Organisational behaviour is a field of study that investigates the impact of individuals, groups, and structures have on behavior within the organization. These impacts work towards the understanding, explaining and ultimately improving the organization’s effectiveness. In the modern workplace, there are many different trends that can affect the organization’s behaviors as a whole or at the employee level. One of the many trends that we will be looking at in this essay is the importance and influence of workplace values and ethics, and how values management can helps in an organization.
Workplace Values
McShane and Travaglione (2007) stated “values represent stable, long-lasting beliefs about what is important in a variety of situations.” They are a judgment of what is right or wrong, good or bad in different situations. Another definition stated by Clegg and Pitsis (2008) is “values are a person’s or social group’s consistent beliefs about something in which they have an emotional investment.” Both definitions have the same interpretations as values are guideline principles that affect a person’s behavior and decisions when different situations arise. These principles are influenced as a result of socialization and interaction with surrounding people and environment an individual is in. Therefore, organizational values refer to important principles that guide the behavior of the organization and are communicated and rewarded (Laurie & James 2007).
Importance of Values in Workplace
Workplace values are important as they create the company culture, define how we interact with other employees and the attitudes we adopt towards customers (Dawkins 2007, para. 1). There are a few reasons of why values have become a major trend that we must not overlook in an organization.
First reason is globalization. According to McShane and Travaglione, globalization has increased our awareness and sensitivity to differences in values across