The Significance of Values in an Organization

The importance of values

For humans, some things have always been more important than others. That is why we value people, ideas, activities and objects according to their significance in our life.

However, the criteria used to give value to those elements have varied throughout history, and depend on the values each person assumes. 

Values allow the members of an organization to interact harmoniously. Values affect their formation and development as individuals, and make it easier to reach goals that would be impossible to achieve individually.

For the well-being of a community, it is necessary to have shared rules that guide the behavior of its members, otherwise the community will not function satisfactorily for the majority.

When families, schools, companies, and society in general function poorly, many times it is due to a lack of shared values, which is reflected in a lack of consistency between what is said and what is done.

For example, it is difficult to teach our children “tolerance” if our leaders and rulers constantly insult those with whom they disagree.

By the same token, it’s difficult to promote “respect” if teachers, professors, bosses, or parents, when faced with complex situations, defend their decisions by saying, “Here you do what I say” or, “Things are like that because I say so”.

In practical terms, a community is unlikely to function well, much less perfectly, if its members don’t share certain principles that permanently guide the way they relate to each other, in good times and in bad times.

The word “community” means couples, families, the workplace, the classroom, the neighborhood, the city, the country, and any other place where people interact.  If we don’t share their values, we will neither feel at ease nor function properly in that community, and we’ll feel little satisfaction in being a part of it.

In a company’s organizational culture values are the foundation of employee attitudes, motivations and expectations. Values define their behavior.

If values don’t have the same meaning for all employees, their daily work will be more difficult and cumbersome.  The work environment becomes tense, people feel that they are not all moving in the same direction, and clients pay the consequences. 

Being a pillar of a company, values not only need to be defined, they must also be maintained, promoted and disseminated. Only then will workers have a better chance of understanding and using them in their daily activities.


This book can be a special gift a corporate gift, for executives, product teams or an entire company staff, because it is useful and meaningful. Ask us about special prices offer for volume.

The Significance of Values in an Organization has been published by Cograf Comunicaciones. ISBN 978-980-12-3779-2.
Copyright 2008 Juan Carlos Jimenez. All rights reserved.

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