Values Work: A Process Study of the Emergence and Performance of Organizational Values Practices

Abstract

Existing cognitive and cultural perspectives on values have undertheorized the processes whereby values come to be practiced in organizations. We address this lacuna by studying the emergence and performance of what we call values practices . Drawing on an analysis of the development of an honor code within a large business school, we theorize the multiple kinds of values work involved in dealing with pockets of concern, knotting local concerns into action networks, performing values practices, and circulating values discourse. We conclude by discussing some opportunities and challenges that values work implies for future organizational scholarship.