Organizational values are often taken as vain sentences that do not really affect corporate performance, but if their true scope is analyzed, shared values constitute the foundation of the organization and generate benefits for the people and companies that apply them.
What is known as organizational culture is basically a concept constituted by the set of beliefs, values and behavior patterns that identify one organization from another.
Generally, companies have a strategic plan in which you can find beautiful and elegant phrases that "portray" their fundamental purposes and values, including: mission, vision, company philosophy and, of course, values.
In these strategic plans there are phrases such as: "One of our fundamental values is commitment, which means for us ethics and professionalism, interest in the social problems of our environment, willingness to serve…" but what actually happens inside the company? The most common is that these phrases remain on paper as a dead letter that is not applied, the service is terrible, deliveries are not fulfilled in the established periods, the factory is polluting the neighboring stream, etc.
This reality allows us to appreciate that within companies and especially managers, they are not clear that shared values really are a competitive weapon and that rather they despise them to the point of considering them useless phrases for corporate performance that only serve to show occasionally to employees to make them feel a little better.
Organizational values. Organizational values are the conviction that the members of an organization have in terms of preferring a certain state of affairs over others (honesty, efficiency, quality, trust, etc.)
Shared organizational values affect performance in three key ways, they provide a stable base (guide) on which decisions are made and actions are executed; are an integral part of the value proposition of an organization to customers and staff and; motivate and energize staff to do their utmost for the well-being of their company. This creates a source of competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate since it is based on the organization's own unique values.
When values are aligned with performance, the people who work in a company present attitudes such as:
- Commitment to achieving quality and customer satisfaction Sense of belonging and responsibility in their actions They know that their opinion is heard They observe a direct connection between their work and the objectives of the firm
These attitudes and the fact of sharing the same values make the following benefits appear within the human talent of the company:
- High morale Trust Collaboration Productivity Success Accomplishment
This realization within the company opens the possibility of a better relationship with the environment, since it is seen as a successful organization in terms of non-traditional indicators such as responsibility towards the community and the environment, which also generates a greater capacity to attract, develop and keep human talent. But when values are only on paper and are not translated into consistent behaviors and decisions, the organizational climate deteriorates and leads to poor performance.
This is why it is important to know how to implement organizational values, since it is easier to define a series of "strategic sentences" than to practice them. In order for the values to be legitimized in the organization, they must be taken to the practical field, they must be applied in decision-making, in hiring, in customer care and service, in operations, etc.
If one has in the strategic plan that " One of our fundamental values is commitment, which means for us ethics and professionalism, interest in the social problems of our environment, provision of service…", then the company must seek, for example, that all its contracts are carried out with transparency, that its decisions are adjusted to an ethical basis, that its front-line employees provide excellent service to customers, that programmed delivery times are met, that social tasks are carried out with the families of employees, recycling factory waste…
The values identify the key priorities for the organization to survive and prosper, thus minimizing the expenditure of financial resources, energy and time, which often arise when there are decisions and operations that serve interests far from what is most important for the proper functioning of the company. organization. Milton rokeach
Values must be present throughout the company and must be instilled during the early stages of onboarding, and old staff must be constantly trained. But above all, the manager must set an example, rather than invest resources in training, because " nothing replaces the power of executive actions as a message of coherence and commitment to values "
Values and Success. Organizational values determine if the organization will be successful, when the members of the organization share a series of values united in a common sense of purpose or mission, they can have extraordinary results for the same
The values for each company are usually different, as well as their application and identification, but in general " Values make the company " Jack HaasThat is why it is important to put them into practice and that they are not just ink on paper.
Bibliography
- Felcman I. «Public organizational cultures. The case of the central public administration ”Harrington et al.,“ Putting people values to work ”The McKinsey Quarterly, 1996 No. 3, pp. 163-167 García S. and Dolan S. «management by values» McGrawHill, 1997 Jack Haas quoted by Rodrigo Fuenzalida in «organizational values» Rodríguez R. and others, «exploration of the organizational values present in the organizational culture of a tobacco factory in the province of villa clara, cuba »
