Personal Values and Management

Research into the relationship between personal values and organizational phenomena has enjoyed a lengthy history. As a result, there is fair agreement among management scholars about two things: what values are and with what they vary. There are also substantial gaps in understanding, including how (if) values cause behavior and what happens to them when the individual joins an organization or enters an occupation. The authors identify some possible reasons for these gaps, having to do with the level(s) at which the values construct is conceptualized, methodological irregularities in values research, and neglect by management scholars, and discuss attendant corrective actions.