During a trip to the Jordanian capital to participate in the conference on Prophetic Values, organized by the Heritage Revival Society in cooperation with the Private Applied Sciences University, I answered the usual question, “What is your field of work?” with “I work in enhancing organizational culture based on value systems.” The reaction to my answer was a wry smile, not directed at me as much as it reflected the miserable reality. He quickly advised me to think of another job, as this is a field where hardly anyone would request a service or product. What makes some people view discussing organizational values in the work environment as a luxury or a futile effort?
It goes without saying that organizational values are one of the pillars of desired change in the strategic transformation of institutions across the three sectors: public, private, and non-profit. They are also a cornerstone of the organizational culture that supports leadership in achieving strategies and targets. As Peter Drucker says, if the prevailing culture in an organization is not imbued with a system of values, the strategy is its first victim. Through participating in providing consultancy and training services to several entities served by Al-Ruwad Company for Value Building, and through discussions, workshops, and reviewing experiences, this can be attributed to a number of reasons, including:
Awareness of Importance
There is a lack of awareness about the importance of organizational culture and values. This is due to either neglecting them in announcements and publicity, unlike the attention given to vision, mission, and goals, or they are merely words decorating the institution’s walls and websites. Alternatively, owners and leaders may adopt behaviors that contradict the declared value system. Ignorance of importance may not be limited to unwillingness to change, but may reach the level of hostility, as humans are enemies of what they ignore. Therefore, at Al-Ruwad Company for Value Building, we aim to build awareness and correct concepts about value, demonstrate its benefits and positive returns from practicing it in reality, and clarify the danger of behaviors that oppose it, as judgment on something is a branch of its conception.
“If the prevailing culture in the organization is not imbued with a system of values, the strategy is its first victim”
Value Need
The existence of pre-made systems, taken during strategic planning and roadmap building, without considering the extent of need for them, or their level of service to objectives directly or indirectly. They may also be just personal convictions of the owners, and although this is fundamental in forming the organizational value system, it is not sufficient unless supported by a study of best practices and experiences, and a qualitative analysis of each value and how it can serve the goal, what initiatives and programs it can offer. Therefore, methodical work requires that the organizational value system stems from an actual need, fills a gap in the future direction of the institution, and helps achieve targets.
Alignment with Work Environment
Awareness of the importance of organizational values may exist at high levels, and the system may have been built methodically and soundly, but has it been defined in a way that suits the field of work, the organization’s directions, and its appropriateness for the services and products it provides to beneficiaries? Has the mention of its sub-components been considered? For example, integrity as a value includes time management as one of its sub-components. Wasting time during work hours by browsing social media sites and the resulting mental distraction and lack of self-discipline entails a waste of money and loss of beneficiaries’ time and their suffering in obtaining the required service, which may extend its effects to far levels in their personal lives. Therefore, aligning the definition of each value, no matter how widespread and prevalent in the global work field, is of utmost importance and helps in determining the behavior required from the individual towards it.
“At Al-Ruwad Company for Value Building, we provide dozens of tools, including training programs”
Costs of Promoting Values
The financial cost of promoting the value system in the work environment is one of the factors that create pressure for some leaders and owners, whether after approving a budget for building and promoting values, or with the existence of a budget, the mind turns to the idea that training is the only tool for empowering values. Here, at Al-Ruwad Company for Value Building, we provide dozens of tools, including training programs, which are less costly and more impactful. Although working with a value-driven motivation establishes, according to sound rules, protection for the institution in cases of breakdown, regression, or contraction, where the individual who is functionally integrated and feels a work environment that contains, appreciates, encourages, and recognizes their efforts, and is dominated by a healthy atmosphere, proves to have sincere loyalty and the ability to be patient and adapt in difficult times.
Values in Administrative Work Procedures
The weak reflection of organizational value implications in the organization’s procedures is evident; they are not present in talent recruitment or retention processes, job cards, annual and periodic evaluation forms, promotions, and so on. If there are references to them, they are weak, not providing the minimum awareness that each value requires specific competencies, so that we can say this individual has acquired the value. Therefore, the presence of the value system with the meaning of each value, and the behaviors and competencies it requires that accompany the individual from the moment they wish to apply for work in the organization until their retirement, is necessary and vital, and makes them move with an internal motivation to acquire all that the value requires in terms of awareness, emotion, belief, behavior, and skill.
“The system should include other values that address aspects of strength; such as innovation, creativity, excellence, relationships, mastery, and others”
Values Lead
Many employees feel that talking about values is actually an additional burden on them according to the tasks they are assigned, and this is the result of a limited vision, as the mind turns to the idea that values are confined to the aspect of honesty and fulfillment of obligations, integrity and safety from any negligence or violation, although the system should include other values that address aspects of strength; such as innovation, creativity, excellence, relationships, mastery, and others. But with a careful look, the individual finds that values help them in self-improvement, building and developing their abilities, investing seriously and with insight in themselves, and help them reduce psychological conflict and bias towards the principles that call them, which contributes to their mental health and self-satisfaction.
Enumeration of Tools
One of the reasons is that the impact resulting from implementing a number of programs to promote values and acquire them in the work environment needs several factors to be available, such as: the time frame for change, the presence of inspiring leaders who adopt this culture, and the implementation of educational tools to share knowledge and spread value culture, which can take a span of time beyond training, with less cost. Also, large institutions preferably should appoint value ambassadors, to whom knowledge is transferred, and who then lead reinforcing programs and events. One of the fundamental reasons outside the organization’s environment is that talk about values is generally loose talk that is not based on sound scientific methodologies, does not focus on a comprehensive view in building appropriate content, and does not focus on the four dimensions of values; cognitive and emotional, belief and behavioral, and the writer or speaker about them does not differentiate according to the environment in which the individual lives, considering everyone the same, and this causes confusion in the vision of the individual reader or listener. Therefore, the organizational culture that includes a value system is one of the components of the strategic direction of the organization, and one of its important levers in achieving its targets, and that talking about values is not just an announcement, but practices in which the actions of leaders are supported by employees and with procedures and preparation of the incubating environment. When this exists, the return on investment in this field can be observed, measured, and built upon, which is what many government, private, and non-profit sector institutions seek.