Values in OD: Meaning, Professional Values, Value Conflict and Dilemma

Development is a continuous process and it accommodates in itself many changes that occur in science and technology, economic, market, political environment, education, knowledge, values, attitude and behaviour of people, culture etc. Organisation development is a part of overall development in general. It cannot remain unaffected by the developmental process. The organisation has to change the beliefs, values and its structure to accommodate the new ideas, beliefs and new technologies for progress.

Organisation development constitutes various people, professionals, technocrats, researchers, managers and a host of other employees working in the organisation contributing to the accomplishment of organisational objectives. They behave differently. Authority and power, conflicts, control takes backseat during OD process.

The following are the values in OD efforts:

Confidence and Support:

Organisations are made up of people and they are to be believed and supported in order to have effective organisation. The healthy environment prevails when people are trusted and taken into confidence and a necessary support is extended to them as and when needed.

Respect People:

People are the raison d’etre of organisation and they are responsible for creating opportunities for growth. They must, therefore, be treated with respect and dignified manners.

Confrontation:

Any conflict on any issue should not be suppressed. It should be dealt with openness. Suppression leads to dampening of morale. Identifying the problem and its causes, discussing it openly and finding out feasible solution leads to boosting up morale of the employees and creating good environment.

Expression:

Human beings differ in experience, maturity, ideas, opinions, and outlook. The organisation is at the receiving end. It gains from the differences in quality, ideas, opinions and experiences of its people. Human beings are social animals; they have feelings, emotions, anger and sentiments etc. They should be allowed to express their feelings and sentiments. This will result in building up high morale and the people will be motivated towards hard work ultimately resulting in increased efficiency.

Employee Participation:

The participation of employees who will be affected by the OD should be sought in decision-making.

Seeking Cooperation:

Managers should learn to seek cooperation from each of the employees working under him in his department. This will develop in creating the atmosphere of cooperation leading to organisational effectiveness and willingness to accept change in the event of organisation development process.

Professional Values

Professional values encompass the traits that many employees look for in their employees. Your professional values are the character traits you adopt and demonstrate in the workplace that showcase how successful you are. Additionally, these professional values often include the soft skills and behaviors that are necessary for advancing in your career.

Professional values to adopt in the workplace

Professional values are the traits that showcase your overall work ethic and ability to meet objectives and be successful in your career. Here are several important traits you can use to showcase your core values:

Responsibility

Being responsible not only means following through on commitments you’ve made, but it also means offering your support or help when it’s needed. Demonstrate your responsible nature by meeting objectives, completing tasks that you take on and ensuring you’re performing in your job to the best of your abilities. These responsible traits will show your managers that you are committed to achieving goals and contributing to the growth of your company.

Strong work ethic

Work ethic is a trait that most employers look for right away in an employee. Your ability to work hard, overcome challenges and offer support to your colleagues demonstrates a strong work ethic and can help you be successful while building positive relationships, too. Additionally, having a strong work ethic means understanding what’s expected of you and staying motivated to achieve your goals.

Integrity

Having integrity means being trustworthy and committed to carrying out the duties you are responsible for. Integrity is an important trait that can help you build positive and supportive relationships at work. It also means that you are dependable and honest in your interactions, communications and relationships with others.

Reliability

Being reliable means you are punctual, on track with your work objectives and always follow through on your commitments. Demonstrating your dependability can also lead to more advanced or challenging projects that can help you advance in your career, as your supervisors will be more likely to trust you with important tasks because they know you will follow through on your work commitments.

Honesty

Honesty is an aspect of integrity, and both of these traits can help you form a strong foundation of professional values. When you remain honest and open in your communication with your work colleagues and supervisors, they will be more likely to refer to you when they have questions, need extra help or need some input on important tasks. Additionally, remaining honest in your work will demonstrate your trustworthiness, which is highly important for building strong relationships at work.

Adaptability

The ability to adapt to different situations and navigate interactions with diverse individuals is extremely important in the workplace. No matter what field you work in, challenges or problems can arise. In challenging situations, your adaptability will demonstrate your ability to change your approach to how you overcome problems.

Self motivation

Self-motivation is extremely important to have as a core value. Keeping yourself motivated at work will help you stay satisfied with your job, stay passionate about your work and find meaning in your daily activities. This self-motivation is also a highly desired trait that many employers look for in their employees, as it demonstrates a strong desire to achieve personal and company-wide success.

Accountability

Being accountable in the workplace means taking responsibility for your actions and conduct in the workplace. When you’re accountable for your actions and conduct in the workplace, you demonstrate more than one core value. You’re demonstrating your honesty, adaptability, responsibility and a positive attitude, especially when you seek feedback and input that helps you improve.

Confidence

Confidence in the workplace is something you can develop the more you perform challenging tasks, solve problems and apply feedback for improvement. Focusing on your professional development and improving your skills shows that you are confident in your ability to grow and succeed in your career. Additionally, you can build your confidence by taking on challenges that are outside your comfort zone like leading a team meeting or giving a presentation.

Compassion

Compassionate employees are supportive of each other, offer help when it’s necessary and generally find ways to let others know they care. Having compassion can also lead to deeper understanding of others’ feelings and is beneficial for building meaningful relationships. Remaining compassionate in the workplace is also extremely important for resolving conflict, giving and receiving constructive feedback and solving problems.

Loyalty

Employers often look for employees that will remain loyal to their teams and company as a whole. This means that you perform your job for the benefit of your team, supervisors and employers and that you remain committed to supporting your organization’s growth and development. When you demonstrate your loyalty, you’re showing your employers that you care about how the company achieves success and that your work is important to you.

Empathy

Understanding others’ points of view, ideas and feelings is what it means to have empathy. Additionally, empathy can help you relate to others and find common interests and traits with your co-workers. Being empathetic will help you build relationships and friendships in the office that can be fulfilling and supportive. Additionally, having empathy in the workplace will also help you adapt to different interactions with others, which can make it easier to relate to others’ thoughts and emotions.

Value Conflict and Dilemma

Value Conflicts

A value conflict occurs when individuals or groups of people hold strong personal beliefs that are in disagreement within themselves or in disagreement with the institution’s/ organization’s values. These may include religious differences, cultural differences or differences in upbringing.

Values-based conflicts are particularly pervasive in public policy. Indeed, nearly all public (policy) controversies entail divergent beliefs about what is right and what is wrong, what is just and what is unjust. Many policy decisions are essentially choices among competing values. Simply consider how:

  • Efforts to promote equal opportunity might result in conflicts among values such as efficiency, justice, equality, diversity, merit, and individual achievement;
  • Crime prevention policies might trigger competition among values such as liberty, safety, due process, equity, effectiveness, access, and justice; and
  • Domestic security policies might produce conflict among values such as knowledge generation, information sharing, confidentiality, privacy, civil liberties, individual rights, and safety.

Dilemma

There are three conditions that must be present for a situation to be considered an ethical dilemma. The first condition occurs in situations when an individual, called the “agent,” must make a decision about which course of action is best. Situations that are uncomfortable but that don’t require a choice, are not ethical dilemmas. For example, students in their internships are required to be under the supervision of an appropriately credentialed social work field instructor. Therefore, because there is no choice in the matter, there is no ethical violation or breach of confidentiality when a student discusses a case with the supervisor. The second condition for ethical dilemma is that there must be different courses of action to choose from. Third, in an ethical dilemma, no matter what course of action is taken, some ethical principle is compromised. In other words, there is no perfect solution.

Two Types of Dilemmas   

An “absolute” or “pure” ethical dilemma only occurs when two (or more) ethical standards apply to a situation but are in conflict with each other. For example, a social worker in a rural community with limited mental health care services is consulted on a client with agoraphobia, an anxiety disorder involving a fear of open and public spaces. Although this problem is outside of the clinician’s general competence, the limited options for treatment, coupled with the client`s discomfort in being too far from home, would likely mean the client might not receive any services if the clinician declined on the basis of a lack of competence. Denying to see the patient then would be potentially in conflict with our commitment to promote the well-being of clients. This is a pure ethical dilemma because two ethical standards conflict. It can be resolved by looking at Ethical Standard, which states that social workers should only accept employment (or in this case, a client) on the basis of existing competence or with “the intention to acquire the necessary competence.” The social worker can accept the case, discussing the present limits of her expertise with the client and following through on her obligation to seek training or supervision in this area.

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