Managing Employee Values in Values-Driven Organisations: Contradiction, Façade and Illusions

The values-driven organisation has become ubiquitous in management thinking and popular literature, but its values engineering perspective contradicts current evidence-based knowledge that values are relatively stable in adulthood. This paper elucidates this contradiction as well as describes and addresses evidence supporting the malleability of values. Schneider’s attraction-selection-attrition theory is presented as the main theoretical explanation why, in spite of minimal values shifting among employees, employees within organisations are more homogeneous regarding values compared to employees across organisation. Finally, we offer three explanations why values-driven organisations may appear to achieve values congruence when, in fact, employees continue to have (although not necessarily be aware of) moderate levels of values incongruence.