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Reflection #1

Amal Dev Chellukunnath Vasudevan

8748685

BUS8020-21S-Sec6-Organizational Behaviour

Professor: Mary Ann Monney

25th June 2021

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The Concept of Value

In organizational Behaviour we discuss several topics such as emotion, personality,
values, perceptions, personality, motivation, review, job design and many more. In this
reflection I will be dealing with the topic Value.
Value can be simply defined as the judgmental element of an individual’s idea as to
what is right, good, or desirable. Values have tow attributes, content, and intensity. The
content attribute talks about the mode of conduct or that an end- state of existence is
important. The intensity attribute talks about how important that value is. The values in
terms of intensity of a person can be ranked and by this process we can find a person’s
value system. Everyone keep a hierarchy of values depending upon the relative
importance that is assigned to values such as freedom, self-respect, honesty, equality,
and pleasure.
Most of our values we uphold are formed in the early years of our lives, with the
influence from our parents, teachers, friends, and others. As children we were told that
certain character/behaviour is desirable in a person, and some are less desirable.
studies have shown that some of the values may be determined by genetically
transmitted traits. If a person questions his/ her values, there are chances that the
values may change but most of the time it will only help in making it stronger. Examples
for change in values; talking to a person covered in tattoos was considered less
desirable while I was growing up and now it is no more a less desirable value, another
example is interacting with a transgender was considered bad in while growing up and
now it is no more less desirable. (Nancy et al.,2019, p.82)
For understanding values, we can use these two frameworks:
1. Milton Rokeach’s terminal and instrumental values (Rokeach value survey)
2. Kent Hodgson’s general moral principles.
Milton Rokeach’s terminal and instrumental values
Milton Rokeach created the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS), the survey consists of
terminal values and instrumental values, and each containing 18 individual value items.
The instrumental values consist of:
 A comfortable life (a prosperous life)

 An exciting life (a stimulating, active life)

 A sense of accomplishment (lasting contribution)

 Equality (brotherhood, equal opportunity for all)

 Inner harmony (freedom from inner conflict)

 Happiness (contentedness)
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Instrumental values consist of modes of behaviour such as

 Ambitious (hard-working, aspiring)

 Broad-minded (open-minded)

 Capable (competent, effective)

 Courageous (standing up for your beliefs)

 Imaginative (daring, creative)

 Honest (sincere, truthful)6

We all place values on both the terminal values and instrumental vales, and a balance
between both is important. (Nancy et al.,2019, p.82)
Kent Hodgson’s general moral principles
Even though Hodgson’s general moral principles relates to the study of ethics it has
relevance in value, since moral principles guide our values. Hodgson’s general moral
principles talks about seven principles that a person should follow while making
decisions. He called it as ‘the magnificent seven’. (Nancy et al.,2019, p. 83)

Real life application of the concept.

I would Iike to narrate real-life experience of values that my friend Pranav Mohan
experienced in his workplace. Pranav is currently working in the H.R department for the
company Ernst & Young India (EY). He joined EY after completing MBA in H.R and he
has awork experience of about 4 years. The months March and April are the most
hectic time of the year for him. It is when the company will be reviewing their employees
and setting up the plan for the coming financial year. During these months he will be
stuck at work for more than 12 hours a day. It is really tiering, and workload is immense.
By the end of April, the employees including Pranav will be pushed to their limits.
Understanding that the employees such as Pranav worked hard in setting the plan for
the financial year and finished the employee reviews, EY give them a huge bonus and
few days off. For Pranav this was a recognition of the effort he had put in and he felt
valued by the company. It also gave him the motivation to continue working there.
Another factor according to Pranav that adds value to the work is, his work environment.
Everyone in his department knows each other and they have more of an informal
communication between them. Even during the pandemic period where everyone was
working from home, they kept contact with each other and helped one another. This
gave him and others a feeling of belonging.

I would suggest the organization to relook in the following.

 Organization should try to reduce the load management.
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It is very important that organization understand the amount of stress and work
pressure its employees are going through at the financial year end and come up with
a different work practice so that the work will be more evenly spread. That way
employees need not have to work extra hours at the end of financial year to
complete their work. This will give the employees more freedom, and satisfaction at
work without stressing about the workload, this will not only maintain the goodwill of
the organization but also create a trust, job satisfaction, and maintain the employee
retention.
 Organization need restructure the employee evaluation from annual to at least
quarterly.
Restructuring is very difficult task for and organization, but this will be beneficial
for the company as well as the employees. By making the employee reviews
quarterly the company can have a better understanding of its employee
performance. When considering the aspect from employee perspective by
making the review quarterly they will be able to analyze their work and improve it,
and also, they can escape from the hectic workload of annual reviews. This in
turn will be beneficial for the company to reach its goal.

Reference
1. Langton, N. Robbins, S., and Judge T. (2019) Canadian Organizational
Behaviour (8th ed.) Canada: Pearson Canada Inc.