Individual values

Values can impact on a person's interest in, and choice of, particular types of work and organisation. Individual values also impact on how they interact with other people who may or may not share their values.

Individual values stem from our social background, religion (if we have one), ethnic origin, culture, upbringing, education and our experiences of life and work. Individual values are not static. They continue to evolve during our lifetime as we experience new situations and people’s behaviours, particularly ones involving conflict or difference, or ones we find surprising or offensive. These encounters provide opportunities to question and rethink our own values. Of course, we may not be fully conscious of the values we hold or of the value judgements we are making when taking particular actions. We are also not necessarily consistent in our behaviour, and there may be a discrepancy between what we say our values are and how we act.

Values could influence your behaviour and actions in the following areas:

• where you work or volunteer

• who your friends are

• how you interact with others

• why you might have been in conflict with another person, your team or your manager (if you have one).

You can build on this by thinking about statements such as ‘I like volunteering for the local hospital.’ This is considered to be an attitude or preference rather than a value, and stems from a deeper desire to do some social good. Other factors may also influence actions: in this example, choosing to volunteer may also be about filling spare time or gaining skills that are useful for obtaining paid work. Therefore, theorists argue that values are the bedrock for attitudes, which guide people’s actions. A caveat to this statement is that people do not always act in a rational way: human nature can be inconsistent and contradictory.

Thinking about how values and attitudes influence or drive your behaviour can be important in a work context. Imagine you are asked to carry out a task that does not fit with your values. Would this result in conflict?

For some people in the workplace, there is such a mismatch between their own individual values and what they are asked to do (or something they have witnessed) that they are driven to the practice of ‘whistleblowing’. This might mean raising concerns within the organisation or reporting the organisation to the media. There have been many high-profile examples of this in the health service (poor care, abuse and neglect in Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust) and in technological scandals (Julian Assange and Edward Snowden). Legislation now exists in many countries to protect whistle-blowers and in the UK the charity Public Concern at Work provides support for them.

Values are just one component in people’s behaviour and actions: wider elements in an individual’s personality such as motivation, abilities, education and temperament also help determine their choices and areas of activity.