How do organisations communicate their values?
Organisations need to communicate their shared values in a way that its staff, volunteers and other stakeholders can understand and relate to. The most common approach is through its mission statement, website, social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook, advertisements for recruiting staff and volunteers and in fundraising campaigns.
The following extract highlights how all organisations (not just those in the voluntary sector) regard statements of values as important.
Box 1 Values-led businesses
Beyond pursuing success and profitability, organisations realised some time ago that their stakeholders needed them to be able to say: ‘This is how we do things here.’
It is hard now to find an organisation of any shape or size, from small NGOs to large corporates, which doesn’t publicly list its values, often quite prominently. Greenpeace International, for example, lists its values as: personal responsibility and nonviolence, independence, having no permanent friends or foes and promoting solutions. While Coca-Cola claims to be motivated by values of leadership, passion, integrity, accountability, collaboration, innovation and quality.
Similar lists can be found on the websites of virtually all organisations. The challenge is establishing what they mean and how stakeholders can ensure they are being lived and embodied, not just espoused.
Activity 5
Write down the most important values underlying the work of your organisation from published documents or your own observations. If you are not already working or volunteering, choose an organisation that you would like to work for and use their main website or what they put on social media sites to find the information about their values.
Has there been or can you foresee any conflicts that might arise between these different values?
Discussion
Your response to this task will reflect not only your own observations about your organisation and your colleagues but also your own values and attitudes. It might also have helped you to think about issues and values you had perhaps taken for granted. You may have struggled to find the information you need: perhaps if you work in (or chose) a small organisation, nothing is written down formally. This might have led you to think about whether that is appropriate and whether it affects staff/volunteer motivation or could impact on fundraising or seeking contracts.
Organisational values