Strategic planning and organizational values: links to alignment

Abstract

Organizational values have been known to partially define organizational culture and to serve as a bonding mechanism between workers. In the recent past, values served as a critical component of the organization's perspective regarding strategic direction, mission determination and visioning. With the onset of numerous shortterm focused management practices, the core organizational values that contributed to organizational purpose were segregated from the business strategic planning process. However, recently re-emerging is a move to ground strategic planning processes again in core organizational values because both strategy and values are seen as defining an organization's purpose in an integrated manner that allows for differentiation. This article outlines these developments, provides reasons for the recent re-surfacing of organizational values, and argues from both a strategic business perspective and a human resources perspective the need to reestablish a meaningful linkage between business strategy and organizational values. The strategic business planning literature is overviewed herein, but is focused toward its particular association with organizational values and the HR/HRD impacts thereon.

Exploring the link between organizational values and human resource certification

“…Values serve as a foundation for an organization's culture (Rokeach, 1979;Williams, 1979Williams, , 2002, shaping and guiding the choices, attitudes, and behaviors of the organization and its members (Toh, Morgeson, & Campion, 2008). Although research has typically focused on the relationship between organizational values and employee attitudes and behaviors (Johnson & Jackson, 2009), there is renewed interest in understanding the impact of organizational values on strategic decisions (Williams, 2002).…”

“…Values serve as a foundation for an organization's culture (Rokeach, 1979;Williams, 1979Williams, , 2002, shaping and guiding the choices, attitudes, and behaviors of the organization and its members (Toh, Morgeson, & Campion, 2008). Although research has typically focused on the relationship between organizational values and employee attitudes and behaviors (Johnson & Jackson, 2009), there is renewed interest in understanding the impact of organizational values on strategic decisions (Williams, 2002). For example, research suggests that an organization's values can influence the pursuit and adoption of human resource practices (Caldwell, Chatman, & O'Reilly, 1990;Toh et al, 2008;Truss & Gratton, 1994;Truss, Gratton, Hope-Hailey, McGovern, & Stiles, 1997;Voss, Cable, & Voss, 2000), responses to environmental issues (Bansal, 2003), and perceptions of organizational change (Kabanoff, Waldersee, & Cohen, 1995).…”

Personal-organisational value conflicts and job satisfaction of internal construction stakeholders

“…Williams (2002) argues that values are those elements of the context that describe characteristics of organizations (Chatman, 1991), guide action and behaviour (Williams, 1979) and serve to differentiate organizations (Rokeach, 1979). In general, organizational values are defined by their ability to affect and guide the selections, preferences, attitudes, and actions of the organization and its employees (Toh, Morgeson and Campion, 2008).…”

Different Values Forms in Organization: is the Congruence Possible?

“…Albeit different definitions, the heart of organizational values rests in its ability to guide and influence the choices, priorities, actions, and attitudes of the organization and its members (Chatman, 1989;Williams, 2002) and the role of values is first and foremost to regulate employee behavior and to achieve superior performance (Jaakson, 2010). In the ideal case, organizational values are embedded in organizational myths, stories, slogans, mission and vision statements, annual reports, physical design of premises and all the content available on organization's website, as well as in all the decisions made by the organization (Atkinson, 2003;Shockley-Zalabak, 2009).…”