Making people an organization's most important resource

Values are essential to setting and achieving goals. Once an organization identifies its values, it must determine the priorities of its values. A survey of senior management of Fortune 1000 companies was conducted to ascertain the priority of their corporate value systems. The survey revealed that the executives believed that the most important value systems included, in descending order, trust, excellence, and management skills. These three values were linked with the development, retention, and treatment of employees and are directly related to organizational effectiveness and productivity. Trust is essential to employer-employee relationships. Employees must see that the actions and words of management coincide in order for management to have credibility.