Just as our personality, personal history and strengths shape the ways in which we view the world, ourselves, others, and how we approach our work, our personal values also play a significant role in the shape of our personal and professional lives. Values are the things that we consider foundational in terms of their importance in our life and the way we live it. A value is the importance a person attaches to something that serves as a guide to belief, attitude and action. Values are powerful and often unconscious. They motivate us and guide our thinking and our actions.

Milton Rokeach (1973)^[1] defined a personal value as an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to its opposite. A value system is an enduring organisation of beliefs concerning preferred modes of conduct or end-states along an importance continuum.

Grunert and Scherhorn (1990: 97-107)^[2] identified five features of personal values. Values were described as:

1. concepts or beliefs;
2. about desirable behaviours and/or end states;
3. that go beyond specific situations;
4. guide the selection or evaluation of events and behaviours; and
5. are ordered by a certain hierarchical importance

Where do values come from? For most of us, our values and value systems are shaped in childhood through the family and cultural experiences we are exposed to as we grow. So, ‘hard work’, ‘education’, ‘respect for elders’, ‘service’, ‘gratitude’ may be strong early influences. Conversely, ‘stand up for yourself’, ‘don’t trust _____’, ‘avoid conflict’, ‘the school of hard knocks’ may be ingrained in our development.

Values are not abstract or passive – they are active and real as evidenced in our attitudes towards others, in our decision making, in the way we talk about things (and people), and how we commit our time and resources. Sometimes you will hear, especially in organisational settings, the terms “espoused values” (what we say we value) and “values in action” (what we demonstrate we value through our actions). The same is true for our personal values. For example, I may say I value “family” but if I fail to devote my time and attention to my family then, while I may indeed value family, I evidently value something else more highly.

Aligning your values to your work can be important in maintaining a positive and healthy lifestyle, including mental health. Misaligned values – for example, where you value integrity and honesty but feel compromised by the demands to “spin” events or “edit out” facts that don’t support an organisational position – can create distress, anxiety and negative feelings about self-worth.  This so called values incongruence can cause distress if not resolved.

To help you explore your personal values, you can choose between the two values identification tools provided here – or you can take your own approach to identifying and articulating your personal values.

The first tool is The Rokeach Value Survey (RVS), which is a classification system of values. The system consists of two sets of values, 18 individual value items in each. One set is called Terminal Values, the other Instrumental Values. Terminal Values refer to desirable end-states of existence. These are the ultimate ambitions or goals that a person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime. These values vary among different groups of people in different cultures. Instrumental Values refer to preferable modes of behaviour or means of achieving the terminal values.

Just as individuals have values, so too do organisations. These are the Australian Public Service (APS) Values.

Following is the list of State and Territory Values. Please link to your State’s or Territory’s site and compare the values with the APS Values and your own.

SA Values:  SA Public Sector Values:

We then have the Code of Ethics – which has the force of a regulation

Over the top of this a more extensive set of values has been developed. They only sit in policy. These have been used for this analysis.

TAS Values:  Tasmania does not have a whole of service set of values, each agency determines their own values. We do have the State Service Principles  and Code of Conduct.

Organisational values are stated to establish the principles and behaviours that are prioritised for the organisation and its employees.  Of course, just because an organisation (or a team or an individual) publishes a list of values it doesn’t mean they practise those values. There are “espoused values” and “values in practice” – the “way things are really done around here”. Naturally, we want to ensure the espoused and practised values are aligned.

Like personal values, organisational values help:

• Establish “the way we do things”
• Prioritise actions
• Guide decision making