Values and Staff Commitment

Introduction

It is probably fair to say that people are not particularly bullish about the financial services sector at the moment. And that even includes people who work in it! Over the last few months in my capacity as an executive coach I have met a number of senior personnel from UK banks who are clearly nervous about telling people what they do for a living. So the reputation of the City is on the floor and it probably needs to think seriously about ways in which confidence in it can be restored.

Perhaps it needs to take a long hard look at itself and ask if it is proud of its values.  Insulated from public opinion for too long, have financiers legitimised cultures underpinned by values based purely on individual gain? It is unlikely that any business can be sustainable if it operates by a different set of values to the rest of society. And does the sector fully understand the impact that such values have on the morale and commitment of its staff?

This short article will suggest that by shifting the focus from values that have a clear individual focus such as power and achievement, to those that are of benefit to wider society such as universal and vision type values, the sector may be able to create a happier more committed workforce while also restoring its reputation. To support this argument, the author will call on research conducted in the UK charity sector. First, it is important to understand what individual and organisational values are.

Individual Values

At an individual level beliefs and values affect how we conduct ourselves in social situations and therefore play a crucial role in determining the sort of person we are. A person who highly values ambition and accomplishment, for example, is likely to behave differently to someone who values cooperation and courtesy. Values also drive our universal goals such as moral integrity and social justice. Values are, therefore, a justification for how we live our lives. They are also a guide against which we judge our own behaviour and the behaviour of others.

Values can also be a source of motivation and inspiration and as such help to give us a sense of who we are. In building our identity we develop relationships with individuals and organisations that reinforce our sense of self. Values alignment plays an important part in this process. Because values are held at an unconscious level, however, we are not always aware of the effect that our values are having on our own behaviour and on the way in which we interact with others. Raising awareness of our values by bringing them to a conscious level is important because it helps us to gain a better understanding of ourselves. With a growing interest in ‘authentic leadership’, values questionnaires are often at the heart of leadership and executive development.

The work of Schwartz (1992) clearly divides values into those that are in the interest of the individual and those that have more of a collective focus. In the diagram below the values types on the left hand side are driven by individual need (power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation and self-direction) while those in the middle of the right hand side are driven by the needs of the group (benevolence, conformity and tradition). Universalism and security type values can have either an individual or collective focus.

As values are the basis upon which we are judged by others, the types of values that we hold require careful thought and consideration. This is particularly true of leaders as it is their values that set the moral tone of their organisations and determine whether they are the type of places which people will wish to join. The next section will explore the relationship between individual values and the values that drive the organisations that we work for.

Organisational Values

In recent years there has been considerable interest in the importance of values in developing effective organisations. It has been argued that there is a relationship between an organisation having strong, identifiable values and corporate success. Organisational values are also said to be important in terms of employee commitment, an important variable in relation to absenteeism, turnover and job satisfaction. In fact, commitment itself is said to be a ‘strong belief in and acceptance of the organisation’s goals and values’. Of particular interest is that Collins and Porras claim that the difference between good and visionary companies is that the latter have core values that have a humanist or likeable quality.

Whilst organisational values are considered to be a set of values shared by its members, they originate as the values of the founder or leader (Schein 1985). It is essential therefore that leaders and senior executives are clear about what their values are and are confident about being able to defend them in the face of public scrutiny. In a recent piece of research conducted in Denmark staff were asked what they valued compared to what they believed the organisation valued. Whilst staff valued satisfaction, love and peace of mind, they felt that the organisation they worked for valued only power and success. The CEO who was also present during the research was horrified and felt he should resign. The researcher concluded that the values to which many companies aspire may alienate not only their staff, but may not even reflect the true values of the leaders themselves. He suggests that leaders arrive at work, hang their own values on a hook outside their office and don for the day a separate set of work values.

A recent piece of research conducted with two UK charities clearly demonstrates that particular types of organisational values can play a significant role in driving high levels of staff commitment.

Charity Research

Research was conducted with an animal charity and an employment charity for people with disabilities to establish the relationship between organisational values and staff commitment. In particular it sought to explore the types of values that are driving behaviour.

Values questionnaires were distributed to a total of 286 staff across the two charities. From a list of 30 values, respondents were asked to rate the importance of each value to the charity. A set of four groups of values emerged from the analysis that explained the majority of the commitment of staff in both organisations. These groups or types of values are: compliance (obedience, formality, moderate, orderliness, cautiousness, economy, humble), vision (development, creativity, adaptability, autonomy, aggressiveness, logic), benevolence (cooperation, consideration, courtesy, forgiveness), and humanity (protecting the environment, world peace, social justice, moral integrity) type values.

In the case of the animal charity it was humanity type values that had the greatest impact upon staff commitment. Organisation humanity values accounted for 28% of committed behaviour. In the case of the employment charity for people with disabilities, vision type values such as autonomy and adaptability drove a staggering 38% of staff commitment.

So what do these figures mean? Let’s take the animal charity first. In their promotional materials and on their website, this organisation claims to protect animals from abuse and to alleviate suffering. It also claims that every animal should be valued. These sentiments are underpinned by strong humanity type values that relate not to the emotional needs of individuals but to more universal goals that create a fairer and more just society. As humanity values are driving such high levels of staff commitment, the findings suggest that these are not only idle words, but are values that genuinely underpin how the organisation behaves. In the case of the employment charity for people with disabilities their website claims that their aim is to empower the individual and to provide the resources for people to realise their potential. Again, the high levels of staff commitment explained by organisation vision values suggest that the charity is acting according the values that it espouses. In both cases therefore, by having values that focus on the needs of society rather than on those that relate to individual gain make, these two charities have created highly committed workforces.

Conclusions

In conclusion therefore, if the financial sector is to restore its reputation it may need to reflect on the principles that guide its behaviour. After all, Collins and Porras argue that visionary companies have values that do not focus on the needs of the individual but have a humanist or universal quality. There is empirical evidence from the charity sector that organisational values of fairness, justice, creativity and development are responsible for driving high levels of commitment amongst the staff force. As values originate from society it is unlikely that the values that drive commitment in the charity sector are totally different from those that drive commitment in other sectors. City financiers may need to start asking what is the true cost of their million pound bonuses?

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