A look at most, if not all, strategic plans of various organizations, in both the private and public sector, would reveal that there is always a section that covers and deals with “Core Values”. These are meant and supposed to be the basic principles that will define the conduct, behavior and expression of the organizations’ employees’ at all structural levels. They are intended to guide patterned behavior as employees go around the tasks of meeting organizational goals and objectives, as set out in the strategic plans. It is this patterned behavior that is to be clearly part of the road marks towards the actualization of the organization’s mission statement, itself a means towards reaching the organization’s vision. Core values are therefore a very critical aspect of the meaning and intent of the strategic plan, like the name suggests they are indeed core to all that the strategic plan is supposed to embrace.
I want to briefly argue that many atimes we see a very huge gap between organizational practices and activities of implementation of plans relative to the assumed meaning of what have been stated as the core values of the plan. We see these inconsistencies across the entire structural levels of the organization and sometimes employees would even be not aware of the relationship between their routine work behavior and these core values. This is normally so visible among and across all the three levels (strategic, tactical & operational) of the organization. The big concern then is why we ever bother to select these core values amongst the many possible ones and pretend that it’s the blueprint of our expected behavior within our respective organizations, only to simply behave otherwise, as if they have no meaning at all. When making an assessment of these core values, do we do enough to ensure that every single employee, without exception, knows and understands what they are and how he/she should inculcate them into his or her behavioral patterns as they go about playing their part in the implementation of the strategic plan?
It is important that the success or failure of organizations to optimally achieve the best possible levels and standards of strategic goals be in part related and explained by the extent to which core values provided road marks of where and how to implement these plans. Let me for purposes of clarity mention here some of the common core values seen in most organizations’ strategic plans; effective communication, accountability, team work, professionalism, effective leadership and/or management, transparency and integrity among others. Each of these, and others not mentioned here, impose specific limitations and parameters of how individuals and groups in a given organization must behave. Anytime, problems arise in the implementation of programmes and projects, we should be able to check the extent to which non-compliance with one or more of these core values could be a reason for deviation or some other problems often occuring in organizations.
Typically, we want these to be defining ingredients of our relationship, individually and collectivelly, with both the organization’s internal and external environments. Included and important in these relationships would be the infusion of these values into our legal, ethical and moral values that define our organizational integrity. This relationship is critical in any organization’s stability and relevance to mandates and longterm organizational culture, based on clearly articulated core values. The above is more critical and challenging for public organizations because for them the terrain to chart, refine, consult and reach consensus on what exactly should be the core values, is much broader and complex than is with private organizations.
In public organizations we expect inclusiveness and participation of very complex and diverse groups whose interests, preferences and priorities are often conflicting and parallel. Public organizations are also typically large and spread throughout very sparse and geographically different localities and these differences may in themselves provide different value attachments to selected core values thus providing very difficult management challenges for the organizations. Some of them may be challenged by traditions, cultures and norms that conflict with organizational meanings of these values and these may limit the required guidance from core values across public organizations’ structures and their localities.
It is therefore imperative, that any choice and commitment to any of the core values, must be based on the extent to which members of the organization across structures and locations find common ground about the meaning and value of each principle to the daily activities of the organization, especially and more importantly those that are components of the strategic plan. Anytime there is too much variance and different intepretations of similar values within and across any one public organization, we can be assured of major impediments to achieving organizational goals and objectives and by implication the dream of reaching the vision would be greatly compromised. Above all, non compliance with the intent and meaning of core values can in part be opening the flood gates for unethical conduct, illegal and corrupt practices and simply erosion of organizational integrity.
Public organizations across the world have a responsibility to make sense and use strategic plans as guiding documents not only to the behavior of the public servants but more importantly to have strategic plan objectives, goals, mission, vision and core values defining their relational patterns with the citizen. This includes citizen buying in to the plans and accepting part of their responsibilities in achieving organizatuional targets, afterall all public sector strategic plans are done in the name of the public good and that requires a very definitive and citizen coloured meanings of these targets and in particular the core values. This is critical because these core values must be entrenched on those accepted and sanctioned by citizens in their own social, cultural, political settings.
The external environment of all public organizations has its own values, morals and ethical expectations and any organizational core values that are at variance with those of the external environment may be recipe for failure of attainment of strategic targets. It is for this reason that we need to revisit our core values and assess whether they do play a part in the individual and collective behavior of our public officials. Core values define our moral, ethical and even legal practices as we undertake our responsibilities in implementing our organizational plans. Do we really speak to them?
