent the value of our sacrifices in the beginning of
a struggle to set goals. Colors symbolize debility and anguish: the guitar without strings and death depicted in its
natural states represent the prioritization of necessities in this constant struggle. In this same sense, three human
figures manifest the facets of just one person. The environment around these figures gives a sense of peace,
movement, and life”... http://primimodernismo.com/page02.htm
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