CC Paul Downey via Flickr
Our personal values relate to decisions we make every day. Even the most mundane according to, Joel Urbany, author of How to Make Values Count in Everyday Decisions. We know, this got us all thinking about what it says about you when you leave your desk for that third cup of coffee or that you always eat out for lunch.
Urbany dives into the term values-based decision making and draws a direct line between organizational values and those of individual employees, noting that this directly effects the overall decision making ability of an organization.
Urbany discusses how a decision can be plotted on the basis of choice options, consequences, outcomes and values/goals through what he calls, a decision-mapping framework. This allows the options of a decision to be broken into multiple values-based areas, both organizational and individual.
The article states, “Why do good people at times say yes to bad – unethical or illegal – actions? We believe there are four reasons: (1) the organization’s values are fuzzy to them, leading them to resort to undeveloped intuition and expedient criteria; (2) they may not be clear on their own values; (3) their interpretation of probability conveniently favors their a priori preferred opinion; (4) they see no other options (they believe their hands are tied).” These points emphasize why an employee’s firm understanding of, both organizational and personal values, is so important to the decisions made on a daily basis.
When have you had to map a decision you’ve made? Share with us in the comments section or at #ValuesNAS.
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