2 Concept of Human Values

Learning Outcomes
Introduction
Nature of human values Prominent human values
Functions of human values
Importance of human values in business organization
Summary

1. LEARNING OUTCOMES

After studying this module, students will be able to understand:
Meaning of human values Nature of human values Prominent human values Functions of human values
Importance of human values in business organization

MODULE 1: CONCEPT OF HUMAN VALUES INTRODUCTION:

Human beings have some sort of values attached to them like the way all entities living on this earth pursue. The difference here which persists is that, these values are called by different nomenclatures. For example, it can be human ethical and moral values. Out of these three, human values are very essential. These values reside within each individual and the same is reflected by the individual’s character. Formally, these are expressed in various laws, declarations, debates, meetings, conventions etc. thereby protecting and encouraging human rights. The first and important step taken by many countries around the globe has been the recognition of these human values universally and encouraging the implementation of these values in practical. The immediate aim of all these efforts is to integrate every human being physically as well as psychologically and the ultimate goal is to inculcate positive attitude, thinking, and behavior and utilize these universal human values as the basis of developing cordial human relationships, in the spirit of mutual respect of those values. Therefore, human values are those inspiring factor that encourage us to utilize our moral values, particularly in the situation of conflict, so that we avoid our negative attitude when dealing with confrontational situation.

MEANING OF HUMAN VALUES:

Human values can be defined as the belief, principles, followings, set standard that individual follows as their guidelines in daily activities. These human values are an important part of human nature. Without these values human beings are like flower without fragrance. Professional ethics are mainly built on the basis of these principle human values. From the societal point of view, these values are set of behavioral practices that individuals choose to practice in the light of maintaining interpersonal relationship. In the present era, human values plays a pivotal role in maintain peace and protecting society. Establishing human values into practical form contribute towards maintaining morality within the society. By correlating human values with personal relations, human being can live in harmony with others.

NATURE OF HUMAN VALUES

I. Human values are universal:

Human values are universal in nature. These values are mutually shared by all human beings, no matter to which religion, caste, creed, culture, nationality or history they belong to. Some of the eminent human values can be grouped as follows:

Imbibe civility in nature. Giving respect to others.
Having honesty in behavior.
Developing a habit of sharing among individuals.
Develop loyalty, solidarity and fairness in behavior.
Establish a feeling of brotherhood, friendship, empathy, love and compassion for others.
Inculcating openness, listening, welcoming, acceptance, recognition and appreciation in nature.

II. Human values and culture:

Human values are specifically concerned to culture. Each persisting culture has its own value system, ethics and ethos. In countries like India and Japan, value system occupies the center stage in all activities, including those in business enterprises. Behavior that exert a positive relation with other human being are rewarded and having empathetic behavior for others are highly valued. On the other hand, behaviors which are anti-social are always condemned and are punished by the society. Therefore, culture promotes cultivating positive values in human being.

III. Implantation of Human values:

The initial process of implanting human values begins with the childhood of human being. These values are passed on by parents to their child and are further implanted throughout the child upbringing. As the child grows through its life phases, they learn more about these values from their friends groups, teachers, elders, leaders and society. The values which are learnt includes honesty, discipline, love, peace, justice, trust, civility, loyalty, appreciation and openness for the environment. In addition to this, subordination of individual interest before the larger interest is more desirable human values. People who hold outstanding human values are usually regarded as well as admired. It is generally visible in society for the individuals who are encouraged in profession like teachers, doctors, lawyers which are viewed as persons holding high moral and ethical code of conduct for their profession. These kind of noble human values are highly encouraged in society and on the other hand negative values are discouraged.

IV. Human values encourage peace:

If there is peace in the environment it encourages prosperity and this is attained by inculcating finer human values. It is by implanting such finer human values; people can better appreciate and give respect for the peaceful relationship among individuals. By putting human values into practice and it ultimately leads to bringing prosperity. Thus, these values can prove to be an encouraging factor for peace. Also, by putting these values into human relationship, it will surely enhance better mutual understanding among individuals. As far as business organizations are concerned, if these values are better cultivated into the organizational culture by the leaders, it is surely going to strengthen the foundation of workplace i.e. strong integration of human resources which would further lead to bringing peace and prosperity in the organization.

V. Human values encourage individual growth:

From the point of view to encourage individual growth, human values are of great importance. The basic thing is to focus on the self personality development. Complete knowledge regarding oneself is the first and foremost thing that needs to be taken care of. Today, there are many situations, where many people rely on other to follow their ideas to be successful which is completely fair because for the simple reason that we all have role models which influence our thinking. But still there exist a thin line discrepancy between individuals perspective of doing things. Human values which follow the basic features of Indian education focus on growth and advancement of individual. Indian education system which is the oldest system in the world has such qualities that do not exist anywhere in the world.

VI. Difference among Human values, Ethical values and Moral values:

Although three of them fall under the wide category of value system, there exists a thin line difference among them. Ethical values can be categorized as respectful behavior towards other human being, plants as well as animals without harmony them, while moral values are in fact the same but today moralizing rhetoric is not well received. On the other hand, human values are considered much more as developing positive attitude directly concerned with the behavior.

PROMINENT HUMAN VALUES:

Some of the prominent human values can be categorized as follows:

Genuine: One should have genuine feeling for others. Behavior should be honest, warm and heartily for people around you. Individual’s feeling should be such that it is felt genuinely by others.
Modesty: One must be humble in his/ her approach. There should not be a feeling of superiority within an individual. Modesty and humanity in nature have a far more everlasting impact on the people.
Self-Respect: One should try to be someone whom people around give respect and seek advice from. One who never consider material gains over and above his/her own moral values. One should never allow anyone to move you away from doing what is right and acceptable.
Rationality: One must be rational in its thinking. Your values should be such that it is not easily influenced by other’s thinking. Have a rational approach towards comparing situations, acts, people etc. Don’t let prejudice or emotion affect you or your judgment.
Courteous: One should always show courtesy while behaving with others. Always adopt an approach of good manners even though others around you may not.
Incorrupt: One should opt a strong approach for withholding one’s life values. Don’t let outside powers to corrupt you. It must be known to the external environment that you are not the person whose moral values and reactions are saleable.
Civility: One must have a great civic sense. It is very pertinent to know how to behave in society and extend courtesy to others.
Wisdom: It is important to have knowledge but more important to have wisdom. One should try to understand the real qualities of people and apply his/her wisdom for the greater good of humanity.
Wholesome: One should be conducive of not only physical wellbeing but also psychological as well as spiritual wellbeing also. One must be completely attentive and active while interacting with others.
Charity: Establishing a feeling of empathetic and compassionate behavior towards others helps the individual to grow his/her personality. Learn to extend a helping hand towards other even though they themselves are not able to help you.

FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN VALUES:

Values are composed of different characteristics. Most of the imbibed values are learnt in the very early stages in our life from family, relatives, friends, school, media and other different sources of society, which later on becomes a part of our personality. These values are generally shared and reinforced by those with whom we interact. It can be individual specific or can be general. It can be different from culture to culture. One may value aggressiveness, another reverse and third may give little attention to this dimension collectively, thus, having divergent views on a single topic of concern. One society may value individual achievement as in USA whereas another may emphasize family unity and support as in India. The values of hard work and individual achievement are often associated with individual capitalist societies whereas holistic and spiritual growth may be the goal of others. Therefore, human values serve a lot of functions. The main functions are as follows:

(i) Values mend various prospects of individual’s personality and also influence the socio-cultural aspects of

the individual.

(ii) Values build up different pillars supporting the society and integrate social relations.

(iii) Values play an important role in the integration and fulfillment of man’s basic desires in a stable and consistent manner which is necessary for his living.

(iv) Values influence individual’s attitude and serves as the basis for evaluating the behavior of others.

(v)They have an important role to play in the conduct of one’s social life.

(vi) They facilitate to create norms for day to day behavior.

(vii) Values are mainly originated from experiences of various social actions made up of both individual and social responses and attitudes.

RELATIONSHIP OF HUMAN VALUES AND CORPORATE SECTOR:

In the present era, as the corporate sector is expanding day by day business firms are becoming more competitive in nature and for the system to deal with complexities with peace and harmony, human values acquired an important place in our socio-economic environment. Human values are the guiding forces that take into account human element when we interact with other human beings. These values can be categorized as positive forces that create humanity bonds among individuals. In other words, it creates reciprocity of behavior with the help of which strong and harmonious mutual relationships are developed.

In the context of corporate sector, the main aim of leaders in the organization is to create an environment of strong human values. Organizations strive hard to create and maintain value for all its stakeholders in the sense that it is the moral obligation on the part of the organization to serve satisfactorily towards all its direct or indirect stakeholders. For example: Owners expect business firms to maximize their wealth, customers expect that they are being served with justifiable kind of product and services, employees giving services to their organization expect to be compensated timely, suppliers expect that they are to be paid in time and at last, society expect that the organization maintain its moral and social responsibility within time etc. All these expectation from different stakeholders needs to be taken care of by the organization and is the value system that needs to be sustained.

IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN VALUES IN BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS:

Management is the process of optimum utilization of organizational physical as well as human resources to the extent of attaining its objectives in addition to serving the society at large. Therefore, human value here also needs to be considered in order to maintain cordial human interactions during working of the business entity. Thus, the process of management deals with three important factors:

Optimum utilization of physical as well as human resources. Attainment of organizational objectives.

Serving the society at the end.

Thus, co-relating the human values as well as the ethical values with in the business activities can prove to be very fruitful for the business organization. This can provide the business units with abundant amount of opportunities as well as information for growth in the modern business world.

In this changing, business scenario, it is very pertinent for the business organization to develop ethical as well as human values on high priority basis within the organization. Human values imbibes a common shared organizational culture by binding people together which ultimately leads to increasing the organizational effectiveness. It helps to binds the people collectively by combining their vision and mission for the larger interest of the organization which will result in contributing towards organizational performance. Organizational values are separate for each company and each business house is depicted by its followed culture. Therefore, it is very essential for the organization to think about their organizational culture first before planning for the next years. Hence, the key benefits of values in an organization are as follows:

Human values help to contribute towards organizations performance and productivity.

It directs the behavior of human being for achieving organization vision. Binds people together creating a sharing culture.

Helps people to develop common vision.
Enhance communication and teamwork.
Develop strong organizational culture with better understanding of business goals..
Encourage innovation to support organization competitiveness. Improvement in serving customer real needs.
Provides necessary information for the management for better business decisions.

NEED FOR REVIVAL OF HUMAN VALUES IN BUSINESS SECTOR:

Today, there is a dire need for the organization to re-establish the core human values with the business organization for the simple reason that now the organization’s motto is not only limited to maximize the profit but it also need to fulfill some corporate social responsibilities on its own. There is a large awareness about ethical and moral business practices in the market. The core area of ethical leadership, value education, integrity and workplace ethics are of great importance. Profit earning is not only the end option. Hence, human values are of supreme importance and can somehow become our savior.

SUMMARY:

Human beings have some sort of values attached to them like the way all entities living on this earth pursue. The difference here which persists is that, these values are called by different nomenclatures. Human values can be defined as the belief, principles, followings, set standard that individual follows as their guidelines in daily activities. These human values are an important part of human nature. Without these values human beings are like flower without fragrance. Professional ethics are mainly built on the basis of these principle human values. . Establishing human values into practical form contribute towards maintaining morality within the society.

SELF-ASSESSMENT

Define Human values and discuss prominent human values.
Explain the nature of human values.
What is the importance of human values for the business houses?

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REFERENCES:

Pramod Sharma, “Business Ethics and Corporate Values: An Indian Perspective” Ravitanaya Publications, Shimla, 2017
S.K Bhatia, “Business Ethics and Corporate Governance” Deep & Deep Publications, New Delhi, 2004
A.C. Fernando, “Business Ethics and Corporate Governance” Pearson Publication, 2013 Harris & Hartman, “Organizational Behavior” Jaico Publication House, 2002
French, Bell & Vohra, “Organization Development” Pearson Prentice Hall Publication, 2009
S B Gogate, “Human Values & Professional Ethics” Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 2011