The significance of human values

Values or Beliefs are specified as multi-standards that shape conduct in unique ways. Values define out positions on social issues and favour of ideologies. They are also representative of a person and will be used as a gauge of that person when they present themselves (Haneef et al., 2002).

Individuals in organisations are steered by a collection of values encompassing personal, work, and the organisation itself. This basically means that values form the organisational core, and originate from a lifetime or indoctrination, which means that both family and educational institutions are crucial towards the development of values in individuals (Plutchik & Conte, 1997).

Literature and history on humanistic values imply a complicated and multi- layered meaning to the concept of value itself. Macro-approach individuals are known to possess the stable set of values (Thøgersen & Ölander, 2006). It can also be assumed that values form the very core of every one’s life. They regulate, determine and modify relationships between individuals, organisations, societies and institutions. As a matter of fact, there are many suggestions to the fact that values are crucial towards the governance of future organisations (Agle & Caldwell, 1999).

It is also a relatively common fact that values are ordered based on their respective importance vis-à-vis a person. This will allow people to prioritise their values and solve conflicts that might come about similar values within a set contexts (Abdullah & Hiok, 2009).

Human values are utilised by multinational organisations to enhance their performance and define individuals and societies to discern the motivational basis pertaining to attitudes and behaviour in organisations. Despite its widespread utilisation, it is not singular in its utilisation, and many variations have emerged. However, the application of values in the context of social science is quite poor, mostly due to the lack

25 of an agreed on the conception of central values, on structure and content of relationships among all these beliefs or values, and on authentic empirical approaches to estimate those (McGoldrick et al., 2001).

It is rather a difficult task to define values due to the fact that they are similar to ideas such as preferences, attitudes and viewpoints. Rokeach explains an attitude by way of “an arrangement of several beliefs focused on a specific object or situation, whereas a value is an enduring belief in a specific mode of conduct or desirable end state of existence”. Some work on the issue indicated that attitudes and values differ, not merely in thoughts, but likewise in terms of exercise. Attitudes will be more than likely to vary based on the importance of the object or setting. When compared to values, they disagree in terms of their lifespan in the context of person’s cognitive schema. Values are probably capable of influencing some attitudes, however, what sets values apart from attitudes is that values are needed for actions to take place (Swanson, 2001).

Also, the priorities of values are regarded as being the most stable factor in a person’s mind (Thøgersen & Ölander, 2006).

The amount of work done on values vis-à-vis individuals is quite extensive. Values encompassing work values, individual values, and employee values are classified as personal values. Both experiential and theoretical inspections of individuals discover instrumental values. Specific samples of what Rokeach discussing to as end states include social credit, a motivating natural life, all God's creatures at harmony, and fairness (Agle & Caldwell, 1999).

Eduard Spranger also worked and studied in the field of values deeply. He occupied in a conscientious arrangement of human beings based people based on their value priorities. This solid but clear work prepares the ground for a large number of scientists who are classified individuals based on the priorities of their ultimate values.

26 The Vernon, Allport and Lindzey values measure (Meglino & Ravlin, 1998) are centred in Spranger’s theoretical framework.

George England also cited on numerous considerable individualistic empirical work. He settled the Personal Values Questionnaire (PVQ) examined a personal value system in managers from different nations. Between the year 1977 and 1980 years, Whitely and England studied, about individual values with the same database, before that also England and Lee in 1974 working in the same area. England’s successful work by using PVQ had influence in later works. Connor and Becker (1994) studied about work values as another field of human values that can be considered as individual attitudes. In work value area that has a long history in the last decade, Comparative Emphasis Scale (CES) has been confirmed and effectively used in several projects (Agle & Caldwell, 1999).

In fact, personal values are a reflection of all the literary, functional and cultural action on a person in his life stages. Values are learned as individuals internalise some of the values held by the professions and the institutions to which they belong, such as the family, church, organisation, or educational institution. Over time, these external influences become integrated into the individual's personal construct. The ongoing creation of a value system is both a sociological and psychological process (Liedtka, 1991). Of course, individuals do not share all societal objectives equally and may vary significantly in their respective personal values orientation (Marcus, 2010).

So, values fulfil the gaps between what everyone thinks and what they should do, understanding what they should do, habitually doing something because of personality traits, and choose what one should do. Personal values are motivational constructs that guide our behaviour towards the attainment of life goals. They are principles or standards that human use to judge what is important or valuable in life. Values are learned priorities

27 that individuals strive to achieve. These values can be installed by family, friends, religion, occupations, the media, and other influential sources (Bovell, 2005).

Also, human values are directly linked to employee involvement, motivation, and retention through such matters as openness, honesty, trust, respect, and fair treatment (Sankar, 2003). They can improve customer service quality (Clark, 2002) and deliver overall competitive advantage (Davidson, 2002).