Corporate values: an important pillar of corporate culture
Personal values are the principles that define who we are. They are the pillars on which we build our professional and personal lives. They guide our choices, influence our actions and define what is authentic for us.
In a previous article, I explained how your employees’ personal values had an impact on their motivation at work.
But, generally speaking, what influence do these values have in the professional world?
What do values mean in the workplace?
Do they really have an impact in a professional context?
That’s what I’d like to explore in this article.
Contets
What do values mean in business?
Corporate values are the essential principles that guide a company in its decision-making and behaviour.
They generally reflect the vision of those at the top and create a specific culture, attracting customers and employees who share the same values.
They are essential for :
- Giving meaning,
- guide commitment and mobilisation,
- strengthen team cohesion,
- promote the company’s image and reputation, and
- inspire employees on a daily basis.
In short, corporate values help to create a unique corporate culture that sets a company apart from its competitors.
There are two main categories of corporate values:
- Outward-facing values, mainly aimed at customers, designed to promote the company’s image and reputation. For example, the “customer satisfaction” value demonstrates the commitment of the company and its employees to offering products and services that meet customer expectations.
- Internally-oriented values, which create a common identity among employees. For example, team spirit is an internal value that expresses the company’s desire to encourage collaboration within its teams.
In the day-to-day lives of employees, corporate values are reflected in the adoption of a general mindset and behaviour aligned with these values. It is important that the company’s stated values are perceived and lived by employees on a daily basis, to avoid any dissonance between stated values and concrete actions.
We’ll look at this a little later in this article.
Why are corporate values important?
As with personal values, corporate values act like a compass, guiding decisions and behaviour. These values can help guide the company’s strategy, define its corporate culture and attract and retain employees and customers. Values will also play a key role in motivating employees, giving them a sense of purpose and direction.
HBR France devoted a special report to this subject (April-May 2023 issue):
“When your company’s values are in line with your strategy and your employees’ values, the repercussions are numerous and positive. Employees are more satisfied with their jobs, turnover is lower, teamwork is better, communication is more effective, individual contributions to the organisation are greater, negotiations are more productive and, perhaps surprisingly, there is more diversity, equity and inclusion”.
If you are a subscriber to HBR France, you can find the article here: What are your company values?
At a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit, motivate and retain employees, I think it would be interesting to look at the internal levers that companies can use to recreate an attractive and fulfilling working environment.
Corporate values play an important role in this process.
As I said earlier, corporate values serve as a guide for making decisions and directing actions. They help to define the company’s strategy in line with its fundamental principles.
And when values are aligned with strategy and shared by employees, they reinforce coherence and a common direction within the organisation.
These same values will contribute to the creation of a corporate culture that is unique and distinct from others. A strong, positive corporate culture that encourages employee commitment and creates a sense of belonging.
These values will also play an important role in attracting and retaining teams. Employees are attracted to companies whose values resonate with their own.
These values will also provide employees with meaning and direction. They enable them to understand the impact of their work and to feel valued.
When employees are aligned with the company’s values, they are more motivated, productive and fulfilled in their work.
In this second part of the article, I offer 2 examples of the impact of values in the professional world:
- Motivation (… and therefore business performance 😉).
- Well-being (… and therefore business performance 😉).
Aligning values fosters motivation, commitment and performance
To stimulate motivation and performance at work, it is important to establish congruence between the values, needs and tasks assigned to each employee.
When our personal values and needs are in line with the responsibilities entrusted to us, this can boost our motivation. That’s right! Because in this situation, our work reflects what we believe in, and that gives us a sense of personal and professional fulfilment.
The direct consequence: this feeling of fulfilment makes us want to surpass ourselves every day, which will have a positive impact on our performance.
Conversely, when conflicts arise between our personal values and the activities we have to carry out in our job, this can lead to a drop in motivation and performance. The activities to be carried out become meaningless or in contradiction with what we believe in, and we tend to become demoralised and demotivated.
In this situation, consciously or unconsciously, we will reduce the amount of time spent on tasks that have no meaning for us. As a result, our performance and productivity will suffer.
Aligning our personal values with our work gives us a feeling of autonomy and control that stimulates our intrinsic motivation. This refers in particular to the 3 components of intrinsic motivation developed by Dan Pink in the Drive book.
When we feel we are choosing the direction of our efforts and acting in accordance with what matters to us, our performance naturally improves. Conversely, value conflicts can lead to stress and disengagement, two enemies of productivity.
It’s not easy to align the personal values of each individual with those of their company. In fact, I don’t think the aim is to have exactly the same values – it’s not really possible. Quite simply because each value is unique and intrinsically linked to the person, their history and their past experiences.
On the other hand, it is entirely possible to find an alignment between personal values and corporate values. The idea is for these values to be congruent. These two types of values can be perfectly compatible and accepted, without being identical 😉
If you want to know more about this subject, I invite you to read this blog post: Values, a fundamental pillar of motivation.
Let’s move on to the second example.
Values Dissonance impacts motivation, commitment and performance
When our personal values are not aligned with our corporate values, we can experience value dissonance.
Values dissonance is when our personal beliefs or values come into conflict. This can happen if the company’s values are contradictory or incompatible with those of its employees. A feeling of tension or discomfort then begins to emerge.
This dissonance of values can have a number of consequences in your day-to-day life.
Here are a few examples:
For employees
- Loss of confidence: When employees see a gap between the values espoused by the company and its actual actions, this can lead to a loss of confidence in management and the organisation as a whole.
- De-motivation and disengagement: Employees can feel disappointed and demotivated when they see that the stated values are not put into practice. This can lead them to lose interest in their work and the company, which has a negative impact on productivity and performance.
On the company side
- Impact on brand image: A dissonance between stated values and concrete actions can have a negative impact on a company’s brand image. It’s important to remember that employees are the first ambassadors of a company’s brand. And also that customers are increasingly attentive to a company’s values. If a company is perceived as not respecting its own values, this can lead to a drop in trust and loyalty.
- Difficulties in recruiting and retaining employees: Potential candidates are increasingly attentive to a company’s values and culture when choosing an employer. If a company is perceived as having a dissonance between its stated values and its concrete actions, it may have difficulty attracting and retaining these profiles.
What we need to remember is that the dissonance between personal and corporate values can have a significant impact on motivation, commitment and performance 😉. When the values displayed in the company do not match our personal values, tension and unease can arise within us. This will not only have repercussions for the company, but above all for ourselves if we are not careful.
It is therefore important for companies to ensure that they align their stated values with their concrete actions in order to foster a harmonious and motivating working environment.
As in the personal sphere, values play an essential role in business and can make a major contribution to the creation of a stimulating culture and environment.
Don’t neglect them!
If you would like to carry out an audit of your company’s culture, please contact me so that we can discuss it together.
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