Module 2

Human Values

Value means something worthwhile or meaningful for someone. It means primarily to prize, to
esteem and to appreciate something to cherish and hold dear as guiding principles of life. In practice
different people value different things in their lives. One may throw away a piece of paper lying on
the road but may pick up a paper and keep with him / her very carefully the paper with the
photograph of his / her parents or his /her God. It implies that we value things or persons depending
on their utility for us.

Definition:

Saligman defined values “as basic convictions or a philosophy of an individual about what is and
what is not of real importance in life, shaping the meaning of life to that individual. They provide
evaluative criteria to individuals in defining desirable ends and the means to achieve them”.

Schwartz has defined human values as “Stable and long – lasting beliefs held by people about what is
important in variety of situations. They are evaluative standards that help people define what is right
or wrong, or good or bad, in the world.

Thus human values are basic and enduring convictions held by people as right or wrong and good or
bad to deal different situations linked with different aspects of their life. Values are assumed as
enduring truth that cannot be easily questioned. Values form the basis for ethical behaviour. They
serve as the guiding principles of life.

In practice individuals hold a number of values like honesty, integrity, freedom, comfort, happiness,
salvation etc. to deal with different situations relating to different aspects of life.

Importance of human values at work place:

The relevance and importance of human values in an organization was:

 Human values can influence the employee’s attitude at work place.

 Attitude so formed serve as ethical foundation of the employees. Ethical employees are
governed by their inner stints. Laws and acts are not needed much to govern their
behaviour.
 Employee’s ethics influences their ethical behaviour.
 Employee ethical behaviour improves their performance in both quantity and quality which
in turn benefit all stakeholders of organisation.
 Human values help in foster the feelings of brotherhood, oneness and, thus bind all
stakeholders together as family.
The importance of human values in organisation lies in the fact that these influence
employee attitudes and in turn their behaviour which in turn affects their performance. In
fact values serve as foundations for ethical behaviour of employees in an organization.
Employees join the organisation with a pre conceived notion of what ‘ought’ and what
‘ought not’ be. These notions are value laden.
 Values of work force:
1. Old values of work life:
Hard work, conservative, loyalty to the employer organisation
2. Present values of work force: Job satisfaction, leisure time, loyalty to relationships,
flexibility, success and achievement, ambition, loyalty to career.
3. Negative or positive values: Personal values denotes a sense of right or wrong, good or
bad and other judgmental criteria based on our strong sense of what the ideal ought to
be.
Negative values:
 Anger
 Meanness
 Arrogance
 Crookedness
 Greed
 Lust.
They generate negative thoughts.
Positive values:
 Integrity, honesty.
 Truthfulness
 Kind heartedness, humility
 Friendliness
 Faith
 Self-respect
 Open mindedness
 Creativity
 Simplicity
Ethics Committee:
In almost all organizations a standing committee is formed to consider the ethical
dimensions of companies and policies. The members of the committee include board of
directors and the main task of them is to inject ethics to the highest level of policy making in
the company and communicate the stake part about the ethical practices of the company.
In certain companies there is a standing committee to consider the ethical dimensions of
companies and policies called ethics committee. The committee is appointed by the board
which consists of Board of Directors.
The importance of this committee stems from two pertinent reasons:
 Ethics can be applied to the highest level of policy making in the company and
 They serve as the symbolic function that communicates to employees and external
stakeholders, the company’s formal commitment in making ethics as an important
hearing.
Features of values:
 Values are at the core of personality and are a powerful force affecting behaviour.
 Values contain a judgement element in that they carry an individual’s ideas as to what
is right or desirable.
  Values have both content and intensity attributes. The content attribute indicates
that a mode of conduct or end – state of existence is important. The intensity
attribute specifies how important it is.
 Values are not fixed but they change over time.
 Many values are relatively stable and enduring. This is because of the way in which
they are originally learned.
 All of us have a hierarchy of values that forms our value system. But everyone does
not hold the value system.
Importance of values:
The study of values is fundamental to the understanding of managing and organizational
behaviour. The value orientation of managers underlies managerial behaviour. Values are
pervasive because they involve in the selection of missions, goals and objectives. The job of
planning, organizing and controlling the behaviour of individuals should also be compatible
with manager’s values. Values lay the foundation for understanding of attitudes, motivation
and perceptions.
Fred E Fiedler’s theory of leadership effectiveness argues that managers cannot be expected
to adopt a particular leadership style if it is contrary to their “need structures” or value
orientations. Moreover manager’s values are reflected in the evaluation of subordinates.
Interpersonal activities of managers are based on different and contradictory values. Similarly,
various managerial strategies and behavioral patterns are characterized by particular value
orientations. Organizational conflicts can be solved by accommodating different values
between managers and workers.
Types of values:
According to M Rokeach (The Nature of Human Values, New York; Free Press, 1973) there are
two types of values:
 Instrumental values are those values concerning the way we approach end states.
These relate to means for achieving desired results. That is, do we believe in ambition,
cleanliness, honesty or disobedience, courage etc.
 Terminal values are those end state goals that we praise such as comfortable life, a
sense of accomplishment, equality among all people, self- respect, and family security.

Both sets of values have significant influence on daily behaviour at work.

People are influenced by a wide variety of personal values. In fact, it has been argued that
values represent a major influence on how we process information, how we feel about
issues, and how we behave. Below are listed two sets of statements of personal values. The
first lists present several instrumental values, while the second list presents terminal values.
Instrumental values:
 Assertiveness; standing up for yourself.
 Being helpful or caring towards others.
 Dependability; being counted upon by others.
 Education and intellectual pursuits.
 Hard work and achievement.
 Obedience; following the wishes of others.
 Open – mindedness; respectivity to new ideas.
  Self- Sufficiency; independence.
 Truthfulness; honesty.
 Being well – mannered and courteous towards others.
Terminal values:
 Happiness; satisfaction in life.
 Knowledge and wisdom.
 Peace and harmony in the world.
 Pride in accomplishment.
 Prosperity; wealth.
 Lasting friendships.
 Recognition from peers.
 Salvation; finding eternal life.
 Security; freedom from threat.
According to Jones, E. E. and Gerard (1967) anything “for which the individual
strives, or approaches, extols, embraces, voluntarily consumes, incurs expense to acquire is a
positive value. Anything that the individual avoids, escapes from, deplores, rejects, or attack is
a negative value.”
Personal values: Business leaders are surprised at the accusations of unethical behaviour of
today’s companies. Such as stock market manipulations, disregard of environmental hazards,
bribes and kick – backs, adulteration. To understand this we must understand the role of
values and personal ethics.
Personal values serve five purposes in organisation:
 Values serve as standards of behaviour: Values serve as standards of behaviour in
determining a correct course of action. Values place limits on our behaviour – ethical
behaviour. Employees have to make decisions concerning what to them right or
wrong, proper or improper.
 Guidelines for decision making and conflict resolution: Managers who value personal
integrity are less likely to make decisions they know to be injurious to someone else.
 Values affect our thoughts or actions: If the values are gracious, it consequently
reflects in actions of the person – excellence brings forth excellent rewards. If values
are not healthy, the quality of thoughts will be negative which will create only sorrow
and disaster.
 Value serve as an influence on employee motivation and influence perception:
Values affect employee motivation by determining what rewards are sought. Whether
I prefer overtime work money or free time with family.
 Values generally influence attitude and behaviour: An employee’s performance and
satisfaction are likely to be higher if his values fit well with the organisation.

Formulation of our values:

1. A significant portion is genetically determined say about 40 per cent.
2. Environmental factors: The rest is due to factors like culture, parental dictates,
teachers, friends, and similar environmental influences. In every culture certain values
have developed over time such as in USA – achievement, equity and democracy etc as
societal values. They change very slowly.
3. Values we hold are established in our early years – parents, teachers, friends, etc. on
topics as education, politics etc. For instance we are taught that lying and stealing is
always unacceptable. So values secure them firmly in our belief system.
4. As you grow old, values mat undergo change.
Person’s ethics are formulated through the operation of five key factors in the
individual’s environment:
1. Family influences: The formulation of ethics begins when the individual is a small child.
Thus, the family environment influence in determining what the child learns about
good or bad, right and wrong.
2. Peer influences: As child develops contacts outside the home through school. Play and
work, peers exert considerable influence on the individual’s ethical beliefs.
3. Experiences: As a person matures and develops as a human being, he or she will be
exposed to many critical experiences that will affect his or her ethical standards.
4. Values and morals: One’s ethical standards are influenced by values and morals.
People who value the quality of life enjoyed by all living creatures will probably have
strong ethics with respect to the proper treatment of others.
5. Situational factors: People often change their ethics in response to unforeseen
situational factors.