Value transformation in 21st century organizations.

Green, Daryl D.

INTRODUCTION

Change is coming faster and faster for organizations. Many organizations feel that modest structure changes and slight strategy modifications are enough to counter popular cultural influences. As the baby boomer generation retires, a new generation of leaders will replace them. These new leaders will cross age, gender, race, and geography. A recent Department of Labor report, Futurework: Trends and Challenges for the Work in the 21st Century, reveals that this rapid demographic shift will impact the future dynamics of organizations (Department of Labor, 1999). The purpose of this article is to provide an exploratory insight related to the new dynamics of a new workforce in American culture. This paper addresses two major objectives. The first objective is to identify the values of the current workforce and compare it with the Emergent Workforce in 21st century organizations. The second objective is to propose possible leadership styles in order to address any value chasms with workforce transition. The following discussion will be investigated: (a) an evaluation of the current workforce, (b) the Emergent Workforce value issues, and (c) possible solutions to issues of value alignment in the future.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Corporate culture plays a critical role in organizational value formation. Organizational culture relates to the underlying set of key values, beliefs, and norms shared by the workforce. Organizational culture development is amazing considering different people have varying values. Furthermore, Bass (1999) maintained that collectivistic values strengthen commitment within an organization. Malphurs (2004) argued that organizational values co-exist on two planes: personal and corporate. Core organizational values guide the operations. On a personal level, individuals have a set of core values that dictate their actions. Organizational leaders then find themselves as institutional advocates; they influence how followers perceive organizational values. The values and beliefs of an individual are embedded in a culture and affect a leader's behavior. Therefore, an effective organization must contain leaders with high integrity who understand their corporate culture. However, Hackman and Johnson suggested that leaders cannot simply impose their values on followers. Given this perspective, there is an obvious possibility that personal and organizational values may clash. If leaders do not possess morals consistent with the organization's values, there may be problems. In fact, Draft (1991) argued that individuals within an organization find themselves dealing with competing values. Therefore, leaders must prioritize which values are the most important for them and their organizations.

Values provide personal guidance in decisions and supply the basic convictions that provide a framework for personal conduct. Values are considered to be the staple and cornerstone for an individual's moral compass; they carry a judgmental element that tells an individual what is right or wrong. Values include both content and intensity component. The content component identifies a mode of conduct and its importance while the intensity component how important it is to an individual (Robbins, 2005). Organizational values are a key component of its character and signal to followers the organization's bottom-line. Kouzes and Posner (2003) argued that most employees admire leaders with high values, such as honest, forward-looking, inspiring, and competent. Conversely, an individual's value system will help determine a person's involvement in an organization or a cause. A well-informed employee who understands his own value should align himself with a similar minded organization. However, the problem arises when the employee's values do not align with the organization.

Furthermore, Hackman and Johnson (2000) explained that leaders and followers are also interrelated. A large portion of an individual's values are formed in the early stages of life through parents, teachers, family, friends, and his or her environment. Simultaneously, ethics relates to instrumental values where values influence a person's behavior. Ciulla (2004) maintained that there are so few models of businesses and leaders, operating with ethical principles. Consequently, unethical leadership provides a dangerous model for today's workforce. A Prentice Hall survey in 1990 revealed that 68 percent of the people surveyed believed that unethical behavior of executives was the leading cause of the decline in organizational productivity and success (Ciulla, 2004). This perceived low standard of unethical conduct by senior management allows some employees to feel justified in their misbehavior through such acts as absenteeism, petty theft, and poor job performance. Values and ethics are therefore critical factors in dealing this workforce transition.

METHODS

This investigation provides exploratory data by utilizing comparative analysis. Comparative study provides a process that enables the development of more generalized results than individual case studies can provide. This investigation conducts an extensive literary review of critical documents, including scholarly opinions and practitioner discussions. The primary objective of this literature review is to increase depth of knowledge in this field in order to make a relevant analysis. Electronic databases, such as EBSCO Host and the Internet, were searched using the following key words: 'values,' corporate values,' '21st century organizations,' 'emergent workforce,' and 'leadership.' Through this process, there is an opportunity to discover the gaps in research as they relate to value transition. Therefore, this study incorporates an examination and review of the current workforce and the new replacement workforce value system.

CHANGING WORK CULTURE

The current workforce represents a conservative structure that is rapidly changing. For the first time in American history, there are four generations in the workforce. The demographics, which are referred to by many names, are the Matures who were born before 1946; Baby Boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964; Generation X, those born 1965 between and 1978; and Generation Y, those born after 1978 (Kaplan-Leiserson, 2005). Currently, most organizations are being managed by the Mature and Baby Boomer generations with Generation X and Y on the upward climb in organizations. Since the 1990's, the fundamental belief systems of workers have changed. The American workforce is experiencing a major shift in basic attitudes about work, compensation, and relationships as it relates to employment. Grantham and Ware argue that people's workforce attitudes are shaped by fundamental beliefs. This workplace attitude is then amplified by reacting to the behaviors of others in the environment (Grantham & Ware, 2005).

The recent mirage of scandals and unethical dealings by both governmental and business senior managers has made the workforce skeptical of today's leadership. Uncertainty and pressure become a staple of the current workforce as employees devote more time to their jobs out of necessity. As a result, organizational relationships are being damaged. According to Caudron (1996), management has lost credibility and trust of workers. She further cites that the primary reason trust has degenerated is not because of the loss of job security, but is due to managers mishandling the workforce changes by treating employees inconsistently, thereby losing credibility in the process. The enormous demographic changes within the 21st century American workforce are creating organizational growth pains. For the first time in American history, there are four generations coexisting in the workplace (Hankin, 2005). For most businesses, these changes may appear sudden.

However, since 1998, the Spherion study has been annually reporting on these new workforce dynamics and their impacts on organizational culture.

Harding (2000) explained that a new generation of workers will produce significant human resource problems for traditional organizations. He described this new generation as the Emergent Workforce, which crosses age, gender, race, and geography. To further understand these value changes, a distinction must be made between the current and emergent workers. The current workers will be called Traditional workers; this group is heavily dominated by Baby Boomer leadership. The Emergent worker will represent the Emergent Workforce for this discussion. According to a 2003 national Spherion workforce study of more than 3,000 working adults, more workers are embracing the emergent mindset. This mindset is characterized by being self-directed, self-motivated, and self-reliant. The results showed 31 percent of the polled workers as emergent, 48 percent as migrating (moving from traditional to emergent), and 21 percent as traditional. By 2007, it is predicted that more than 50 percent of the workforce will be emergent (Ali, 2006).

CULTURAL VALUE CLASHES

As pop culture continues to bear down on today's organizations, traditional values will be challenged by this Emergent workforce. In fact, economic, social, and other influences have already impacted the value system of today's workers. Furthermore, Yukl (2002) suggested generational differences challenge modern leaders who manage diverse organizations. Obviously, incongruent values held by employees damage group dynamics by creating unhealthy conflicts in an organization. A leader's behavior is also influenced by cultural values and tradition (Diversity Connection, 2006). These value conflicts can escalate over time. Organ and Bateman (1991) suggested that the existence of a hierarchy, competition, and constraints on behavior guarantee that frustration will be frequent in an organization. Organizations communicate their expectations both formally and informally through their corporate culture. Scholars call this environment organizational culture (Organ & Bateman, 1991). In most businesses, organizational culture has been a domain where institutions try to promote the values of a more efficient and effective organization.

These Emergent values attack the heart of traditional organizations and thus, provide an avenue for organizational conflict between leaders and followers. This new set of workers is driven by a new set of values and job expectations. First, the Emergent Workforce is more concerned with gaining new experience and opportunities than job security, while the traditional employees are more concerned with job stability (Harding, 2000). This would also explain that emergent employees are less loyal than traditional employees. Traditional and emergent workers are defined by their vastly views on values as shown in Table 1.

In the Spherion study, 88 percent of emergent employees felt that loyalty was not related to employment length while 94 percent of the traditional employees felt loyalty meant staying with a company for a long period. Emergent workers were also found to have a low tolerance for low performers and expected workers to pursue their own career development (Harding, 2000). Another key value shift among generations is their priorities. While Baby Boomer males in previous generations were more work-focused, Generation X and Y employees are more family-focused. Younger generations are also less accepting of traditional gender roles than previous generations (Harding, 2000). This Emergent Workforce also seeks a more spiritual workplace that emphasizes personal integrity and accountability (Harding, 2000). Value conflicts across generations have a bearing on good group dynamics. As more US workers migrant to an emergent paradigm, traditional workers will become a passing fad (Spherion, 2005). Thus, today's workforce is becoming more complicated to manage due to the evolution of the Emergent Workforce shown in Table 2.

EMERGING LEADERSHIP ISSUES

Organizations must provide effective leadership to address these value changes. First, organizations need to communicate their organizational values to employees. Few executives take the time to explain their values; therefore, it leaves employees guessing about corporate value systems. Today, many organizations operate under a modern cultural cloud while the vast majority of new employees operate in a pop culture. Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004) maintained that 21st century organizations must change their value creation system. They note the new system as an individual-centered co-creation of value between consumers and company. Second, leaders must exert more energy in influencing and guiding their followers about corporate values. Malphurs (2004) explains, "Though leadership is an amoral process, it is the leader who is decidedly moral or immoral." Therefore, leaders can heavily influence the buy-in of followers to organizations' values. However, a leader must be assured of his or her core values first. Leaders must then model the organizational values to employees because it critical for his credibility among his followers. Third, organizations must develop shared valued with employees. Leaders must make a conscious effort to promote these shared values within and outside of their organizations. Shared values help to unify both managers and employees on the vision and mission of an organization. According to Malphurs (2004), congruent values are the answer to these value conflicts. In mixing modern and pop culture values in organizations, incongruent values are generated. Therefore, there will be conflicting values held by the modern organization and the competing values espoused by the Emergent Workforce in the postmodern period. This could create chaos.

FUTURE AHEAD

Global competition and the shortage of workers have made diversity a center-point for most organizations. Analyzing the current and future workforce value systems will provide a good understanding of the issues associated with the creation of a new workforce. When Generation X and Echo Boomers finally assume these leadership positions, organizations may face growing tension. Apparently, the value systems do not align perfectly in the current organizational structure for most organizations. The divergent value alignments of the Emergent Workforce will create both institutional issues and innovations. New ways of leading employees and developing a new breed of leaders will be needed. Therefore, creative ways of stimulating this human capital resource asset will need to be further investigated. There are many questions to still ponder. Are organizations willing to modify their core values? Will baby boomers act like mature leaders in this organizational transformation or will they operate in a selfish manner? The future has endless possibilities. The paper highlighted the importance of the impending value system chasm between the current and future workforce for the 21st century organization. The understanding gained through this exploratory framework may help managers in evolving better management strategies for handling a transitional workforce in the public sector. This effort contributes to the current body of literature by further examining how to effectively manage corporate culture and values for 21st century organizations.

REFERENCES

Ali, B. (2006). The "Emergent workforce" of the 21st century. Workforce Development Department. Retrieved on April 22, 2008, from http://www.icecentricnews.com/workforce/ e_article000363827.cfm?x=b11,0,w .

Bass, B. (1999). Bass & Stogdill's handbook of leadership. New York: The Free Press.

Cauchon, D. (2005). Who will take care of an older population. USA Today. Retrieved January 26, 2006, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-10-24-finances-usat_x.htm.

Ciulla, J. (2004). Ethics, the heart of leadership. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Daft, R. (1995). Organization Theory and Design. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company.

Department of Labor (1999). Futurework: Trends and challenges for the work in the 21st century. Occupational Outlook Quarterly.

Diversity Connection (2006). More than a generation gap. Received on September 15, 2006, from http://www.2.umdnj.edu/aaeeoweb/diversity_conn/index.htm.

Grantham, C. and Ware, J. (2005). The rise of the emergent worker. Work Design Collaborative.

Hackman, M. & Johnson, C. (2000). Leadership: A communication perspective. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

Hankin, H. (2005). Can we recognize our future employees. Workspan, 48(9), 12-13.

Harding, K. (2000). Understanding emerging workforce trends. Retrieved January 6, 2006, from http://www.dinet/article.php?article_id=129.

Kaplan-Leiserson, E. (2005). The Changing Workforce. Training & Development, 10-11.

Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2003). Credibility. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Malphurs, A. (2004). Values-Driven leadership. Grand Rapids, MI: Bakers Books.

Organ, D. and Bateman, T. (1991). Organizational Behavior. Homewood, IL and Boston, MA: Irwin

Prahalad, C. and Ramaswamy, V. (2004). The future of competition: Co-creating unique value with customers. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Robbins, S. (2005). Organizational behavior. NY: Prentice Hall.

Spherion (2005). The Spherion Emerging Workforce Study. Retrieved on April 22, 2008, from http://www.spherion.com/downloads/Emerging_Workforce/EW_ExecutiveSum.pdf.

Yukl, G. (2002). Leadership in Organizations. Delhi, India: Pearson Education.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Daryl D. Green is a Department of Energy program manager with over 18 years of professional management experience. Currently, he is a professor at Knoxville College. Mr. Green received a bachelor's degree in engineering and a master's degree in organizational management. He is also a Regent University doctoral candidate.

Daryl D. Green, Knoxville College

Table 1. Traditional and Emergent Worker Value Matrix

 Values Traditional Worker
 Characteristics

Loyalty Defined as tenure
Job Change Viewed as damaging to one's career
Career Path Considered company's responsibility to provide
Advancement Based on length of service
Job Security Required as a driver a driver of commitment

 Values Emergent Worker
 Characteristics

Loyalty Defined as contribution
Job Change Viewed as a vehicle for growth
Career Path Considered employee's responsibility to pursue
Advancement Based on performance
Job Security Rejected as a driver of commitment

Source: 1997, 1999, 2003 Emerging Workforce Studies

Table 2. The Evolution of the Emergent Workforce Matrix

Type of Employees 1997 1999 2003 2007

Emergent 20% 22% 31% 52%
Migrating 46% 49% 48% 40%
Traditional 34% 29% 21% 8%

Source: 1997, 1999, 2003 Emerging Workforce Studies