Creating a values-based workplace culture: obstacles and distractions are getting in the way

If you asked a company leader the purpose of the organization’s values, he or she would probably tell you that they dictate a standard of workplace conduct that will benefit the company and the internal and external communities it serves. At their essence, most organizational values relate to some core behavioral principles: tell the truth, take complaints seriously, follow problems through, treat customers and employees fairly, and watch what you say and how you say it. These are simple concepts, but somewhere along the way, companies are getting off track in their attempts to integrate values into the workplace culture. There are too many scandals and incidences of outrageous conduct to think otherwise.

The reality is that when it comes to workplace cultural and behavioral principles, many organizations are overwhelmed by competing messages, requirements, and structures. Companies have been quick to implement plans and training initiatives – either because of internal issues or in reaction to the cautionary tales of high-profile scandals – as a way of dealing with problems that arise when people fail to follow the organization’s values. However, at best, the day-to-day business operations and systems of rewards do nothing to reinforce the importance of the values or positively influence workplace behavior. At worst, they portray a standard that actually contradicts the behaviors touted in the values. And ultimately, many organizations decide that as long as the behavior doesn’t create an immediate legal risk, it’s not an immediate problem.

The failure to integrate values into the culture is rooted in a series of strategic and process breakdowns:

Confusing, conflicting messages: In most large organizations, employees are inundated with confusing, seemingly unrelated communications emanating from the vast web of corporate fiefdoms responsible for different pieces of what we call compliance, including human resources, ethics, diversity, legal, and others. Values may be communicated too vaguely – single words on a page left open to interpretation – or too specifically, with a degree of detail and complexity no one needs or understands. It’s no wonder employees become confused or turned off by the disparate messages they hear. Without a coordinated effort between executives and internal communications teams to communicate values in everyday language, link them to clear business benefits, and illustrate with examples, the messages become part of the background noise of the workplace.

The distraction of law: When high-profile business scandals erupt, organizations can become lost in the morass of legal and regulatory compliance requirements, implementing complex structures, muddled processes, and disjointed training sessions to prevent future disasters. While the intentions are good, these elements can blur if not extinguish the commitment to a values-based culture.

In many ways, mandatory training laws – no matter how well intentioned – are clouding the importance of driving values-based behavior. The focus shifts to addressing specific legal requirements and how that can be accomplished in the most efficient and cost-effective way. Ironically, in the rush to meet a minimum compliance expectation, organizations overlook the fact that if everyone behaved according to the values, the legal standard would be met if not exceeded.

The significance of this has become clear to me in working with organizations that have well-publicized values but continue to have problems with inappropriate, damaging conduct. The behaviors – humiliating, insulting, or embarrassing – may be considered “subtle,” but they can dramatically impact the culture and business. Rather than focusing on the whether conduct measures up to the organization’s values, however, leaders console themselves with the idea that “at least the behavior’s not illegal”. Legal compliance, which is just one component of building a values-based culture, becomes their only consideration.

By contrast, leaders who emphasize the connection between values, conduct, and the business’s health are better able to reign in problem behaviors – whether illegal or not – and their associated consequences.

Managers need skills, not just information: Most organizations focus training efforts on giving leaders legal and compliance-related information without also building their skills. But when messages are delivered by “outsiders” from legal, HR, or compliance, they seem collateral and secondary to day-to-day business. Managers, who have the most influence on the daily work environment, need to be given more responsibility for making values-based behavior a reality.

This means giving them new skills. In addition to providing the legal background, training should focus on developing managers into the kinds of leaders who can serve as role models, communicate the business benefits of aligning behavior with values, address behavioral issues quickly and effectively, and welcome employee concerns when problems arise. With the proper skills, leaders could prevent many of the issues that have led to today’s maze of regulatory structures and seemingly random messages.

From values to behavior

With day-to-day, subtler behaviors creating as much if not more damage than illegal conduct, values need to be driving behavior change, not just the law. Legal compliance is compulsory and important, but it’s important to remember why the laws were enacted. If racial and sexual discrimination hadn’t been issues, we wouldn’t have needed to create legislation to address them. If all leaders acted honestly, Sarbanes-Oxley wouldn’t be a common term in our business vocabularies. The laws are a means to an end: their true objective is to manage behaviors. To achieve that end, we need to focus on values, link them to simple behaviors, communicate their importance, and give leaders the skills to make them come alive.

BIOGRAPHY: Stephen M. Paskoff, Esq

Stephen M. Paskoff, Esq, is the founder and President of ELI®, a training company that teaches professional workplace conduct, helping clients translate their values into behaviors, increase employee contribution, build respectful and inclusive cultures, and reduce legal and ethical risk. He pioneered the development of interactive, engaging training addressing fair employment issues by providing practical skills people can apply everyday at work. Paskoff, who is co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Compliance Training and Communication Committee, is a recognized speaker, author, and expert in helping companies build cultures that foster fairness, ethics, and integrity while minimizing the risk of lawsuits and scandals. Prior to establishing ELI in 1986, he was a trial attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a partner in a management law firm.