By Stefan Peetroons, Management Consultant, at Accord Group Belgium

This blog post was first published on LinkedIn Pulse

Last week, I had a lively discussion with a fascinating CEO about his company’s turn-around and their culture of, as he called it, “humble achievers”.

The company had been going through tough times. Apart from a new strategy and structure, they needed a culture that supported strategy execution. People valued constructive social relations and were humble. What they valued somewhat less was achievement. They had to demonstrate more their competence to meet the challenging standards set by a new commercial vision.

1. Why personal values matter

Quinn’s competing values model gives an idea of the impact of personal values on organizations. While some people look for short-term gain, others seek for changes in the long term. While some strive for fundamental transformation, others prefer stability or incremental change. Robert Quinn is a professor and researcher who is an authority in the realm of change management. Quinn’s research and work is directed toward change and creating effective organizations. He is known chiefly for his groundbreaking work on the Competing Values Framework (Quinn Model), recognized as the most effective way to describe a company’s culture.

Unfortunately, our personal values do not always go hand in hand with corporate culture.

• Organizations with a need for high achievement – whether consciously or unconsciously – run the risk of placing too much emphasis on competition and achieving its ambitions at the expense of others. People can become means to reach organizational goals.

• Conversely, organizations who focus too much on cohesion and constructive relations, risk failing to act when they forget that results are required to keep the group alive. Cohesion then diminishes competition and further development.

In other words, organizations wanting to be successful need to find a balance in the interaction between these four value drivers that energize people: creation, competition, control and cohesion. Furthermore, they need to make sure that in certain cycles of development, strategy execution is supported by those value drivers that allow the most effective gateway to success.

In certain phases of an organization’s existence, cohesion will need to take the upper hand, in other moments competition, control or creation will need a stronger focus. The opposite is true as well. Organizations not succeeding to find a balance between the four value drivers will have trouble shaping change, finding a broad support base or ensuring implementation.

2. Balancing competing values

To bring a commercial vision to life, it’s vital to have an in-depth understanding of the values people share within the company, how these values support or hinder strategy, and to know which missing values will support strategy execution. Knowing how to balance both existing and missing values will help maintain high levels of engagement and ensure performance.

But how do you get a thorough understanding of the beliefs people value? Currently, Schwartz’ refined value theory is the most widely used, as it is an internationally and cross-culturally validated theory of human values. The central premise of the theory is that values form a circular motivational continuum.

The refined model consists of 19 universal human values. Values bounded by the top half of the circumplex express growth. Those bounded by the lower half focus on meeting needs for security. Values on the right have a personal focus concern. Those on the left have a social focus concern.

To meet the challenging needs of his business, the CEO had to put more emphasis on values with a personal focus concern, incorporating elements of a self-enhancement culture (like the value achievement on the right) to balance the existing culture with too much social focus on constructive social interactions in the organization (like the value humility on the left).

Realizing a commercial vision does not depend on strategy and structure alone, but also on a culture that enhances value creation. Creating value requires aligning these three elements: strategy, structure and culture. The CEO understood what his people valued and balanced this with missing values in order to turn the situation around. Hence, a culture of humble achievers.

Which values drive your company culture?

About Stefan Peetroons

Stefan is a consultant at Accord Group Belgium. Our vision is to be a source of inspiration for people and organizations to stimulate the development of their identity. Our mission: building resilient organizations where people, work & strategy are balanced with the purpose to create value.