Transcript Values - McGraw-Hill Education

Chapter 9
The Role of Values
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
9-2
Introduction
• Benjamin Franklin formed the Junto
– Goals were community fellowship and service
– Character was a concern
– His values were:
• Temperance
• Justice
• Order
• Moderation
• Resoluteness
• Cleanliness
• Industry
• Humility
• Sincerity
9-3
Introduction
• Some organizations view values as a requirement
for success
– Johnson & Johnson CEO James Burke took
Tylenol off the market after seven people died
during poisoning events
• Results of a study of the financial performance of
companies with written value statements:
• Net income increased by a factor of 23 during a
period when the GNP grow by a factor of 2.5
9-4
Values
• Values are a social glue
– They provide structure and stability for people
with diverse backgrounds
• Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, sees
management values as a source of corporate
identity
– Values provide guidance for members who are
independent decision makers
9-5
Values
• Values:
– Can mask hypocrisy
– Must enter into daily practices of the organization
– Must reflect enduring commitments
• Leaders must:
– Examine their own value systems
– Put good intentions into actions
that others can witness
9-6
Values
• Things that reduce the character and strength of the
organization:
– Unclear values
– Failure to enforce the values
– Lack of agreement on core values
• Author Leon Wieseltier writes:
– The problem with society is that people believe in
too much
– Much is too easily acquired and too thoughtlessly
held
9-7
When to Clarify or Reinforce Values
• Red flags:
– Members lack understanding about how they
should behave as they attempt to meet goals
– Different individuals and groups have different
value systems
– Top leaders send mixed messages about what is
important
– Day-to-day life is disorganized
– Members complain about the organization
– The organization has values, but does not practice
them
9-8
Values
• Management author Peter Drucker states:
– Each organization has a value system influenced by
its task
• Health is the goal in every hospital in the world
– For an organization to perform at its highest level:
• Leaders must believe that
what the organization does
has value to people and society
9-9
Values
• In A Business and Its Beliefs: The Ideas That
Helped Build IBM, Thomas Watson, Jr. explains
the importance of values:
• To survive and achieve success, an organization
must have a sound set of values
• Leaders must adhere to those values
• To meet challenges, organizations must be able
to change everything about itself
• Be open to change, but always remain true to
core values
9-10
Values
• Watson also said that IBM was successful because
of three core values:
– Respecting the individual
– Giving the best customer service
– Performing every job with excellence
• When IBM has gone astray, it is because it deviated
from these core values
9-11
Values and the Importance of Courage
• Values in the American workplace:
– Honesty
– Respect
– Service
– Excellence
– Integrity
9-12
Values and the Importance of Courage
• When people define character:
– What they say is important
– What they do is more important
– What they sacrifice for is most important
• In its highest form, character is based on a value
system that is known, cherished, stated, lived, and
lived habitually
• The highest form of living by one’s values is caring to
the point of personal sacrifice
9-13
Values and the Importance of Courage
• Character and leading by values require courage:
– Philosopher-psychologist Rollo May explains the
importance of courage:
• Courage is the foundation that underlies and
gives reality to all other virtues and values
• Without courage, love pales into dependency
and fidelity becomes conformism
• “Courage” comes from the French word coeur
meaning “heart”
• It makes possible all the psychological virtues
9-14
Values and the Importance of Courage
• Leadership situations are characterized by:
– Ambiguity
– Uncertainty
– Danger
• Leaders must act in spite
of these factors
• Leadership requires courage
to act and live by one’s convictions
9-15
Traditional Definitions of Good
• English philosopher Alfred North Whitehead
wrote:
– We are in the world, not the world in us
– What is considered right and wrong depends on the
universe and a person’s place in it
– We are evolving creatures in an evolving world
– Human ethics are changing also
• What ought to be has had different meanings in
different times and circumstances
9-16
Traditional Definitions of Good
• There are been many definitions of the ethical
person in Western culture:
– Good and right have been defined in terms of:
• Power
• Personal integrity
• Natural simplicity
• The will of God
• Pleasure
• The greatest good for the greatest number
• Duty and right action
9-17
Power
• Italian diplomat and political writer Niccolo
Machiavelli believed:
– The best individuals adapt to market forces and
become masters of manipulative relations
– Flattery, deceit, and murder may be necessary to
win and retain power
– People should never cultivate private virtues that
in public life would prove political suicide
– People should develop vices if helpful to one’s rule
– Ends justify means and might makes right
9-18
Personal Integrity
• German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche believed:
– Human resoluteness, born of independent
judgment, was the highest good
– Individuals should be independent in thought and
strong in conviction
– Nature is filled with conflict spilling over into
society
– The best humans exhibit moral virtue (wisdom,
justice, courage, and other ideals), regardless of
loss or gain
9-19
Personal Integrity
• German philosopher Marvin Heidegger
believed:
– In the Greek ideal of nobility
– That adhering to personal principles
in the face of social pressure to
conform is important
– That personal integrity is good,
regardless of the results
– That people must choose their lifestyle and
commitments carefully
9-20
Natural Simplicity
• Frenchman Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote that:
– Nature in essence is good, ergo so are human
beings
– To achieve the highest good, one must strive to be
purely natural
– Corruption comes only with civilization
– Children should be raised in a state of simplicity
9-21
Natural Simplicity
• Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden:
– Wrote in a spirit of naturalness and simplicity
– In this spirit, many people today resist
technological changes, complex lifestyles, and
artificial creations
• French writer Vauvenargues, on the importance of
naturalness:
– Naturalness gets a better hearing than accuracy
– It speaks the language of feeling
– It is better than logic and rationality because it is
beautiful and appeals to everyone
9-22
Will of God
• Religious leaders announce visions and make moral
judgments, drawing on the authority of a supreme being
– Muhammad decreed the five pillars of Islamic faith:
• Repetition of the belief
• Prayer five times daily
• 30-day fast of Ramadan
• Alms giving
• Pilgrimage to Mecca
– These beliefs are held sacred by 723 million Muslims today
• Nearly 3 billion adherents of other religions also define
ethical good as the “will of God”
9-23
Will of God
• Christianity:
– No other body of thought has been
embraced by so many people
– The core of Christian character is
based on the life and teachings of
Jesus of Nazareth
– The ethic Jesus taught was to love God and to love
humanity
• Belief in love is the ethical ideal of millions of
people
9-24
Pleasure
• The idea that pleasure is the highest state of
goodness dates back to Aristippus (435-366 B.C.)
– Experiencing pleasure and avoiding pain should be
human goals
– Pleasure of the moment should not be postponed
for uncertain future pleasures
• In “Reflections and Maxims,” Vauvenargues
wrote:
– We display indifference toward moral truth
because we indulge our passions
– We do not hesitate to act in order to satisfy desire
9-25
Greatest Good for the Greatest Number
• Two of the principle architects of this belief:
– Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
• Moral philosophy of utilitarianism:
– Reflects the ethics of both American democracy
and Marxist communism
– Proposes weighing the consequences of moral
behavior and considering the interests of everyone
involved
9-26
Duty and Right Action
• Immanuel Kant, author of Criticism of Practical
Reason and Fundamental Principles of the
Metaphysics of Morals, believed:
– People must choose the obligations that become
their duty
– People must be responsible for their own actions
– A person with character will choose duty to
conscience and will not succumb to base desires
– Acts from a good motive and sense of duty are
good, regardless of the consequences
• This view greatly influenced Western civilization
9-27
Duty and Right Action
• Personal conscience and duty are seen in the
words of Israeli stateswoman Golda Meir:
– “If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it,
regardless of the possible outcome”
• When faced with an ethical question, a person
with character tries to sort right from wrong
– Traditional definitions of good have guided
Western culture
– “People must stand for something, otherwise they
will fall for anything”
9-28
Honesty as a Leadership Value
• Effective leaders hold truth as a central value and
the foundation for other values
– The Bible: “Know the truth and it will set you free”
– Shakespeare: “To thine own self be true”
– Herb Kelleher, former CEO of Southwest Airlines:
“Be yourself”
9-29
Honesty as a Leadership Value
• The Bible, Shakespeare, and Kelleher agree that:
– Character begins with truth
– Truth is inside the person
– The leader must be true to his values
• Thomas Jefferson wrote:
– In matters of principle, stand like a rock
– Character is what you are
– It is different than reputation, which is from other
people
– True character is in you
9-30
Full-Swing Values
• Full-swing values:
– Used to assess the strength of one’s values
– Important for people in leadership positions
– A full-swing is needed to hit a “home run”
• True for questions of right and wrong,
good and bad
• Axiology is a branch of philosophy dealing with
values
9-31
Full-Swing Values
• Five Points:
– Point 1: know one’s values
– Point 2: cherish one’s values
– Point 3: declare one’s values
– Point 4: act on one’s values
– Point 5: act habitually on one’s values
9-32
Your Personal Value Orientation
• Cases of Jim, Jane, Jack, Jill, and John
– Jim-knows values, has not examined others
– Jane-knows and cherishes values
– Jack-knows, cherishes, and declares values
– Jill-knows, cherishes, declares and acts on her
values
– John-knows, cherishes, declares, acts and does it
habitually
9-33
Your Personal Value Orientation
• Full-Swing Values
9-34
Full-Swing Values
• In every field, the highest level of leadership is
full-swing
– Leaders are impelled to act because the act is
deemed good
– Conscience dictates that the act is the right thing
to do
• The quality of doing the right thing for the right
reason is called integrity
– It is possessed by all truly great leaders
9-35
Leadership and Values
• Why is it important for an organization to have
values?
• What is the role of the leader in establishing and
enforcing these values?
• There are many ideas on
these questions
• Few are as influential as
those of the philosopher Plato
9-36
Leadership and Values
• In Plato’s story The Republic, he retells the “Myth of
Gyges” and the invisible ring
– A shepherd finds a magic ring that makes one
invisible
– He uses the ring to eavesdrop, steal, and trespass
– In a short time, he amasses wealth, kills the king,
seduces the queen, and rules the land
9-37
Leadership and Values
• Moral of the story:
– Given power without accountability, an individual
may do deeds that are harmful
– People need the values of a just society and the
oversight of wise and caring leaders
– A republic is needed for the good of all individuals
• A leader with false or harmful values can be
injurious to others
– Hitler Stalin, and many other tyrants in history are
examples
– Hence, leaders need to be caring, good, and strong
9-38
Leadership and Values
• Culture shapes a leader’s values, which influences
actions
– African Society:
• Ubuntu represents a collection of values,
including harmony, compassion, respect, human
dignity, and collective unity
• Each of us is human through the humanity of
other humans
– A Zulu maxim: …a person is a person through
other persons: my humanity is caught and bound
inextricably in yours
9-39
How Leader Behavior Influences
• Leaders who are immoral and non-principled:
– Are difficult to forgive
– Lack moral authority
– Are not trusted or respected
• The leader’s values determine the rightness and
wrongness of what they do
– The leader’s actions set the tone for other’s
behavior and performance on the job
– Leaders who are honest, unselfish, and dedicated
help the group succeed
9-40
How Leader Behavior Influences
• Warren Buffett’s order to senior managers when
the took over the failed firm of Salomon:
– Instantaneously and directly report any legal
violations or moral failures by employees
• Buffet understood that basic values are crucial for
building trust
– Honesty and responsibility are crucial for building
trust, which is the bedrock of organizational survival
and growth
• Almost all business schools now require ethics
courses
9-41
How Leader Behavior Influences
• In general, a leader’s belief or value system will
determine his/her success
– Six values of caring leaders:
• Honesty
• Consideration
• Responsibility
• Persistence
• Excellence
• Commitment
9-42
How Leader Behavior Influences
• Overall value of the caring leader is to serve
– The caring leader focuses on the welfare of:
• Customers
• Employees
• Shareholders
• Community
• Values affect everything a person does or is
– What values do I wish to promote?
– Are my actions helping accomplish that goal?
9-43
Personal Values
• Aspects of society require leaders to
commit to certain ideals and goals
– This is addressed in “The Study of
Values” by Gordon Allport, Phillip
Vernon, and Gardner Lindzey
• Complete Exercise 9-1 to discover your own value
orientation
9-44
Study of Values Model
9-45
Interpretation of Questionnaire
• Theoretical:
– Interest is the discovery of truth
– Concerns order and systematize knowledge, and
understand the meaning of life
• Economic:
– Primary interest in what is useful
– Major concerns: practical education; surpassing
others in wealth
9-46
Interpretation of Questionnaire
• Aesthetic:
– Primary interest is high satisfaction in form,
harmony, and beauty
– Major concerns: life is a procession of events;
individualism, self-sufficiency, and idealism
• Social:
– Primary interest is love
– Major concerns: love is most suitable form of
human relationships; kind, sympathetic, and
helpful
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Interpretation of Questionnaire
• Political:
– Primary interest is power and influence
– Major concerns: social influence and exercise of
authority
• Religious:
– Primary interest is spiritual peace
– Major concerns: highest and most satisfying value
experience; find meaning in the affirmation of life
and active participation
9-48
Evaluating Personal Values
• All values on the questionnaire are positive
• Culture influences personal values
• The questionnaire provides an overall value
orientation
• A person’s life allows maximum expression of
personal values
• Value systems are firm by the time most people reach
adulthood
• Different organizations reflect and endorse different
value; leaders must promote the value system
9-49
Personal Value Questionnaire
• Points to Remember:
– Does not measure other important
factors, such as aptitude, personal
interests, temperament, or morality
– Different values can enrich a group
or organization
9-50
Core Values
• Exercise 9-2 can be used to clarify individual and
organizational values