Literature Review, Key Findings and Reflection on Values in Organizational Settings

Richard Steinbach (Student 3283516)

Introduction

Values are a set of rules and guidelines that people use to make decisions in life. Values are initially

taught from early childhood and developed as a person grows in a family setting initially, going to

school and being involved in their community. People make decisions according to their values and

what they consider appropriate to their situation. This literature review looks at the importance of

analyzing individual values of people in organizations.

It is natural to have a range of opinions because every person is different. People in one family have

different opinions and develop different values. More so, if people have different backgrounds and

experiences their values can be divergent. Values vary from culture to culture on people’s roles in

organizations. Australian values are different from Asian values especially in terms of education

and work ethic and analysis in this area is topical and essential for Australian society to continue to

work harmoniously. McShane, Olekains and Travaglione (2010, p. 60) observe that over time

theories on and definitions of values have been modified, as is the case with Rokeach’s value list

being superseded by Schwartz’s complex value analysis.

Review of Readings and Articles

McShane, Olekains and Travaglione (2010, p. 56, 57) case studies of employees attest to the

importance of the development of “Self-Concept” or self-image by employers when they recognize

and acknowledge the importance of their workers in their organization.

McShane, Olekains and Travaglione (2010, p. 59) consider the understanding of the dynamics of

“Self-Concept” is useful in being able to manipulate employee well being to enhance employee

performance in the workplace and improve productivity outcomes.

When analyzing the material for this literature review it is important to define and understand the

technical jargon used in the prescribed reading. It is not the purpose of this review to extensively

analyse Schwartz’s Values Complex other than to look at some of its features.

McShane, Olekains and Travaglione (2010, p. 60) broadly define the components of Schwartz’s

model of values that go to make up an analysis of say an individual employee in an organization.

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There are ten categories that are divided into four sets of attributes that help to define and

understand an individual’s values and accordingly classify them. E.g. A person’s openness to

change is complemented by their need for conservation (of Tradition, Conformity and Security).

The values relating to Self-enhancement (Self-achievement and Control) need to be balanced by

those of Self-transcendence (Social conscience and concepts of Care for others).

The reading elaborates on the connection between personal values and individual behaviour (such as

decision making and ethics in the workplace). It prefaces the link between collective values and

corporate behaviour.

McShane, Olekains and Travaglione (2010, p. 61) suggest “Value Consistency” in behaviour can be

controlled in the work environment by encouraging a tangible and valid connection between

employee values and behaviour (acknowledging that they are worthwhile employees, giving

rewards, bonuses, etc.) Also, ( 2010, p 62), “Value Congruence” occurs when employee values and

corporate values are similar and can result in individual job satisfaction, improved self worth and

enhanced corporate benefits. However, excessive congruence can result in lack of creativity and

growth by a preoccupation with maintaining the values relating to Conservation (Tradition,

Conformity and Security).

A comprehensive chronological and informative background to Schwartz’s work can also be found

in Chapter 5 of Buchanan and Huczynnski: Organizational Behaviour - An Introductory Text where

Huczynnski and Buchanan (2004, p. 142) refer to the use of Psychometrics to assess the needs of

employees in organizations in terms of job selection, promotion, redeployment, training and

counselling needs. Huczynnski and Buchanan (2004, p. 143) suggest that the process of examining

personality helps to identify an individual’s character and values. They also suggest that personality

features may exhibit themselves differently in different social settings despite a person’s individual

values being a relatively static entity. Eg. A hard and rigid boss at work may be a gentle and soft

parent at home and an aggressive sportsman in a different context.

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Measuring, testing and comparing personality and value traits is not easily quantifiable and the

study of personality has thus been a slow development from at least the times of the Greek

physician Hippocrates (460-377 BC).

Huczynnski and Buchanan (2004, p. 144) write that Hippocrates recorded his observation of

personality and associated behaviour under the four classifications of “bodily humours” or

temperament: Blood, Phlegm, Black bile and Yellow Bile corresponding respectively with

Confidence, Apathy, Moodiness and Aggression. Reading on in the same text, Huczynnski and

Buchanan (2004, p. 145), in Indian holistic medicine, “The Ayurveda Principle” combines the

natural elements of all living matter which is made up of earth, water, fire, air and ether and use

these in combinations to demonstrate three personality traits: Vata (air and ether), Pitta (water and

fire), and Kapha (earth and water) further relating them to physical features, such as skin and hair

colour, physique and associating these with personality traits such as creativity, irritability, good

leadership qualities, etc

Huczynnski and Buchanan (2004, p.146) refer to the Carl Jung (1875-1961) personality matrix and

classification of personality types which provides an introduction to Schwartz’s work. Jung’s

personality classifications can be put under the simplistic headings of: Practical (Sensation-

Thinking), Conceptual (Intuition-Thinking), Gregarious (Sensation-Feeling) and Creative (Intuition-

Feeling) personality types. His work is complemented by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

classifications of: Introvert/Extravert; Sensing/Intuiting; Thinking/Feeling; Judging/Feeling.

In Kondalkar V.G., Organisational Behaviour, 1st Edition, 1 Mar 2007, New Age International, E-

book, Kondalkar (2007, p. 84) writes from an Indian perspective and concurs with McShane,

Olekalns and Travaglione in defining individual values as being stable in nature and that they do not

change. For example: “if you like non violence or equality, you would always tend to live in peace

and give equal opportunity to your subordinates”. Kondalkar (2007, p 83) also considers that value,

attitude and behaviour are interlinked with each other. Attributes such as loyalty and truthfulness are

also linked. A person who has these values practices them in the workplace.

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Kondalkar (2007, p. 84) refers to Floyd H Allport who in 1920 described six types of individual

values (Theoretical, Economical, Aesthetic, Social, Political, and Religious) and cites Rukeach’s

value survey which Kundalkar still considers relevant when analyzing the connection between

values and behaviour.

Cultural differences in individual values is referred to by Kondalkar (2007, p. 85/86) describing

Indians as having a rich value system and culture and asserting that the value system is being

corrupted by mass media influences from other cultures and further impacting on corporate values

such as banking ethics.

David Fritzche and Effy Oz draw an interesting connection between personal values and ethical

decision making in their paper, Personal Values’ Influence on the Ethical Dimensions of Decision

Making. Fritzche and Oz(2007, p.336) based their work on value systems research methodology of

Schwartz’s, among other researchers and scholars. Their study by Fritzche and Oz (2007, p. 335 and

342), suggest a hiring strategy for an organization consider candidates who exhibit altruistic values

over self-enhancement values. The candidates who demonstrated unselfish altruistic values were

more likely not to accept bribes, steal, discriminate unfairly or perform favours that were

detrimental to the hiring company.

On a lighter note, a paper examining employee values and their likelihood to make suggestions for

improvement in the work situation was produced by Lipponen, Bardi and Haapamäki. This research

supports Schwartz’s value theory by Lipponen, Bardi and Haapamäki (2008, p. 242) stating: “This

theory offers a sound theoretical basis for deriving hypothesis based on conflicts and compatibilities

of values.” In their conclusion Lipponen, Bardi and Haapamäki (2008, p. 242) linked the value

parameter “openness to change vs conservation” with being identified with the organization and

therefore open to volunteer suggestions for improvement to the organizations management.

Monica P Adya’s paper, Women at Work: Differences In IT Career Experiences and Perceptions

Between South Asian and American Women Human Resource Management, is an article on a

survey examining cultural differences between American raised women professionals and women

raised in India who are working in the same IT industry in USA. The article concludes that values

are developed in formative years in the family and educational setting peculiar to prevalent cultural

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values. Adya (2008, p. 612) notes cultural differences are markedly apparent with educational

qualifications of Indian women being higher than those of women raised in America. All the Asian

women had Masters Degrees whereas only a handful of American raised women had Masters

Degrees. The Asian women considered their education and career choice was influenced by their

family’s values whereas most of the American women came by their particular IT careers by

working in other industries first.

Seak and Edgerwick (2008, p. 1311) reflects on the difficulties of New Zealand and Australian

managers working in China and their NZ employer’s lack of understanding of the cultural

differences in the Chinese business system and culture. It is easy then to understand the difficulties

encountered by migrants coming to Australia and having to adjust quickly to Australian values.

The Australian Public Service Commission, Guidelines on workplace diversity, Williams (2001, p.

2) has produced publications on how the public service is legally required to apply workplace

diversity. This applies to all workplaces in Australia. Anti- discrimination law in Australia attempts

to manage values and conduct in the workplace in the legal frameworks of Acts of Parliament such

as The Racial Discrimination Act 1975, The Sex Discrimination Act 1984, Human Rights and Equal

Opportunity Act 1984.

Conclusions

People’s behaviour being determined by individual values is therefore not a small thing. When

exploring issues on individual values on the internet the amount of material is great. It ranges from

Government documents to trivial character surveys and advice. An article by Silvia Payne on The

benefits of cultural diversity in the work place (http://www.helium.com/items/1557407-cultural-

diversity-in-the-workplace) suggests that apart from the legal implications of anti discrimination

laws, there actually are commercial benefits in employing staff from different cultural groups.

An organization is made up of people working together for a common goal. It follows then that for

organization to be successful employees and employers need to have common values. Researchers

and academics demonstrate in the above texts and support the assertion that the common

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components can be described as or called values. Schwartz has classified personal values and

summarized the list in his research and illustrated in the Schwartz Values Circumplex diagram

McShane, Olekains and Travaglione (2010, p 61).

Earlier academics such as Carl Jung and Milton Rokeach created models of common attributes that

on closer scrutiny by academics did not offer a completely satisfactory connection between personal

values and behviour. Schwartz’s model is clearly considered definitive by Lipponen, Bardi and

Haapamäki (2008, p. 242) in their study.

Personal values of employees working together are further examined in texts and can be analyzed in

the context of an organizations values.

From the readings one can easily infer and draw links between how some well known companies

manage their service delivery and how they improve their efficiency by addressing individual staff

values and behaviour and subsequent corporate value and image.

Anexample is how organizational values are important is outlined in the case study, McShane,

Olekains and Travaglione (2010, pgs 548,549), looking at how the company Dell has changed over

the years from providing a high quality low cost product to a product the owner of Dell is not

completely satisfied with and his attempts to change the organization’s collective values by

employing management with modified values.

The idea that individual values are genetically inherited is not really my experience. Having lived in

a semi rural setting I have noticed the difference in values and behaviour between my associates in

the country compared with people in the city. One does not have to travel far to notice differences

in values and behaviour. I don’t live in a culturally diverse community and notice the contrast in

values and attitudes of people in the city where there is a broader cross section of cultural

backgrounds e.g. the Aussie casual way of working vs European or Asian highly industrious ways

of doing things is more than an observable stereotype. The dress codes between Europeans vs

Middle Eastern cultures express certain attitudes about individual values in the workplace. Values

relating to appropriate behaviour in a business setting, values relating to modesty and issues of

discrimination hinted at in Guidelines on workplace diversity.

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REFERENCES

Adya, M.P. 2008, ‘Women at Work: Differences In IT Career Experiences and Perceptions

Between South Asian and American Women’, Human Resource Management, vol. 47, no. 3,

pp. 601-635

Buchana, D. & Huczynski, A.2004, Organizational Behaviour - An Introductory Text, 5th edn,

Pearson Education Limited, Harlow, England

Fritzche, D.J., Oz, E. 2007, ‘Personal Values’ Influence on the Ethical Dimensions of Decision

Making’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 75, pp. 335-343

Kondalkar V.G. 2007, Organisational Behaviour, 1st edn, New Age International, viewed 7

April 2010, E-Book Library Database

Lipponen, J., Bardi, A. & Haapamäki, J. 2008, ‘The Interaction Between Value and

Organizational Identification in Predicting Suggestion-Making at Work’, Journal of

Occupational and Organizational Psychology, vol. 81, pp. 241-248

McShane, S., Olekains, M. & Travaglione T. 2010, Organisational Behaviour on the Pacific

Rim, 3rd edn, McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Limited, North Ryde, NSW, Australia

Payne, S. 2009-2010, The benefits of cultural diversity in the workplace, Helium, viewed April

s6, http://www.helium.com/items/1557407-cultural-diversity-in-the-workplace

Perrujaquet, A., Furrer, O., Marguerat, D., Usunier, J. & Cestre, G. 2005, ‘A Test of the

Circumplex Structure of Human Values’, Institute of Research in Management, viewed 7 April

2010, http://www.hec.unil.ch/cms_irm/WP0691.pdf

Seak, N. & Enderwick, P. 2008, ‘Management of New Zealand expatriates in China’, The

International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol. 19, no. 7, pp. 1298-1313

Williams, H. 2001, Guidelines on workplace diversity, Australian Government - Australian

Public Service Commission, viewed April 7 2010,

http://www.apsc.gov.au/publications01/diversityguidelines.htm

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APPENDIXQuestions

1. Improve staff self-concept – How can companies improve their performance and provide a

better service by the way they treat their staff and give them greater trust and authority.

2. Psychometrics – What are some good ways to survey staff so that conditions for them

improve in the workplace and hence productivity for the company increases.

3. Altruistic values vs self enhancement values - How to encourage honesty and practice

ethical behaviour in the workplace or in an organization.

4. People from different cultural backgrounds – How to improve the organization values and

culture of a workplace to encourage cooperative behaviour in people from different cultural

backgrounds

McShane, Olekains and Travaglione (2010, p. 61)

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Source: refer bibliography: WORKING PAPER 0601 (2005 p.47)

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