Last week, Ross Business School professor, Dr. Wayne Baker, gave an excellent presentation about his new book, United America, at my monthly Leaders Connect Breakfast. Contrary to the prevailing view that America is divided by significant differences between various groups, Baker’s research provides surprising truth about American values and identity.
United America shows that Americans are united by a set of ten values.
“Americans may seem to be hopelessly divided, but United America shows that Americans are united by a set of 10 core values-values that are strongly held by a large majority, shared across demographic, religious and political lines, and stable over time. Based on four national surveys conducted by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, these 10 values include respect for others, symbolic patriotism, freedom of expression, pursuit of happiness, and justice and fairness.”
In concluding his presentation, Dr. Baker gave some tips to business leaders about how to apply his research to developing a strong corporate culture. Here are a few of his suggestions:
- Identify your actual values: Be sure that the values you promote are the actual values that the company follows.
- Identify and correct misalignment of values and practices, ad hoc policies, strategies, etc: One of the worst practices is to communicate that an organization holds one set of values, when in practice it follows values which go against what is communicated.
- Create new practices, policies, procedures, etc: These practices should align with the actual values which the organization follows.
- Once you have stated a value, be sure to stand by it at all costs: Don’t claim to promote values which you cannot uphold.
For more details, you can watch the video of Dr. Baker’s presentation, or order his book, United America.
Please share your thoughts with me in the comments section below.