The Value of Alignment

Creating alignment between the values of individuals and their organizations is necessary for achieving high performance. Let’s explore the ways in which the use of the Management by Values (MBV) system helps create alignment between people and their organizational roles to maximize human and organizational performance. Typically, the owners of a firm are responsible for generating the overarching principles, or values, by which decisions are made and people in the firm behave.

Those who manage the implementation of values are typically sandwiched between those who represent the firm’s owners and the firm’s employees; they are typically the senior executives and middle managers. The members of the organization are those who are asked to apply the organization’s values in their jobs. When firms have built corresponding systems of rewards and punishments for compliance or noncompliance with values, members are more likely to use them in their jobs.

However, if they personally agree with the values — and especially if they have participated in defining them — they will be more likely to “own” them and powerfully apply them in everyday decisions. Alignment also needs to be made between the values of leaders, managers, and employees. When employees, for example, hear one thing from senior executives and see something different in “real life,” they will be confused. To maximize the possibilities inherent in values and beliefs in their organizations, leaders need to ensure that they have built a full management system in which the values and beliefs of people at all levels are aligned.

When alignment is achieved, people will perceive that their work makes sense and is worth doing — in fact, worth doing professionally and to the best of their ability regardless of any set minimum standards. The organization will be able to motivate creativity, maximize financial rewards, and achieve higher performance.