Organizational Behaviour About Values

With the increased globalisation of business, people attach more and more importance to the values in the workplace through different areas. Values represent basic convictions that ‘a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence (Robbins, 2001,p.62).’ In other words, a person’s values can tell him or she right from wrong or what ‘ought ‘ to be. This essay will summarise , synthesise compare and contrast different authors’ views on values and conclude with a personal opinion and reflection on how it influence our business life.

Different Types of values
We can classify values in may forms .Several decades ago ,Milton Rokeach created the Rokeach Value Survey which consist of two sets of values , with each set containing 18 individual value items. One set is called terminal values which is the goals that a person would like to achieve during his or her life-time while the other is called instrumental values which refers to preferable modes of behaviour or means of achieving the terminal values(Robbins,2001 , p.71).

However, the RVS was neither accurate nor useful, another model of values came out. It’s developed and tested by social psychologist Shalom Schwartz and his colleagues. Schwartz reported that human values are organised into a circular model which organises values into ten broad categories and these categories are further reduced to two bipolar dimensions. One dimension has the opposing value domains of openness to change and conservation. The other bipolar dimension has the opposing value domains of self-enhancement and self-transcendence (McShane, Olekalns & Travaglione,2010,p.60).

Furthermore, Hunt ( 2004 ,p.75) presents a more recent values schema ,developed by maglino and associates ,is aimed at people in the workplace: achievement, helping and concern for others, honesty and fairness. The four values have been shown to be especially important in the workplace.

Values across cultures
Enterprises nowadays are faced with workforce challenges of diversification and globalization of markets. As values differ across cultures, an understanding of these differences should be helpful in explaining and predicting behaviour of employees from different countries. We may take ‘loyalty’ for example. Japanese employees may think that the loyalty to their company always comes first. It’s even more important for them to be loyal to the collective than to the politics and their family. On the contrary, Korean may be more faithful to their boss while the loyalty to the family and other individuals play an much more significant role in American.

Geert Hofsted surveyed more than 116,000 IBM employees in 40 countries about their work related values and found that managers and employees vary on five value dimensions of national culture as follows: power distance , individualism versus collectivism, quantity of life versus quality of life ,uncertainty avoidance ,long-term versus short-term orientation (Robiins,2001 , p.66)

The values that I have
Values often influence attitudes and behaviour .Although I am still a student, I lay much emphasis on cultivating my own character and values. Privately, I think I am a flexible person that can quickly be accustomed to a new working environment. I am creative and dare to take a try. When faced some difficulties, I can soon calm down and think of every possible way to handle it. I do want to enter the organization whose dominant values are similar to mine. As McShane, Olekalns & Travaglione (2010 ,p.62)pointed out ,this form of value congruence is important for organisations because employees whose value are similar to the dominant organisational values are more likely to make decisions compatible with the organisation’s value-based mission and objectives. It also leads to higher job satisfaction, loyalty and organisational citizenship, as well as lower stress and employee turnover.

Main influential factors
Parents, friends, teachers and external reference groups can all influence individual values . As learning and experiences differ from one person to another, value differences result. Such differences are likely to be deep seated and difficult to change, many have their roots in early childhood and the way a person has been raised (Hunt,2004 ,p.73).

There are many factors that may have influence my values. Such as the working environment ,the attitude towards work that my colleague may have and the advises my mother gave me etc. If people surrounding me all work really hard and behave very competitive, I may do my best to try to stand out. However ,if they are all content with things as they are , I may hang around all day and accomplish nothing.

Also, Francesco (2003, p.9) claims that value judgements are culturally biased assessments of behaviour, it’s pointless to pretend that people escape culture. My living background leads the direction that I may behave. My education can tell me what ‘ought’ to do and what ‘ought not ‘ to do. But it can change if I move to a strange country or time goes by ,some differences may make me uncomfortable but I will try to be Adapted to the present situation.

Summary
In conclusion, as a stable, evaluative belief that guide our preferences an action, having the basic knowledge of values plays an vital role in dealing with issues that across different cultures. In today’s fast-moving world, we should try to find the value congruence between individuals and organizations to create a better environment of workplace.

Reference List
McShane, Olekalns & Travaglione ,2010 , ‘Organizational behaviour on the Pacific rim’, North Ryde, N.S.W. : McGraw-Hill,
Stephen P. Robbins , 2001 , ‘Organizational behaviour’ ,Qinghua University Press , Beijing .
James G. Hunt, 2004, ‘Organizational behaviour’ ,Qinghua University Press , Beijing .
Debra L. Nelson & James Campbell Quick, 2004 ,’ Organizational behaviour : Foundations , Dealities & Challenges ‘ ,Citic Publishing House, Beijing
Anne Marie Francesco, 2003,’International Organizational Behaviour ‘,Qinghua University, Beijing