What is Value-Based Management?

Today’s work life has become so demanding, fast paced, stressful, ambiguous and chaotic due to our lifestyle that we are forced to seek Value-based answers and ways of achieving personal stability within. We have come to realize that our inner wisdom is the only source that will sustain our adaptation and stability in the long run. More specifically, it has to do with how we define ourselves, view the world, relate to others, and make ethical/ moral decisions. Introduction of spirituality in an organization culture will help employees desire, to integrate personal life values with professional life.

Value management is distinct from other management approaches in way that it is simultaneously includes attributes which are not normally found together. It brings together within a single management system. Alignment of business vision, goals, strategies, policies and practice has always been the key to the effectiveness and success of organizations. Customers, employees, suppliers, stakeholders and other constituencies may all hold differing views of what represents value. The aim of management is to reconcile these differences and enable the organization to achieve the greatest progress towards its stated goals. The way the organization conducts itself its culture, vision and mission all are governed by its values.

The effort it puts into achieving excellence is governed by its values that is experienced both by employees and customers. There are six phases to developing a Value-based corporate culture;

1. Assessment:

Determine the company’s position on its values culture and figure out what the values need to be.

2. Improve initiatives:

To develop improvement initiatives that tightly align to the strategies developed means that they must contain measures and outcomes that link directly to the measures and outcomes stated in the strategy. To do this, management must look inward to its knowledge workers for solutions. This requires that management to communicate its strategies and objectives. It requires management to view the organization in terms of how its processes function and to pose challenges to cross functional groups that represent those processes.

Take the example of a car manufacturer who might have a strategy to improve customer satisfaction with its cars by building cars with low price, high mileage, good design, 5 years warranty etc. the management than organize a team of knowledge workers to purpose ways to achieve the goal. The team would comprise collectively and explore how to reduce material weight, streamline production, and develop engines that to achieve the goal.

All organizations have implicit values, yet few have taken the trouble to make them explicit. Aligning Values with the management practice is the essential component.

3. Program development:

Once the company determines where it stands on its selected values, it decides how to make progress towards them. Create a code of conduct that represents the ethical values established during assessment. Keep the code precise, based directly on the selected values. Establish a training plan for getting the required information to everyone working with the company.

Employees are not the only one’s to introduce to the new effort. Do not forget about vendors and contracted staff, though the company may introduce them to the program after its successful internal launch. Each of these other stakeholders needs training based on their role in the business.

4. Program Implementation:

Communicating the program effectively throughout the organization is an essential to a successful program. Communicating the program frequently is another important success factor. Distribute the “Code of Conduct” and train people so they understand it. Verify that all levels of staff are getting the desired message. Establish an anonymous reporting system to raise questions about the values and any suspected lapse. If the company is successful with investigations, several things can happen. First, giving each incident the appropriate investigation will establish the credibility of the program.

5. Re-assessment and Modification:

After the initial implementation of the program’s major elements, review if again. Find out the communications effective in getting the right message to all levels of staff.

6. Evaluation:

This process is more comprehensive than the re-assessment. It comes on a less frequent basis, usually annually. Consider adding questions about the ethic s program to your annual employee questionnaire. This will not only help the evacuation process but can also moderate the costs of gathering such information. Re-evaluating the program and keeping it relevant are essential to its continued health. Remember that ethics are about people and how they interact. The program is about building a culture that supports sound decision-making based on respect for all stakeholders. That asset is a way to draw concerned parties into the company culture and create an environment where they all can be productive.

Recent happenings about accounting practices, conflicts of interest, document shredding and retaliation against employees in companies heighten interest in spiritual values.

What is Value-Based Management?