Common values

- Company values are like fingerprints. No one organization's values and ethics are exactly the same as another's. But if you look across enough companies, you'll start to see some patterns emerge. Certain values and ethics are more common than others. So in preparation for this course, I did exactly that. I looked across dozens of companies to see what values and ethics are the most common. Here's what I found. First of all, when most people think about company values, the first thing that comes to mind are really ethics, doing what's right. So that's typically things like integrity and fairness and transparency and showing respect for all individuals. But ethics are just one type of value. Other types of values reflect what the people in an organization want to achieve and how they want to achieve those things. That's why getting results is almost always an explicit or implicit company value, whatever the results the organization is trying to achieve. But other common values are about how those results are achieved. For example, in driving for those results, a lot of companies value leadership, discipline, and safety, while others value having a passion for winning and cooperation and even having fun along the way, or maybe all of those things. And the last but not the least group of things that companies value are the interests of the people who are affected by the company's success or failure. Now, that includes not only the company itself and the shareholders' interests, but the employees, the suppliers, and even the customers. So if you're keeping track, that's around 16 different values and ethics, and most companies tend to have at least 10, if not more, of those, and that's a lot. In fact, the dilemma should start to be obvious now. With so many different things to value, it's not hard to see how some of those things are occasionally going to come into conflict with some of the others, and that's when you figure out what your real values are. Now, before you tackle the first case, find and familiarize yourself with your company's values and ethics. In fact, you might want to have a copy of those documents with you while you watch each video and answer the questions at the end. Now, there are three ways to respond. At a minimum, think about the questions at the end of the video. But if you want to see how other people taking the course respond to each case, check out the questions in the Q&A tab for this course. There's one question for each of the 13 cases. And after watching the video, go to the Q&A tab and type in your answer. And you can also react to the answers other people gave and have a conversation about it. But the most thorough option is to download the Exercise File for this course. There, you'll find a handful of questions for each case. Take a few minutes to respond to all of them, and then ave your answers. If you're taking this course as part of your company's training program, your management may want you to turn in your answers for course credit or to be evaluated. Good luck.