News and events: Articles

How Human Resources can Resource Humans

Despite our best intentions so much of what we practice in Human Resources, including training and development,  does little more than reinforce that the organisation views its people as resources first and humans a distant second.  Humans are analyzed, measured and evaluated as a resource, rather than as human beings with lives personalities, wants, desires and feelings.
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How do values influence group development and organisational culture

Purpose of the article
To answer a few of the frequently asked questions (FAQs) that are put to us about values and their application for group and organisational development

Some FAQs about values
What are values? How do values work? Can values be used to explore and understand group dynamics and behaviour? Can values really be measured? How can people use values to help them achieve their desired objectives? How can you measure team values?
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A brief case for personal values

Do you know what your highest priority personal values are? I don't mean can you hazard a guess as to what they might be? I mean do you actually know? When did you last evaluate your highest priority personal values?
Values are the mental concepts that make meaning possible; they provide us with motivation to act and a framework for decision-making. Every sane person has values whether they know it or not.
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Levels of alignment

Every organisation in the world operates on values whether it knows it or not. This statement is true because every organisation in the world has preferences and priorities. Those that operate with their values in a deliberate and organised manner create for themselves a distinct advantage over competitors in their market, by shaping and defining their own culture, levels of performance and success.
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Working on values

Does your company have values? It probably does. Maybe it even has them engraved on a brass plaque hanging in reception. Take a look. Find 'em? Good. Now, here's a better question: So what?
Especially for those in the trenches of day-to-day business, values seem like another warm fuzzy cooked up at a cushy executive retreat and circulated in a company-wide email that's best ignored until the next management fad comes along.
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Values & commitment

In their book on values-based leadership, The Leadership Challenge, authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner highlight their research into the relationship between personal and organisational values clarity and the impact on people's commitment to the organisation. The results of their research challenges the popular process many organisations adopt when working with values and clearly indicates the difference personal values clarity makes to people's levels of commitment.
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Why Values AT Work?

Is your organisation values savvy? Do your leaders and partners understand the role and significance of values in the work-place? Does your company have a set of values? Do they work? Are they the right ones, the best ones? Who do they serve? Increasingly, organisations are being caught short and paying the consequences of not being aware or informed about the power of values in the work place.
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A business case for working with values

A strong business case for any organisation to work with values can be summed up by research comparing the impact of strategy and culture on performance variability by Mike West of the Aston Business School in the UK.  His study of over 100 companies over an eight-year period showed that an organisational strategy accounted for 2% of performance variability while organisational culture accounted for 17% of performance variability.  In other words, even the best business strategy in the world will under-perform without a supporting and aligned organisational culture.
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Values and positive thinking

In the February 2006 issue of Time magazine, an article outlined the latest approach to psychotherapy that is creating quite a stir in the psyche community.  Dr Steven Hayes, Foundation Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Nevada, has challenged the traditional and established approach of cognitive therapy with a new approach to working with clients that involves identifying their personal values.  Dr Hayes has developed a successful approach called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for people suffering from depression and anxiety attacks.
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 Values and stress management

Organisations would do well to pay attention to the rising levels of stress reported by so many people in their lives. Stress can and does have a direct impact on performance and experience levels within the work place. Stress is implicated in the development and progression of a broad array of mental and physical health.
Disorders
In New Zealand there are now legal responsibilities that organisations must adhere to in terms of managing the likelihood of stress in the workplace. New medical research suggests that personal values may have a key role in helping people manage their stress levels.
Research from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, has determined that self-affirming activities based on the individual's personal values may buffer the adverse effects of stress .
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