Identification of values relevant to business research

In the face of increasing global competition, Human Resource (HR) professionals have been charged with ensuring that their organizations' human assets are adding the maximum value to products and services. One way to do this is to make an effective match between individual values and those that the organization espouses and requires. This article suggests that advances in maximizing human assets are being impeded because HR professionals lack a meaningful vocabulary with which to discuss values. Lists or taxonomies of values currently in the literature (Allport, G. W., Vernon, P. E., & Lindzey, G. (1960). A study of values. Boston: Houghton Mifflin; England, G. W. (1967). The manager and his values: An international perspective from the United States, Japan, Korea, India, and Australia. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger; Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. New York: The Free Press) are not framed in the common language of contemporary business. This article presents an alternative list of values derived from interviews with representatives from the business community including senior HR managers and executive recruitment professionals. The implications of this empirically derived list of value statements for the management of human resources are discussed, including the integration of HR and strategic functions and applications within traditional HR practices.

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