Do values matter?

Stewart Forsyth

January 2012

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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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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What are values?

“trans-situational goals that vary in importance and serve as guiding principles in the life of a person or a group” (Schwartz, 2007)

Personality

Morals

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 behaviors subject to little cognitive control” (e.g., stronger correlations with ‘wellness’)

Corporate personality: honesty, prestige, innovation, power (Otto et al, 2011)

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Defining values

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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)

Is there a values ‘value chain’?

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The values of individual employees and the organisation’s

values

Task and team behaviour

Innovation, service and other valued

deliverables

Customers and other stakeholders view of

the organisation’s ‘personality’ or brand

The four dimensions of corporate personality (empirically developed – Philipp Otto and others, 2011):

Honesty Prestige Innovation Power

Fair, helpful, supportive vs. tacky, exploitative

Luxurious, high status, formal vs. cheap, tacky

Fresh, energetic, fashionable vs. formal, sleepy

Dominant, established, popular vs. cheap, tacky

Correlates business size (.56), and profit (.75)

Correlates business sales growth over 3 years (.52)

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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Morals

The evolution of morals (from Pinker, 2011)

Shweder’s Ethics

Divinity Community Autonomy

Haidt’s Moral Foundations

Purity / Sanctity In-group loyalty Authority / Respect Harm / Care Fairness / Reciprocity

Fiske’s Relational Models

Communal Sharing Authority Ranking Equality Matching Market Pricing / Rational-Legal

Small, conservative groups Modern, educated societies

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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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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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Some empirical results

Sverdlik’s positive and negative correlations (> .30) between Haidt’s moral dimensions and Schwartz’s (1992) values:

Haidt Fairness / Reciprocity

Harm/Care In-group / Loyalty

Authority / Respect

Purity / Sanctity

Schwartz: Positive correlations

Universalism Universalism Tradition Security Conformity Tradition

Tradition

Negative: Hedonism Self-direction

Universalism Self-direction

Hedonism Self-direction

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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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Value fit

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Teacher’s views of

school’s value system

Teacher’s personal value

priorities

Principal’s views of

school’s value system

Alignment of teacher’s perceptions predicted reported job stress, job commitment and

satisfaction

Not such a good relationship with these outcomes for alignment of teacher’s personal value perceptions and the

Principal’s views of the school’s value system

(Rohan and Maiden, 2000 - unpublished)

Which values? Some examples:

Achievement

Adventure

Affection (love & caring)

Arts

Challenging problems

Change and variety

Close relationships

Community

Competence

Competition

Cooperation

Country

Creativity

Decisiveness

Democracy

Ecological awareness

Economic security

Effectiveness

Efficiency Ethical practice Empathy Excellence Excitement Fame Financial gain Freedom Fun Growth Family Helping other people Humour Honesty Independence Influencing others Inner harmony Integrity Intellectual status Involvement Justice Knowledge

Leadership Location Loyalty Market position Meaningful work Merit Modesty Nature Openness Order Peace Personal development Physical challenge Pleasure Power and authority Privacy Public service Purity Quality of what I take part in Quality relationships Recognition Religion

Recognition Religion Reputation Responsible/ accountable Science Security Self-respect Serenity Sophistication Spirituality Stability Status Time freedom Truth Wealth Wisdom Work under pressure Work with others Working along

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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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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 11th dimension (‘Self-Fulfilled Connection’ – a measure of post-material wellbeing; Vauclair, 2011).

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Potential match to organisational culture

External

Flexible

Internal

Control

Feudal

Bureaucracy

Team

Network

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).

Benevolence

Universalism

Security

Conformity

Power

Achievement

Tradition

Self-direction

Stimulation

Hedonism

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National culture

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Achievement Conformity Tradition Security Power

Universalism Self-direction

Stimulation Hedonism

Benevolence

Schwartz values (green) superimposed on national culture model: the World Values Survey

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:

Value

Related goal-directed behaviour

Related belief

Salience-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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Leveraging values

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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

Leveraging values

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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)

•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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