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Does it Take More Than Ideals? How Counter-Ideal Value Congruence Shapes Employees’ Trust in the Organization

Journal of Business Ethics volume 149, pages 987–1003 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

Research on value congruence rests on the assumption that values denote desirable behaviors and ideals that employees and organizations strive to approach. In the present study, we develop and test the argument that a more complete understanding of value congruence can be achieved by considering a second type of congruence based on employees’ and organizations’ counter-ideal values (i.e., what both seek to avoid). We examined this proposition in a time-lagged study of 672 employees from various occupational and organizational backgrounds. We used difference scores as well as polynomial regression and response surface analyses to test our hypotheses. Consistent with our hypotheses, results reveal that counter-ideal value congruence has unique relations to employees’ trust in the organization that go beyond the effects of ideal value congruence. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of this expanded perspective on value congruence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, China Europe International Business School, 699 Hongfeng Road, Shanghai, 201206, China

    Sebastian C. Schuh & Katherine R. Xin

  2. Department of Management and Economics, Kühne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany

    Niels Van Quaquebeke & Natalija Keck

  3. Department of Organisation and Personnel Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Rotterdam, Netherlands

    Natalija Keck

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Anja S. Göritz

  5. Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    David De Cremer

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  1. Sebastian C. Schuh
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  2. Niels Van Quaquebeke
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Correspondence to Sebastian C. Schuh.

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Schuh, S.C., Van Quaquebeke, N., Keck, N. et al. Does it Take More Than Ideals? How Counter-Ideal Value Congruence Shapes Employees’ Trust in the Organization. J Bus Ethics 149, 987–1003 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3097-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3097-7

Keywords

  • Counter-ideal values
  • Ideal values
  • Person-environment fit
  • P-E fit
  • Value congruence