Individual Values in Organizations: Concepts, Controversies, and Research

The values of managers and employees in organizations are phenomena that have captured the interest of researchers, practitioners, social critics, and the public at large. Despite this attention, there continues to be a conspicuous lack of agreement on what values are and how they influence individuals. In this article we discuss how values have been defined and conceptualized. Focusing on values as desirable modes of behavior, we describe how they affect individuals in organizations and discuss some of the salient controversies that characterize contemporary research on values. Finally, we report on a comprehensive review of the most recent literature in this area.