With the ongoing challenge of attracting and retaining the right people for an organisation, there is unquestionably an increased emphasis on being the "good corporate citizen" and being an "ethical employer".

In the foreseeable future, these sorts of attributes are also likely to be required of any organisation wanting to do business with government agencies in Australia.

Many organisations develop Mission Statements, Vision Statements and Organisational Values Statements through which they try to define the qualities of organisational behaviour which they purport to practice as a fundamental element of business management.

But are they applied in practice?

Are your people WALKING THE TALK?

Unfortunately, in too many cases, the answer is "no" and organisational behaviour (and management tolerance of some individuals' personal behaviour) is  often at odds with the stated values. The most common example of this is when the pursuit of end of month results (short-term view) takes priority over the maintenance of values (long-term vision).

These contradictions between organisational values and organisational behaviour create disharmony, demotivate people, compromise teamwork, trigger disputes and grievances and damage employee retention and the employer brand.

If you want to commit your organisation to a values-based approach to organisational behaviour, there are a few pointers on what such commitments mean in practice:

1. If you can't practise it, don't preach it - only commit to values which are achievable in practice
2. Educate people about the values and what they mean in their roles (starting with the Board and the senior executive team)
3. Build desired behaviours into performance measures and professional development activities
4. Promote the values to all stakeholders and again and again ........
5. Maintain an alert, active and continuous monitoring of organisational behaviour (especially at management and supervisory level) to verify that people are practising the values consistently
6. Look for contradictions and address them promptly  
7. Recognise the role models and celebrate the successes
8. Learn from the failures and support those who struggle to adapt
9. Don't tolerate contradictions and discipline those who refuse to adapt
10. Continuously review, evaluate, refine .......................... 

If your organisation has implemented some sort of values statement and you want a reality check, just pick a value and ask people if they can articulate:

• 1 thing that the organisation does that reflects the commitment to that value and
• 1 thing that the organisation does that contradicts the commitment to that value

Then celebrate the positives and work on the improvement agenda.

If you would like to explore ways in which Ridgeline HR can assist your business in developing the right culture, call Peter Maguire on 0438 533 311.