Espoused and Enacted Values in an Organization: Workforce Implications

Abstract

It would seem logical that in a perfect world, a corporation’s espoused values would match its enacted values, This match of two sets of values is also known as ‘value congruence’, a situation where the organizational values are in tune with the employees’ values. However, there are many ways by which an organization can create a tension between its espoused and practiced values. The two main reasons relate to how it conducts its business and how it treats its employees. It was observed from the Espoused Value Analysis survey that only 40 per cent of the respondents perceive the employees in their organization are aware of the vision, mission and values. The findings also suggest that when behavioural integrity is boosted, then commitment to the espoused values of the organization is enhanced. Hence, it is inferred that there is significant gap between espoused and enacted values within the sample organizations chosen for the study. Despite this lack of awareness in values, 61 per cent of the employees felt their organization does not adopt unethical means to achieve business goals. The value congruence depends on how an organization deploys its value system, practices behavioural integrity and closes the perceived gaps.