Idea in Brief

The Situation

Recent cultural and economic changes have compelled companies to reassess the values that drive their institutional strategies. Across industries and sectors they are urgently asking themselves what they stand for.

The Challenge

Companies are also realizing that they need to better understand and support the values of their employees. Many have discovered that when they can’t align their institutional values with those of their employees, they flounder.

The Solution

In this article the authors provide a method for achieving values alignment by following a five-step process.

For years, as scholars of organizational behavior and as corporate consultants, we’ve researched what you might think of as the value of values. We’ve conducted dozens of studies designed to determine how a clear understanding of individual and organizational values can affect decision-making, motivation, relationships, well-being, leadership, and performance.

A version of this article appeared in the November–December 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review.