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This presentation will examine the actual and potential role of non-utilitarian, people-based values as developed, practiced, and supported in business organizations. The case will be made for centering management practices on these kinds of values, to create a truly value-rich organiza­tion. In doing so, a clear distinction should be made between the definition of values to be used here and the subject of "business ethics." Business ethics concerns itself primarily with providing guidelines for behavior, usually how to avoid doing something that would be considered "wrong." Values, on the other hand, as used in this presentation, will refer to the underlying principles that motivate behavior, principles that are held to be important and worthwhile in and of themselves, beyond any "results" that they may produce.

Why Talk About Organizational Values? The Relevance and the Need

Why talk about such a "soft" topic as values at all when what we're really after is more efficient, effective organiza­tions? The answer is not simple, but is worth thinking through. Although it is certainly open to debate, it can be argued that all of the current organizational effectiveness ideologies are failing, by themselves, to reliably increase competitiveness. Evidence of this can be found in the way we restlessly search for the newest redemptive acronym to cure our organizational performance problems. From MRP II through JIT, TQM, the current rage for Reengineering, and everything in between, there has been no lack of good ideas for how to operate a manufacturing company. What then is missing?

There is an inherent conflict in the fact that, while each individual is a "whole person," in the context of organiza­tional performance, that individual is often required to leave a large portion of their "wholeness," including their values, at the door. In this kind of culture, the message is that people are valued only for their ability to function, and not for who they are. The paradox is that our values are what we consider to be most important, and therefore cannot simply be turned on and off. Therefore, many of us while at work suffer with the built-in stress of having to pretend that we're something we are not.

There are other negative effects of an organizational envi­ronment devoid of meaningful values. Some are purely individual. These include the anxiety, insecurity, and pain of working in a heartless, purely utilitarian work culture. Others have to do with organizational performance itself. People cannot give their deepest and best gifts in an environment in which they are treated as if they have little or no intrinsic worth. For all of these reasons it is worth considering building more value-rich organizations.

But doesn't cold, hard profitability have to be the only legitimate motivation for business organizational behav­ior? Certainly making a profit is necessary for any com­pany to survive. However an analogy can be made here to breathing. We must breathe to survive, but breathing in itself hardly constitutes a worthwhile reason for living. Perhaps we simply need more meaning in organizational life than just making a profit.

To be Continued