The challenge of finding the right employees and creating conditions in which diverse talents and skills are best fostered and utilized is more pressing than ever for companies.
Against this backdrop, corporate values are gaining momentum. At the same time, following allegations of greenwashing, “purpose-washing” is now emerging as a criticism of companies that present their brand as particularly value-oriented or socially engaged without actually doing much for it. When employees and consumers notice this, trust is quickly lost.
According to our observations, however, there is often no intentional deception behind it. Genuine, authentic value orientation does not necessarily fail due to a lack of seriousness in defining values, but rather due to a lack of clarity regarding what values are actually for and how they can be sustainably implemented within the company.
The benefit of clearly defined and honestly lived corporate values lies only secondarily in the creation of attractive employer branding messages. Primarily, they are identity-forming internally and thus have a positive influence on customer relationships, employee retention, and ultimately on market success.
Authentically lived values therefore benefit companies in several ways:
-
They provide a clear description, understandable to all stakeholders, of how a company intends to fulfill its mission beyond economic goals
-
They create a foundation for identification for all employees and thus strengthen the sense of belonging
-
They provide management with guidance for strategic and operational decisions
-
They help to shape relationships with stakeholders in a sustainably positive way
The great challenge lies in authentically living the defined values. One of our clients puts it this way: “As long as I don’t see something changing in the actions of the employees through our newly defined values, our values are nothing more than words.”
Under what conditions, however, do values develop the positive impact described above?
Criteria
From the experience of numerous consulting projects, we observe the following criteria that are decisive for the success or failure of authentic value orientation:
PARTICIPATION IN VALUE DEFINITION:
Companies have a culture and underlying values, regardless of whether these have been codified in the past or not. A look at the company history and the involvement of employees from all areas of the company prevent the formulation of unrealistic values. This gives employees the opportunity to engage with the question of what is personally important to them in their work for the organization.
CLARITY AND CONSISTENCY:
If corporate values are not clearly defined or are in conflict with one another, it is difficult for managers and employees to implement them. Accordingly, value processes should provide for feedback and control loops in which values are checked for comprehensibility, clarity, and consistency.
SPECIFICATION OF MEANING:
The desire for a value canon that is as compressed as possible often ends in abstraction. Therefore, we observe a high overlap of values that various organizations claim for themselves: customer orientation, quality, responsibility, team spirit, and innovation are certainly among the value favorites. Only by addressing the question “What does this mean for our specific actions?” do values gain their clarity and power of differentiation.
REALISTIC ASSESSMENT OF ASPIRATION AND REALITY:
Value processes deal with a desirable future image. By carefully considering the gap between the ideal and reality, the potential need for action becomes obvious even during the development of the values. The larger the gap, the higher the attention required for change processes intended to lead to corresponding behavioral changes.
CONSISTENCY WITH GOALS AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS:
If values cannot be reconciled with strategic goals, common management practices, or incentive systems, confusion and conflict are inevitable. Value work must therefore always be seen in connection with the strategic corporate direction and the systems for corporate management.
CONSISTENCY IN IMPLEMENTATION:
Values must be authentically lived (and modeled) by managers; otherwise, they quickly lose credibility and relevance. Implementation can only succeed if employees find that the actual behavior of managers and the actual actions of the company match the defined values. Value work is not a one-time activity that is completed with the announcement of the values by management, but requires a continuous engagement with the question of how these (should) become tangible in the company.
