Organisational values

Just as the Australian government is implementing a ‘values test’ for immigrants, in the course of my work in developing strategies for organisations, I’ve been asked by a few clients to implement a similar ‘values test’ in order to check the ‘purity’ of the organisation’s values in their employees. After all, they say, it reflects the organisation’s health and can contribute directly to its growth or failure.

This request always has me stumped. Can there really be a ‘values test’ to check the ‘purity’ of the values in the employees of an organisation?

I’m not sure if there is such a test or method or tool. I’m not even sure if this is the right way to approach the subject. Values checks are done through elaborate processes, but what we check depends on the purpose. The danger usually lies in the temptation to identify and weed out dissidents… a political agenda, if I’ve ever seen one. And, in doing so, building an organisation of ‘yes men’ which is usually detrimental to the organisation’s growth.

Whatever be the values, I believe, we first need to check whether the top management possesses these organisational values that it speaks of. So I ask them, do the members of the top management themselves exhibit these values in their day-to-day operations and in their behaviour with their people?

The top management balks at this question. It becomes defensive. Needless to say, the first person to be identified and weeded out as a dissident is me.