Providing Direction: CL4

The action structure, as created so far, must be harnessed to the identity of the organization—which is determined by its mission (i.e. raison d'être) and its strategy for survival and growth. That identity is further realized via priorities and operational and tactical objectives required to make progress. These essential values and objectives come to the fore via the Rationalist Mode.

Shared values not only provide a rationale for working but also a social «license-to-operate». Staff hold these values as employees, and also as members of a community—i.e. many values apply both at home and at work.

More on "Taking your values to work"

This phrase suggests that values are something we can pick up and put down, rather than something that constitutes who we are. What popular articles about management usually mean is:
● "making certain values a corporate priority": It is possible to apply social values like «safety» or «education» (held at home) to affect where time and money is directed in the business (rather than just focusing on «ROI» or «efficiency»); 

or
● "respecting ethical norms": Ethical behaviours like «honesty» or «fair dealing» can be turned on for work or left at home (assuming they exist there).

«Individual v Organization» Tension

Values and strategies can be said to be organizational in the sense that they are for and about the organization: what is important to it and in which direction it should be moving.

These same values and goals are also individual insofar as staff in the organization, especially the leadership and line managers, must genuinely make them their own if the organization is to pursue them.

So the «individual v organization duality» is once again fused here and there is just one balanced Centre.

Go to the next topic tp see how shared values and organizational goals affect and are affected by the work processes so far identified.

See the picture now.

If the picture is self-explanatory, you will also recognize that forces like sense of duty, individual pressures and group interests are simply insufficient for sustained successful achievement.

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EITHER:

• Examine effects of an organization's identity,
  OR
• Move up to the first level focused on improving effectiveness: the empiricist mode.

Originally posted: 17-Sep-2011