Importance of Values in Organizations Essays

Importance of Values in Organizations Essays Importance of Values in Organizations Essay Importance of Values in Organizations Essay Your values are the core of what your organization is and what your organization cherishes. Values are beliefs that manifest in how an employee interacts in a workplace. Values represent an employees most significant commitments to what he or she finds most important in life. (Values are also known as core values and as governing values; they all refer to the same sentiment. ) Value statements are developed from your values and define how people want to behave with each other in the organization. Your value statements provide a measuring device against which you evaluate all of your actions and behaviors. Your value statements give words and meaning to the values that you decide to live by daily. Value statements are declarations about how the organization will value customers, suppliers, and the internal community. Value statements describe actions that are the living enactment of the fundamental values held by most individuals within the organization. The values of each of the individuals in your workplace, along with their experiences, upbringing, and so on, meld together to form your corporate culture. The values of your senior leaders are especially important in the development of your culture. These leaders have a lot of power in your organization to set the course and establish the quality of the environment for people. Your leaders have selected employees who they believe have congruent values and fit your workplace culture. The Impact of Your Personal Values If you think about your own life, your values form the cornerstones for all that you do, think, believe, and accomplish. Your personal values define where you spend your time, if you are truly living your values. Each of you makes choices in life according to your most important four – ten values. Why not take the time to identify what is most important to you and to your organization? Identify and live your values. Manifest your values through value statements. Why Identify and Establish Values? Effective organizations identify and develop a clear, concise and shared meaning of values/beliefs, priorities, and direction so that every employee understands and can contribute. Once defined, values impact every aspect of your organization. You must support and nurture the impact of these values and value statements or identifying values will have been a wasted exercise. Employees will feel fooled and misled unless they see the impact of the values and value statements within your organization. Create Impact Through Values and Value Statements If you want the values you identify and the value statements you craft to have an impact within your organization, the following must occur. * Employees must demonstrate and model these values in action in their personal work behaviors, decision making, contribution, and interpersonal interaction. * Organizational values help each person establish priorities in their daily work life. Priorities and actions must be grounded in the organizations values and model the value statements identified for each employees job. * Values guide every decision that is made once the organization has cooperatively created the values and the value statements. * Rewards and recognition within the organization are structured to recognize those people whose work embodies the values and the value statements that the organization identified and embraced. * Organizational goals are grounded in the identified values. Employees have identified how their goals and actions are congruent with and demonstrate the values daily. * Adoption of the values and the behaviors that result is recognized in regular performance feedback. * People hire and promote individuals whose outlook and actions are congruent with the organizations values. Only the active participation of all members of the organization, plus the development of the systems and processes of the organization grounded in the companys values, will ensure a truly organization-wide, value-based, shared culture. Sample Values The following are examples of values: ambition, competency, individuality, equality, integrity, service, responsibility, accuracy, respect, dedication, diversity, improvement, enjoyment/fun, loyalty, credibility, honesty, innovativeness, teamwork, excellence, accountability, empowerment, quality, efficiency, dignity, collaboration, stewardship, empathy, accomplishment, courage, wisdom, independence, security, challenge, influence, learning, compassion, friendliness, discipline/order, generosity, persistence, optimism, dependability, flexibility. Although important aspects of your life and deserving of your attention, these are not values: family, church, professionalism. If you define what you value about each of these, then you are identifying the core value. For example, the core value in family might be close relationships; in church, spirituality; and in professionalism, demonstrating integrity in everything you do. Use this additional list of values as a thought-starter for your values identification process. Businesses have two types of environments: internal and external. Each serve a different purpose in the business world but also have the potential to directly impact and influence employees in the workplace. By understanding what external environments are, we can discover how and why they influence employee behavior. ? External Environment * A businesss external environment consists of elements and variables that exist outside of an organizations structure but can still impact the organizations practices, processes, operations and, of course, their employees. External environments include, but are not limited to, economical, technological, environmental and stakeholder variables. These are the most general types of external environments. However, depending on the nature of the business, there may be other types of external environments that the organization identifies through environmental scanning techniques. Economic Effects on Employees * The reason employees can be influenced by the external economical environment is because these elements have a direct impact on a businesss operations and ability to perform. In turn, it can affect how an organization manages their employees. According to the International Development Research Centre, economic environments can impact an organizations willingness to continue with projects. Things such as inflation and labor laws can hinder organizational growth, thereby affecting employee morale, motivation and commitment. * Sponsored Links * Develop self-confidence using the Latest mind tools with NLP International life coaches nlptrainingmasters. com/self-development Technological Effects on Employees * It is important to understand the relationship that technology has on a businesss ability to operate effectively and efficiently. Technological advances in the external environment can have a positive effect on employees. Newer, progressive technology can create easier work environments that make employees jobs more efficient. As a result, employee behavior may be positively influenced. But technology can also serve as a threat to businesses, depending on the industry. If technological advances pose a risk to a company, the effect it has on employee behavior will most likely be negative, as employees may respond with fear and anxiety. Social Effects on Employees * According to the Institutional Assessment, Charles Lusthaus, Gary Anderson and Elaine Murphy contend that social forces have profound influence on employee behavior. What happens in the social external environment can affect how employees feel toward their jobs, how motivated they are to perform and produce and what they value. Social stressors can induce negative employee behaviors, even if employees do not feel negatively about their work. But the opposite is also true. If employees are satisfied with the social environment, they may be more apt to perform and produce in the workplace. Stakeholder Effects on Employees * The International Development Research Centre contends that most institutions and businesses are dependent for their survival on various groups of stakeholders. The stakeholder environment consists of people and organizations that are external to the business, but are directly concerned with the organization and its performance. They have a personal interest, and oftentimes an investment, in the organization, which drives their involvement. The reason stakeholders can influence employee behavior is because stakeholders can impact where a business goes, what the budgets are, what the funding can be used for and other types of operational controls. This type of control can be discouraging for employees, especially if their salaries are affected by stakeholder decisions or if there are layoffs or organizational restructuring. To effectively sell a product or service, organizations have to know how consumers behave with regard to what they buy. The study of consumer behavior involves examining what products certain types of consumers buy and when and how consumers decide among products. As a small business owner, understanding how your customers buy your products and services will help you grow your business by responding to their needs. Marketing Organizations often study consumer behavior to determine when, how and where they should market their products and services. For example, if you know people tend to choose office supplies by familiar brands, you are going to try to make your office supply brand a household name, creating commercials, social media pages and promotions for your product. However, if you are selling textbooks that only graduate students buy, you probably wont spend as much time with commercials and will focus more time hanging posters in graduate schools and becoming Facebook friends with graduate programs. Product Development Consumer behavior helps organizations decide what products and services to manufacture or offer. When they know what customers buy and how they go about buying those products, organizations can more easily spot a need that has not yet been satisfied. If you run a technology company and notice that many of your customers buy educational software from college bookstores in early fall and spring, you may recognize that your customers could use a place to buy and automatically download educational software online. According to the Harvard Business Review, most organizations must learn as much as they can about consumers and what types of products they purchase to come up with a winning idea. Customer Service When you know how customers behave in relation to the products youre selling, you have a better understanding of how to provide good service to them, increasing the chance that youll have repeat customers. For example, if you know that customers tend to come to your restaurant because they can get healthy food without waiting for a long time, you should continue training your wait staff to be as efficient as possible. Gathering Consumer Behavior Data Gather some consumer behavior data by simply analyzing the sales information you already have. For example, you can see whether most of your products are purchased with cash or credit card. If you have a clock on your register, you know when people tend to shop in your store. However, you shouldnt limit yourself to this information. The most valuable information comes from in-depth answers from your consumers about their spending. Focus groups, surveys and one-on-one interviews are good ways to get information about consumer behavior. Encourage consumers to participate in these methods by offering rewards, such as a contest entry or discount, for survey completion or focus group participation.