ORGANISATIONAL VALUES AND THE EMPLOYEE

In the course of my work as a Business Consultant, my team and I discovered a hard truth that not many business owners would like,to admit. Before carrying out staff training for any organisation, we carry out Training needs assessment to ensure that we develop bespoke training intervention to address the real need. More often than not we discovered, during the exercise, that the real issues were those seldom raised by the business owners who engaged our services.

Many employees don’t truly understand the promises that their employers (the organisation) make to their stakeholders. Perhaps because these promises were not communicated properly to them, or the organisation took it for granted that the employees ‘ought to have understood’, and therefore did not confirm understanding.

Vision, Mission, Goals and Values are the tools an organisation employs to communicate its raison d’etre to its stakeholders. When there is a misalignment of organizational values with those of the employees, the result is a clash of motives and a conflict that eventually cripples business activities, and leaves both parties frustrated and bottom line suffering. To ensure alignment of intentions, an organisation must ensure that some of the things mentioned below are considered.

1. Organizational Vision, Mission, Goals and Values must be communicated to employees, and there must be a test for proper understanding.

2. Employees must be carried along when plans and objectives are proposed as this will ensure commitment from them.

3. A talent audit must be carried out to ensure that the organisation has the right people in its ship to competently carry out its strategies as it sails to the promised land.

4. Team work should be encouraged since people feel relevant when they are able to contribute to issues affecting them. It also encourages employees to take ownership of the outcome of every decision, and remain engaged and accountable.

5. Many organisations engage in strategic hiring method of recruitment. This could result in a clash of cultures as new recruits bring along with them attitudes from their previous work places. Therefore, cultural differences should be smoothened to eliminate friction of any sort.

6. Employees are excited and motivated when they know that they are working towards a common inspiring purpose.

7. Most importantly, these should be championed by the management staff and team leaders as the rest of the employees look up to them as role models.