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Synonyms

Organizational culture

Definition

Organizational values can be defined as beliefs about socially or personally desirable end states or actions that are explicitly or implicitly shared by members of an organization (e.g., Schwartz, 1992). Hence, organizational values function as guides to what is seen as good and important in the organization (VandenBos, 2007; Williams, 1970). Moreover, they are influencing the selection and evaluation of decisions and actions in an organization (Kluckhohn, 1951; Rokeach, 1973; Schwartz, 1992).

In line with the general conceptualization of values, organizational values transcend single situations and are relatively stable over time (Schwartz, 1999). While the sharedness or agreement in the organization is a key defining characteristic of organizational values (Rousseau, 1990), the existence of subcultures in an organization is also possible (e.g., van den Berg & Wilderom, 2004).

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The conceptualization of organizational values differs...

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Mueller, K., Straatmann, T. (2014). Organizational Values. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2031

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