The process of developing and aligning organizational values
is trying to distinguish an individual’s values with the organization’s values.
Developing one’s values at an individual standpoint starts off with how the
individual was raised, their cultural background, and their personal beliefs.
Cha & Edmondson (2006) state, “. Values are also considered to be essential
to the experience of meaning. Furthermore, values are tied to the affective
system, such that “people feel happy when their important values are fulfilled.”
(p. 58) Now when it comes to aligning organizational values an organization
already has a set of values that they can match or follow. Denning (2011)
states that, “Sometimes personal and corporate values have substantial overlap,
and the overlap is mutually reinforcing.” (p.134) What this means is that both
personal and organizational values somewhat compensate each other all though
they are different.
The three basic components of an ethical community as
Denning describes (p. 132) are Trust, Loyalty, and Solidarity. In my
organization loyalty is already established. Loyalty is something I truly
believe in because of my loyalty to my country, organization, and fellow
soldiers. Loyalty is already established in my organization. My soldiers have
gone through thick and thin in order for them to establish their loyalty
amongst each other and the organization. Trust however, in my organization is somewhat
slipping away and needs to find it once again. It starts from the Top of the organization
and down. There are too much “political” games and favoring which soldiers see
and distrust the organization. An example would be when two soldiers are up for
promotion and you have one who has all the right schooling, Physical Fitness
scores, and an outstanding evaluation report. Then you have another soldier who
is close with the board members and does everything he can to sway decisions of
the promotion or what I call the “gopher” and squeeze whatever favors he needs
to give to get that promotion.Sure enough the second individual as described is the one
who gets the promotion. So instances like this needs to turn around for trust
to be instilled in the organization once again.
There are other situations that
occur but the one I just stated tops them all. To align them I would follow Shockley‐Zalabak
& Morreale (2011) 5 key drivers to having trust in an organization. They state
that the 5 key drivers to instill Trust in an organization are competence; my
organization needs to show the competence to do what is right. Second is Open
and Honesty; Being able to show this brings back trust in an organization by
having an individual feel comfortable. Third is Concern for Employees; This
ties into showing solidarity for one another. Fourth is reliability; and lastly
Identification; letting the employees know who the organization and leaders are.
Then finally the value of Solidarity is another one that
needs to be practiced. We have in the army “Selfless Service” which kind of
ties into one another. Solidarity is caring for others rather than one’s own
personal interest. (Denning, 2011) I know I practice this as I encourage my
peers to get promotion packets squared away, help them with their Physical
fitness test, and overall help them when they need it. I love competition and I
don’t like succeeding if I know the playing field wasn’t leveled. With encouraging
this type of playing field it will bring out the best of everybody in my
organization therefore producing results. Amos & Weathington (2008) state, “When
employees' values match those of their coworkers, employees report higher
levels of satisfaction. In addition, employees who perceive that their
supervisors' values are similar to their own were found to be satisfied with
their job.” (p. 616)
.
Trust, Loyalty, and Solidarity fortunately are taught in my
culture as we are such a small organization and island all together. So not too
much work is needed in developing them and using it within our organization as
it is already is a core belief amongst us.
References:
Amos, E. A., & Weathington, B. L. (2008). An analysis of
the relation between employee-organization value congruence and employee
attitudes. The Journal of Psychology, 142(6), 615-31. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/213828178?accountid=27203
Cha, S. E., & Edmondson, A. C. (2006). When values
backfire: Leadership, attribution, and disenchantment in a values-driven
organization. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(1), 57-78.
doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.10.006
Denning, S. (2011). The Leader's Guide to Story
Telling - Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative.
San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass
Shockley‐Zalabak, P. S., & Morreale, S. P. (2011).
Building high‐trust organizations. Leader to Leader, 2011(60), 39-45.
doi:10.1002/ltl.467
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