Three Alternatives to Organizational Value Change and Formation

Abstract

This study delineates three alternatives to organizational value change and formation: leader-prescribed top-down planned value change initiatives, spontaneous decentralized value formation among employees, and interactive dialogical value formation through joint dialogue between leaders and employees. Data collected from two companies, ETS and HPS (both pseudonyms), show that organizational values were either consciously changed or spontaneously formed through three alternatives between 1980 and the early 2000s. Under the top-down value change alternative, official values were changed and accompanied by status quo and indifferent patterns of value commitments among employees. Under the spontaneous decentralized alternative, multiple value orientations formed and surfaced a competitive pattern of value commitments among employees. Under this alternative, the official values remained unchanged. Under the interactive dialogical alternative, official values were radically changed or incrementally updated. Employees revealed an appreciation for different value orientations and a pattern of reformative value commitments.