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How to Move in the Direction of a Value-Centered Organization

This is a most difficult endeavor, because for so long we have defined organizational purpose purely in terms of producing a positive economic outcome. Our collective business culture is deeply imbued with a competitive, heartless ethos of winning at all costs, and if some of the costs appear high, well, that's "just business." So there are few models to guide us.

Any work toward building a value-centered organization must be undertaken very carefully, with full awareness of the potential problems and pitfalls discussed above. Top management should be at least supportive, and at best fully committed, since concepts will be discussed that are often considered to be outside the scope of life in business.

One way to start would be to borrow some of the method­ology used in strategic planning. This could begin with a visioning process to produce a vision for the organizational values, utilizing brainstorming sessions, then more fo­cused discussion groups to narrow the ideas down to the few that matter the most. This should, of course, be as participative as possible. Once a vision is formulated, this can be extended into strategies for implementation, by considering especially the overall culture, and the specific personnel policies, management practices, etc., that to­gether define how people are treated within the organiza­tion. This entire process will require the capability to engage in true dialogue—open, inclusive, and free of puni­tive consequences.

Another step in the process could be to develop internal and external ethical guidelines, describing how all stakeholder groups are to be treated. This would also have to be done carefully to avoid creating a lot of restrictive injunctions that could impede communication. The goal here is not to create some kind of "politically correct" organization, but one in which people can be themselves and make their full contribution.

For communicating and implementing a set of organiza­tional goals, a very participative approach is required, for fairly obvious reasons. Various means can be used to accomplish this. One approach that may be useful, al­though quite a leap from normal business culture, is to use a series of steps that describe different aspects of living out a commitment to organizational values. One such example is based on the model of the 12-step support group, origi­nated by Alcoholics Anonymous and used by a large number of different types of support groups. A sample of a 12-step formulation adapted for business organizations is avail­able from the author on request.

Another good source of ideas is the book Managing From The Heart by Hyler Bracey [4]. This is a book in the "business fiction" genre which describes how one man changes his management style from a hard-line "theory X" manner to something very different. In the process, he is "led" to discover a set of maxims on how to interact with people in organizational life that together form a manage­ment approach referred to by the book's title.

Yet another model to investigate is that of "community building" described by Peck [5]. In this approach, people learn how to "form community" with each other based on both their profound differences and common humanity. This approach stresses that our differences should not be hidden, suppressed, or "papered-over," but must be en­countered deeply and accepted. As a fortunate result of this process, a group which has built community can be very effective in accomplishing a task.

All of these ideas are indications, suggestions, sparks to the imagination. In truth we don't have any well-accepted andproven methods for creating more value-centered manage­ment styles and organizations, and therefore any efforts to this end are of necessity somewhat pioneering and will require a pioneering kind of courage and persistence.

Conclusion

There is widespread organizational dysfunction in our business culture today. Most of this dysfunction directly affects organizational performance, and much of it impacts the quality of working life for the people within the orga­nization . Throughout all of our attempts to apply new ideas and new practices to the task of changing companies to become more effective at accomplishing their goals, we have largely retained a purely utilitarian model of organi­zational behavior which values people solely for their functioning and output, and not for their "personhood." Although Peters and Waterman discovered that "strong core values" were a trait of exceptionally effective compa­nies [3], this insight tends to get lost in the scramble to restructure and reengineer. Many psychologists have confirmed the common-sense principle that people can only give their best in an environment in which they feel accepted, valued, and relatively safe. Many of today's business organizations do not meet these criteria, and therefore prevent themselves from getting the full benefits of their most valuable asset. It's time to look at the human aspect of organizations, to evolve value-centered manage­ment approaches, and begin to build value-centered orga­nizations. Perhaps then we may be able to win the hearts and minds of those who work and live within business organizations to the task of making those organizations more effective and competitive.