Promoting Organizational Values Framework

Organizations need to build and promote a ‘shared values framework’. This is a practical means to help organizations establish an appropriate management system by measuring where they are on the path to excellence, helping them to understand the gaps, and then identify solutions. This approach recognizes that stakeholder needs are met through processes. Value based process improvement is at the heart of any organizational development and it is through processes that the talents of people can be released, which in turn produces better performance. Improvement in performance can be achieved by involving people in the continuous improvement of the processes they work in.

Spreading Values-Popularity/Consensus
Using the work and insights from different value alignment sessions held across the organization, volunteers from these sessions should meet to reach consensus on the values and for developing value statements for each of these prioritized values. These volunteers will then draft value statements that are shared with all staff for feedback and refinement. Staff then discusses the draft value statements during organization-wide meetings, wherever possible. This total group then adopts organizational values by consensus vote when the organization believes their value statements are complete. Following the Values Alignment sessions and consensus agreement on the values, the leaders with staff, will:

- communicate & discuss the mission & organizational values frequently with staff members
-establish organizational goals that are grounded in the identified values;
- model personal work behaviours, decision making, contribution, and interpersonal interaction that reflect the values;
-translate the values into expectations, priorities, and behaviours with colleagues, reporting staff, and self;
-link participation in the adoption of the values and the behaviours that result, to regular performance feedback and the performance development process;
-reward and recognize staff members whose actions and accomplishments reflect the values in action within the organization;
-hire and promote individuals whose outlook and actions are congruent with these values; and
-meet periodically to talk about how the group is doing via living the identified values.

To check whether the values have permeated sufficiently the following must occur:

-People demonstrate and model the values in action in their personal work behaviours, decision making, contribution, and interpersonal interaction.
-Organizational values help each person establish priorities in their daily work life.
-Values guide every decision that is made once the organization has cooperatively created the values and the value statements.
-Rewards and recognition within the organization are structured to recognize those people whose work embodies the values the organization embraced.
-Organizational goals are grounded in the identified values.
-Adoption of the values and the behaviours that result is recognized in regular performance feedback.
-People hire and promote individuals whose outlook and actions are congruent with the values.

- Anshumali Saxena www.soilindia.net