Introduction

Values are long lasting and stable beliefs about what is good or what is bad. In
order to understand organisational behaviour, it is very important to study values
first because values of an individual strongly influence his attitudes, perceptions,
needs and motives at work place. Values are very powerful force influencing
human behaviour. Effective managers have to study the value system underlying
behaviour of the employees, because only then they will be able to understand why
people behave in a particular fashion sometimes.

Meaning and Definitions of Values

Values can be described as the basic convictions that guide an individual that a
particular mode of conduct or final outcome is personally or socially acceptable or
not. Once values are internalised, they become standard for guiding the actions or
decision making of an individual. Values contain an element of judgement which
influences an individual’s understanding about what is good or bad, desirable or
undesirable. Values are inherited as well as learnt through the process of
socialisation. The work related values such as autonomy, comfort, achievement
and status seem to be inherited. Certain individual values are also learnt in
different stages of life as a result of interaction with relevant persons in our life like
our parents, friends, teachers and colleagues etc. Values are comprised of both
content and intensity attributes. Content attributes define that a mode of conduct or
final outcome is important and the intensity attribute define how much important it
is for an individual.

Value can be defined as a, “Concept of the desirable, an internalised criterion or

standard of evaluation a person possesses. Such concepts and standards are
relatively few and determine or guide an individual’s evaluations of the many
objects encountered in the daily life.”

According to Milton Rockeach, “Values are global beliefs that guide actions and
judgements across a variety of situations.”

Characteristics of Values

Values generally contain a tinge of principles of morality which direct an

individual about what is right, good and desirable. Characteristics of values are
given as follows:

a) Values provide standards of proficiency and integrity.

b) Values are fewer in number than attitudes.
c) Values are most central to the core of a person.
d) Values usually go beyond the specific objects, situations, or persons.
e) Values are relatively permanent and resistant to change.
f) When values are ranked in terms of their importance, it results into the value
system of that person.
g) The value system of an individual provides a hierarchical framework which
indicates the relative importance we assign o different values such as freedom, self
respect, honesty, self respect and so on.
Importance of Values
Importance of values can be understood from the following points:
a) Values provide the basic framework for understanding attitudes and
motivation of an individual.
b) Value system of an individual influences the perception about whatever is
happening around in the environment.
c) Values symbolize the explanation of right and wrong.
d) Value system influences an individual’s decision making and choice of
solution to various problems.
e) Values also play social function in an organisation. Those values which are
derived from common experiences help in uniting the societies and groups
together.
f) Values influence behaviour of an individual and therefore provide the criteria
for evaluating the behaviour of others.
g) In order to meet the challenge of reconstructing the established work values
all over the world, understanding the values becomes necessary for every manager
in the organisation.

Types of Values

Milton Rokeach Classification

Milton Rokeach conducted a survey which is popularly known as Rokeach value

survey (RVS) to classify the values. RVS is comprised of two types of value sets,
each containing 18 individual value items. One set is called Terminal values and
another is called Instrumental Values.

a) Terminal Values: Terminal values represent the desirable outcomes. These

represent the ultimate goals that a person would strive to achieve in his lifetime.
The examples of terminal values are: Sense of accomplishment (lasting
contribution) Family security (caring the loved ones) Mature love (spiritual
intimacy) Self respect (self prestige) Wisdom (good judgement of life)Exciting life
(active and thrilling life) Freedom (to be independent) Social recognition (to gain
respect and appreciation) True friendship (closeness with others) A world of peace
(freedom for stress and conflicts) A world of beauty (beauty of nature and arts)
Equality (equal opportunity for all)

b) Instrumental Values: Instrumental values refer to the preferred modes of

behaviour or means to achieve desirable ends. These are the medium for attaining
terminal values. For example, the instrumental value which can help in achieving
the terminal value of ‘true friendship’ is being ‘responsible’. Similarly the
instrumental value ‘independent’ can help in achieving the terminal value
‘freedom’. The examples of instrumental values are given as below:
Ambitious
Broad minded Capable
Cheerful
Clean
Courageous Forgiving Helpful
Honest
Imaginative Independent Intellectual Logical
Loving Obedient Polite
Responsible Self controlled

According to Rokeach, values serve following functions:

They influence us to favour one particular situation or ideology over another. They
take us to the particular position on social issues.

They guide us in presenting ourselves to others, judging, evaluating and praising

others. They help us evaluating ourselves in comparison to others on moral
grounds.

They help us persuading and influencing others to change their beliefs, attitudes
and behaviours.

Allport,Vernon and Lindzey classification

G.W Allport, P.E. Vernon and G. Lindzey classified values into six major
categories given as below:

a) Theoretical values: These values reflect a person’s interest in the discovery of

truth through reasoning and systematic thinking. Ideal theoretical man values the
discovery of truth.
b) Economic values: these values refer to one’s interest in practicality, usefulness
and accumulating wealth. The ideal economic man values whatever is useful.

c) Aesthetic values: these values reflect one’s interest in beauty, art and creativity.
The ideal aesthetic man relish artistic and aesthetic experiences in life.

d) Social values: these values reflect one’s interest in relationships. The ideal
social man gives importance to sense of belongingness and love.

e) Political values: these values reflect one’s interest in obtaining power and
influencing others behaviour. The ideal political man gives more importance to
power.

f) Religious values: these values reflect one’s interest in unity.

The importance of the above mentioned six values varies from person to person.
Understanding these values is very important for understanding behaviour of the
individuals.

Organisational values and Work values

Organisational values: Organisations have certain core values that are so deeply
ingrained that they guide company’s actions and practices to establish
organisational culture. Good firms practice distinct and identifiable set of values
that include management’s belief about service quality, innovation, importance of
human resources, detail of information, openness of communication etc. Four types
of common organisational values are:Power, elitism and reward. Effectiveness,
efficiency and economy. Fairness, teamwork and law and order. Defence,
competitiveness and opportunism.

Work values: Work values are described as the concept of what is preferable from
the given alternative mode of conducts and end states with respect to one’s work.
In simple words, it can be described as individually held conceptions of what is
desirable and what is undesirable with respect to individual’s work activities. T.V
Rao proposed the following framework of work values which describes the best
career where individual will give his best: Creativity and challenge (Scope to do
new things) Economic (satisfaction of financial needs), Independence (Freedom,
autonomy) Service (desire to serve others , Work conditions (Conditions
improving individual’s productivity), Status (Designation and prestige), Co-
workers (availability of good colleagues) Security (continuity of job), Academic
(relationship of work and academics)
.

Sources of values

A person may develop values from the following sources:

a) Family: Family is the prime and most important source of obtaining values.
Every child learns some values from his family since his childhood and retains
those values in his mind throughout his life. The ways the parents nurture, educate
and raise their child shape his personality and inculcate values in him. Family is
most influential source in the individual’s learning of norms and values.

b) Society: After family, society also plays a major role developing value system
of an individual. Every child learn basic manners and discipline from the school.
Interaction with classmates, friends and teachers in the schools and other
institutions also inculcate important values in the child. Besides schools and
colleges, other groups of society such as religious groups, economic and political
groups to which an individual belongs also affect value system of an individual.

c) Personal factors: Personal characteristics like intelligence, ability, appearance

and education level of a person determines his value system very strongly. For
example, an intelligent and educated person will understand and learn the social
and work related values relatively faster than the uneducated person.

d) Culture: Cultural factors which influence value system of an individual include

norms, beliefs and other behavior patterns which are preferred and acceptable by
the society. The values which an individual learns from the culture are passed on
from one generation to another generation. An individual belongs to a society,
group and an organization. Thus he is a composite of many cultural elements.
Whether an individual is cooperative, friendly or helpful depends upon the culture
to which he belongs. The degree to which an individual is willing to take risks,
believes in saving money for future, cares for the loved ones is also determined by
cultural background.

e) Religion: generally individuals obtain strength and comforts from the religion
which they follow. Religion is comprised of set of values and traditions which
guide routine behavior and decision making of an individual. Religious values help
people determine what is good or what is bad.

f) Life experiences: Apart from the above mentioned sources, a man learns most
from his own experiences and sometimes from experiences of others too. The
values which an individual learns from own experiences of life are relatively long
lasting and difficult to change.

g) Role demands: Role demand refers to the behavior which is associated with the
particular position or role profile in an organisation. Every individual plays
multiple roles in his life. He has to play the role of an employee in an organisation,
role of a family member in the family and friend in the social group. The problem
occurs when there is a role conflict. In such case, individuals quickly learn the
value system prevailing in the organisation so that they may survive and progress
in the same organisation.

Values and OB
It has been already discussed in the above paragraphs that values influence
behaviour of an individual. Further influence of values on the behaviour of an
individual in an organizational setting can be specifically understood from
following points:

a) An individual’s perception about the problems faced by him is influenced by

his value system. As a result the decisions taken by him to solve the problems also
reflects his values.

b) Values also affect interpersonal relationships in the organisation. The way

employees look at each other, cooperate with each other and compete with each
other depends upon their values.

c) Values guide an individual about what is ethical and unethical. Therefore, the
degree to which an employee remains ethical or indulge in unethical practices will
also depend on his values.

d) The extent to which an individual cope up with the organisation’s pressures and
contribute in the achievement of organisational goals is determined by his value
system. The employees stay in the organisations for a longer period if their values
match with organisational values and they may leave the organisation if their
values do not match with organisational values.