Personal values are formed in early childhood and are affected strongly by the values of parents and the child’s environment. The place and time period of the first few years of most people’s lives have a great effect on the forma- tion of values. Statistics expert Daniel Yankelovich believes that middle-class values give Americans a certain amount of self-esteem, a fairly clear idea of who they are, and especially a feeling that somehow their personal lives make a positive impact on the lives of others.
values
The worth or importance you attach to different factors in your life.
values systems Frameworks people use in developing beliefs about themselves, others, and how they should be treated.
corporate culture A system of shared values and assumptions throughout an organization.
Yet, Yankelovich says that these values changed rapidly during the last century and are still changing. He shows that three value patterns related to work and home life have emerged since the early 1970s:
1. The nature of a person’s paid job is now much more significant.
2. Leisure time is more valued, mostly because it has become a rarer commodity.
3. Americans now insist much more strongly that jobs become less imper- sonal, and more human and humane. 26
These three value areas have created more emphasis on individual free- dom of choice, a movement away from rigid organizational and work sys- tems, and a desire to live more closely with both nature and community. 27
Since the Yankelovich study, the human experience has seen a shift toward the Internet that is profoundly changing the focus of people’s values.
Consumers are now demanding to be treated as equals to those who sell products and services. Many online companies actually allow customers to name their prices and thus to hold unprecedented power in the transaction process. In many other ways, widespread use of the Internet signals a change of even the most traditional values, including the nature of our interper- sonal relationships, how we value privacy, and more.
During the past few years, many nationally publicized scandals have grabbed our attention. A number of corporations have been hurt greatly by allowing themselves to be involved in activities that show questionable values.
In fact, the actions of many large corporations, such as venerable Wall Street banks, have had detrimental effects on civic society as a whole.
Another disturbing area of social values change has been in high school and college student cheating. Who’s Who Among American High School Students recently published a survey that showed 80 percent of students featured in that publication admitted to having cheated at some point in their schooling. Nearly half the same students said that they didn’t consider cheating to be “always wrong.” 28 Even elite Ivy League institutions such as Harvard have grappled with cheating on a wide scale: In early 2013, nearly half of all students in a 279-student Harvard “Intro to Congress” class were caught in a wide-ranging cheating scandal that ultimately forced dozens of students to withdraw from the University. 29
In a book called The Cheating Culture, author David Callahan shows that American students are being taught “bottom-line economy” thinking. This mind-set makes it more likely than in the past that such students will carry their questionable behavior into the workplace after they have finished school. If they do, the workplace of the very near future is likely to feel the impact. 30 The material both in this chapter and in Chapter 15 (on ethics) will deal with ways of understanding your own values and the values of other people with whom you study and work.
Other historic periods have likewise affected the values of those who lived through them. If you know people who grew up during the Great Depression, you may have noticed that their values were probably affected
A BUYER’S MARKET Since the beginning of online shopping, consumer values have shifted to an increasing demand for personalized service and more specialized products.
Do you feel that your needs are better met by online shopping than by traditional shopping?
You may know (or possibly be) someone who grew up in the 1960s, that period of rebellion against authority, fighting for rights for disadvantaged groups, and antiwar protests.
Whatever else has happened to the members of that gen- eration, most of them still have definite ideas about main- taining social justice, questioning people in authority, and
“doing their own thing.” Many of those who have become conservative and less antiestablishment will even admit that the strongly held values of the 60s affected their desire for a change in point of view. Influences on our values are dif- ficult, if not impossible, to ignore.
The Great Depression (1929–1941), which was triggered by the Wall Street crash of 1929, resulted in millions of Americans losing their jobs, farms, and homes. It did not officially end until the United States entered World War II in December 1941.
The Great Recession (2007–2009?), began with a liquidity crisis among financial institutions that resulted from the collapse of the housing market (or “bubble”) in late 2006, which quickly spread economic pain around the globe. According to the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research (the official arbiter of U.S. recessions) the reces- sion began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, although the negative impacts of this global economic contraction continued through early 2013 and beyond.
mo re a b o u t...
a great deal by that experience. They knew pov- erty once, and they have never forgotten the val- ues that experience taught them. Likewise, the Great Recession of the early 2000s is still shaping the values of those who were directly or indirectly affected by the national and global economic downturn.
Other important factors that help form values are religion, political views, parental influence, socioeconomic class, exposure to education, tele- vision, the Internet, and other mass media (see Figure 4.3 ). Often one generation may judge the values of another generation. Perhaps you have heard someone complain about expressions of vio- lence or the portrayal of sexuality in our modern music, film, and other forms of mass media. This may be a generational complaint. At some point
figure 4.3
SOCIAL FACTORS OF A GENERATION
Each generation has been affected by several social factors, which in turn help shape their values. How do you see these differences in your own generation?
THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN FACTORS AS THEY HAVE AFFECTED VALUES Areas of
Change
Pre-Baby Boomers (born 1920– 45)
Baby Boomers (born 1946–64)
Gen. X, Y, and Beyond (born 1965–80s) Mass Media Radio networks Television Internet Comedians Bob Hope George Carlin Jim Carrey,
Chris Rock Wars &
Disasters
Depression World War II
Vietnam War Iraqi War 9/11 terror attack New
Technologies
Radar Atomic power
Space technology
Digital technologies Villains Hitler, Stalin Khrushchev
Idi Amin
Saddam Hussein Osama bin Laden Musical
Choices
Jazz, Swing Rock ‘n’ Roll Motown
Hip Hop, rap Alternative rock Fears Poverty Total warfare Atomic warfare Terrorism
in one’s growth, an individual must examine those values to see if they are really his or her own values.
Sometimes people might have certain values without real awareness of them. It might not occur to us to question those values until they are challenged.
Values can be placed in two categories. Terminal values (or end-point ideal values) are likely to maintain a high priority throughout your life. These will often be related to long-term goals that you want to accomplish during your lifetime. Instrumental values (or everyday action-directed attitudes), on the other hand, reflect the ways you prefer to behave. They are based on your actions and attitudes. 31 One could say that instrumental values help you reach your goals, while terminal values are those goals.