The Importance of Establishing Corporate Values

Clear and agreed-upon values can keep an organization and its people on track. Values provide guidelines for decision-making and behavior, and answer questions such as, “What do I want to live my life by and how?” But the values need to be clearly described and consistently acted upon to be beneficial. They also must resonate with the personal values of those working in the organization, and they must support the organization’s purpose in order to be relevant. To become cemented in the organization’s culture, everyone must be held accountable for living up to and demonstrating the companies’ values in their day-to-day actions. But a survey of 800 leaders conducted by The Ken Blanchard Companies revealed that only 27 percent agreed or strongly agreed that this was occurring in their organizations.

In my organization, employees are held accountable for demonstrating company values.
• 5% Strongly Disagree
• 10% Disagree  
• 8% Slightly Disagree
• 19% Slightly Agree  
• 20% Agree
• 7% Strongly Agree
• 31% No Answer  

One problem is that organizations can either have too many values or too few. Research by The Ken Blanchard Companies has shown that people can’t focus on more than three or four values in their work environment. Another problem is that often the values aren’t rank ordered. Rank ordering is important because it establishes a priority, that will guide decision-making and behavior, especially in a situation that involves conflict and choices between alternatives. By involving employees in the process of determining values and by limiting the number, then rank ordering the values, organizations will find they create buy-in as well as the behaviors they want to see.
 
For more information, visit www.kenblanchard.com