It is often said that values ??are the core of corporate culture. American scholars Tres Dill and Alan Kennedy believe that values ??run through management activities from beginning to end. They constitute people's attitude toward objective reality, standards for evaluating and choosing things, the basis for selecting objects, and promote people's practice and cognitive activities. motivation.
1. What are corporate values?
In real life, whether it is personal life or business management, value issues are common. What an enterprise needs, believes in, insists on, and pursues in its business management activities are all closely related to its values. Different values ??create different personality characteristics of enterprises. The so-called values, simply put, are concepts about value. It is the reflection of objective value relationships in people's subjective consciousness. It is the value subject's understanding of its own needs, as well as the overall view and fundamental view of the meaning and importance of the value object. Values ??answer the following basic questions: "What is crucial?" "What is important?" "How should we act?" It includes the value orientation of the value subject and the value subject's evaluation of the value object and itself. Value is objective, while value concepts are subjective. Because people's social living conditions, life experiences, purposes, needs, interests, hobbies, emotions, wills, etc. are different, people's value concepts are also different. This subject's difference is an important feature of the concept of value.
The cultivation of corporate values ????is to establish a company's shared value system. Its main work includes two aspects: first, to ensure that the value system itself is in line with the requirements of the enterprise's development strategy, and second, to make all employees identify with this value system.
2. The positioning of the corporate values ??system should follow the ordering of modern corporate values
Corporate values ??must reflect people, finances, things, personal values ??and collective values. Select and sort a series of value sequences such as social value, profit value, user value and production value. So what principles should contemporary correct values ??follow?
Experts from the Rand Corporation in the United States spent more than 20 years tracking more than 500 of the world's largest companies, and finally found that one of the common characteristics of the companies that have lasted for 100 years is: they The pursuit of profit is no longer the only goal, but there is a social goal beyond profit. Specifically, they generally follow the following three principles:
(1) The value of people is higher than the value of things.
Excellent companies always put the value of people first, and things second. The boss of Japan's Panasonic Company warned his employees: If someone asks: "What does Panasonic Company produce?" You should answer him this way: "We Panasonic Company first creates talents and also produces electrical appliances."
(2) ***The same value is higher than the individual value.
***Collaboration is better than working alone, and the collective is better than the individual. The original intention of the team spirit and team culture advocated by excellent companies is to advocate a corporate value that puts collective value higher than individual value.
Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel Prize winner in economics and an Indian economist at Cambridge University, said that a society based on the advancement of personal interests and lacking cooperative values ??has no cultural significance. Although attractive, such a society is also economically inefficient. The promotion of narrow personal interests in various forms will not be beneficial to our welfare. This passage of his actually demonstrates the relationship between individual value and shared value, which is the guarantee for the realization of individual value. The foundation of an enterprise is the individual. Without the development of personal abilities and the understanding of how individuals function, an enterprise cannot become an organic life form and cannot develop vitality. Therefore, personal career plans and corporate growth must be organically combined.
(3) Social value is higher than profit value, and user value is higher than production value. Indonesia's Sambati Airlines has promised to refund IDR 1,000 to customers for every minute its plane is delayed.
Audi Singapore promises that if customers are not satisfied with the car within one year of purchase, they can refund the original price. 40 Hilton hotels in the Asia-Pacific region have made a commitment: If food and accommodation services are not provided in accordance with the stipulated conditions, the hotel will refund the original price. Excellent companies always regard the principle of customer satisfaction as an integral part of their corporate values. Every enterprise has its own value goals, which may be high or low, with different levels. Summarize and inherit the company's existing value system from corporate practice
Generally speaking, the values ????of companies with a certain history always exist objectively, but because this kind of conceptual form is often not easy to be discovered, Therefore, its status and role in enterprise development are often ignored. Tres Dill and Alan Kennedy pointed out in the book "Company Culture": Values ??and beliefs are mainly derived from experience and the accumulated results of various attempts in the economic environment. Enterprise employees know what is feasible and what is not feasible after trying it in a specific economic environment, and then generalize and summarize it. This is the conceptualization process of values. Whether any business organization is in the entrepreneurial stage, development stage or mature stage, there is a problem of determining, adhering to or transforming values. If the company has gained some experience in practice, it must be refined and used. It is sublimated to the level of values. Sublimating experience into concepts is the process of summarizing and refining practical experience. This is the first step in shaping corporate values. When confirming and further cultivating corporate values, appropriate value standards should be selected based on the nature, size, type, quality of employees and the particularity of operations of the enterprise to reflect the characteristics of the enterprise. It must also fully reflect the possibility of realizing corporate value ideals, so that corporate values ??have a solid foundation and objective basis, and are consistent with the psychological endurance of employees. At the same time, values ??should be derived from the actual situation of the enterprise and should be higher than the actual situation of the enterprise. They should be forward-looking to fully reflect the future development and long-term goals of the enterprise. Adhere to continuous innovation on the basis of inheritance
Corporate values ??are a dynamic system. New content must be continuously injected as the objective environment and internal factors of the enterprise change, so as to ensure that the content of corporate values ??is consistent with that of the enterprise. Business management practice is also full of vitality. It can be seen from the evolution of corporate values ??that the formation of new values ??is the sublation of traditional values, the inheritance and development of traditional values, and the innovation that continuously injects the spirit of the times. Only by cultivating innovative values ??can we maintain the vitality of corporate values ??at all times. Use distinctive language to express corporate values
No matter what cultural background the company is in, or what industry the company is in, there are fundamental things in values, but the life of the company and Vitality is a reflection of corporate values ??and personality. Values ??with corporate characteristics are a highly rational summary of corporate values ??by corporate members, such as P&G's "doing the right thing" and IBM's "IBM is service." On the one hand, distinctive values ??embody the self-confidence of corporate people and are a sign that corporate self-confidence has reached a mature stage, making values ????a reality not only in the minds of senior managers, but also in the minds of the vast majority of people in the company. Real things can really unite and control people's behavior; on the other hand, they can give employees a sense of personality and a distinctive sense of pride, inspiring the creative potential of corporate members and the confidence to win in competition. The requirements for the expression of corporate values ??are that they must be distinctive and expressed in distinctive words to avoid similarities, but they must not be too empty and concise, so that people cannot identify and understand corporate values, and cannot distinguish the values ????of different companies. .
3. Cultivate employees' identification with corporate values
Proposing values ??is not the most difficult thing. What is more difficult is how to turn the values ??advocated by the organization into the values ????of corporate employees* **With the same belief, it is recognized by the employees of the company. If values ??only stay on words and walls and are not integrated into employees' actions, values ??will lose the meaning of existence.
In other words, the values ??advocated by the enterprise will only become the actual values ??of the enterprise if they are transformed into the beliefs of ordinary employees; otherwise, it will not only be of no benefit to the enterprise, but will also distort and damage the image of the enterprise. From the establishment of corporate values ??to the transformation into the beliefs of all members, it is a process of internalization of values, that is, a process of allowing employees to accept and consciously implement the values.
In the process of internalizing corporate values, we should pay attention to the following aspects:
1. Corporate leaders must abide by the values ??they advocate
Business leaders must first Set an example and be consistent with your words and deeds. In a company, if the leader only talks about "customer first", but at the end of the year, the leader only asks for financial results, regardless of whether the customer is satisfied or not. This kind of performance by leaders actually tells employees that values ????are just a formality, so of course company employees will not regard "customer first" as the same thing. The internalization of values ??first requires leaders to lead by example and set an example.
2. Business leaders must constantly instill corporate values ??into employees
Companies with strong corporate cultures clearly point out the company's requirements to employees and explain the company's values ??to employees in detail. Code of conduct, and corresponding rules and regulations, so that employees can understand it at a glance as soon as they enter the company. Many companies, such as Panasonic and IBM, must first provide training and education to newly hired employees. The training content includes education on company culture and values. In particular, Panasonic's talent cultivation is achieved by instilling the company's business mission and values ??into its employees. They take advantage of every opportunity to repeatedly transmit the company's business philosophy and values ??to employees, making every employee a "Panasonic person" who imprints the Panasonic brand.
Everyone who enters Panasonic must undergo strict screening, and then the personnel department arranges the company's "entry" education. First of all, we must solemnly read and recite Panasonic's mission and Panasonic spirit, learn the "quotes" of company founder Konosuke Matsushita, learn to sing Panasonic's song, and visit the "exhibition" of the company's entrepreneurial history.
3. Corporate values ??must also be promoted through routine ceremonies and rituals
Tres Dill and Alan Kennedy pointed out that in general companies, their daily work must Including certain etiquette and ceremonies, companies should use these ceremonies to explain the company's code of conduct in the clearest and most comprehensive way. Before going to work, tens of thousands of employees of Japan's Panasonic Electric Company sing the company's song and read the company's motto, which is the company's value code. Konosuke Matsushita believes that letting employees read and understand the company's goals, mission, spirit and culture repeatedly is an effective way to keep it in mind, so at eight o'clock every morning, Panasonic's 87,000 employees across Japan All employees recited Panasonic's Seven Principles at the same time and sang the company song together. Its purpose is to enable all employees to keep the company's goals and mission in mind at all times, to motivate themselves at all times, and to carry forward the Panasonic spirit for a long time. United States
IBM sings the company song "IBM Forever Forward" at its regular weekly all-employee gatherings.
In addition, companies should also pay attention to various ceremonies during the work stage, such as hiring new employees, award ceremonies, gatherings, farewell to retirees and other occasions to promote and instill the company's values. By instilling values ??into corporate employees, employees can have an inner resonance with corporate values ??and transform corporate values ??into inner beliefs. Only in this way can employees have a comprehensive and profound understanding of the essence of corporate values, and can they actively put corporate values ??into practice.
4. Improving system management can promote the formation of corporate values ??
In the process of corporate culture construction, it is necessary to use a management method that combines software and hardware. While cultivating the overall values ??of corporate employees, it is necessary to establish, improve and improve necessary rules and regulations, especially corresponding incentive and restraint mechanisms, so that employees have both value orientation and institutionalized norms. At the same time, when building a new corporate culture, it is necessary to adjust the internal organizational structure of the company and establish and form a new organizational system required for cultural construction.
5. Give full play to the typical guiding role of role models
Playing the role of role models is an important and effective way to cultivate corporate values. It is conducive to the formation and development of excellent corporate culture to set those individuals and collectives that best embody the company's new values ??as models, to publicize and commend them with great fanfare, and to continuously adjust incentive methods according to the development of the objective situation. In their book "Corporate Culture" co-authored, Deere and Kennedy regard heroes and role models as one of the five major elements of corporate culture. They believe that corporate culture without heroes is an incomplete culture and is difficult to spread and transmit. culture.
6. Continuously improve the overall quality of employees through enhanced training
If an enterprise’s employees have low basic qualities or lack good professional ethics, it is impossible to achieve healthy and sustainable development of productivity. , the cultivation of corporate values ??can only be done on paper. Strengthening training and continuously improving the basic quality of corporate employees are the basic guarantee for cultivating corporate values. At Matsushita Electric Company in Japan, every young person who takes up a job must first receive intensive training in professional ethics, business thinking, collective consciousness, and self-cultivation, as well as language and etiquette education in dealing with others. They must pass the exam before being officially hired.