The complexity facing today’s organizations calls for a rethinking of leadership. The world is facing grand challenges for people and planet. Leaders and employees bear the responsibility of formulating strategies grounded in strong values. These strategies aim to foster the growth of sustainable organizations and promote ethical work practices. This book gives voice to values-based leadership and provides a method for leaders to develop a values-based organizational culture. Values play a role on many levels in how we work as individual leaders, in teams, in organizations, and in how organizations approach societal challenges. Values can be a compass or orientation point, giving direction for decisions and actions. Awareness of values can make organizational responsibilities clearer and give a sense of meaning to work, and help leaders to create organizations where corporate, moral, and social values are embedded at every level. This book gives insight into a Scandinavian values-based leadership model built on the institutional leadership tradition. It provides processes and practices that leaders can use to develop organizations where values are continuously nurtured. The book provides practical ideas of how leaders can work on becoming conscious of both the organization’s explicit and implicit values, as well as working on the direction of the organization and its broader organizational culture. This book will be an invaluable resource for both practitioners and graduate students interested in leadership and organizational development.

The complexity facing today’s organizations calls for a rethinking of leadership. The world is facing grand challenges for people and planet. Leaders and employees bear the responsibility of formulating strategies grounded in strong values. These strategies aim to foster the growth of sustainable organizations and promote ethical work practices. This book gives voice to values-based leadership and provides a method for leaders to develop a values-based organizational culture. Values play a role on many levels in how we work as individual leaders, in teams, in organizations, and in how organizations approach societal challenges. Values can be a compass or orientation point, giving direction for decisions and actions. Awareness of values can make organizational responsibilities clearer and give a sense of meaning to work, and help leaders to create organizations where corporate, moral, and social values are embedded at every level. This book gives insight into a Scandinavian values-based leadership model built on the institutional leadership tradition. It provides processes and practices that leaders can use to develop organizations where values are continuously nurtured. The book provides practical ideas of how leaders can work on becoming conscious of both the organization’s explicit and implicit values, as well as working on the direction of the organization and its broader organizational culture. This book will be an invaluable resource for both practitioners and graduate students interested in leadership and organizational development.

This open access book presents new approaches for researching values as they are performed or materialized. Values have been an important topic in academic literature for a long time; they are at the core of institutional theories and are often connected to ideals in organisations or ways of valuing. The various values-constructs are typically highlighted to underpin discussions of identity, ethos, and the purposive institutional work of leaders and employees. However, there is a need for more research on how values link and sustain actions and institutions. Contributors in this volume map and discuss useful methodological ways in which values and values work can be investigated and how research on values has been and can be applied. The chapters present different methods for collecting data, including interviews, observation and shadowing, as well as various methods for analyzing data, such as thematic, discourse and narrative analysis. Chapters also consider the role of the researcher and participant validation as a procedure to enhance the trustworthiness of the study. Finally, the book presents various empirical projects and issues related to and exemplifying values research. This book is a valuable guide for researchers and students who are looking for a practical understanding of how to research values and values work in organisations. The volume is a follow-up of the open access book, Understanding Values Work: Institutional Perspectives in Organisations and Leadership published by Palgrave Macmillan.

At the core of institutional theories, 'values' is a central term and figures in most definitions; however it remains understudied and under-explored. The editors of this open access book identify a resurgence of interest in the values-construct which underpins discussions of identity, 'ethos' and the purpose/nature of public and civic welfare provision. Considering the importance of values and values work to social, material and symbolic work in organizations, individual chapters explore values work as performed in organizations and by leaders. Focusing on practices of values work, the book applies and combines different theoretical lenses exemplified by the integration of institutional perspectives with micro-level perspectives and approaches.

At the core of institutional theories, 'values' is a central term and figures in most definitions; however it remains understudied and under-explored. The editors of this open access book identify a resurgence of interest in the values-construct which underpins discussions of identity, 'ethos' and the purpose/nature of public and civic welfare provision. Considering the importance of values and values work to social, material and symbolic work in organizations, individual chapters explore values work as performed in organizations and by leaders. Focusing on practices of values work, the book applies and combines different theoretical lenses exemplified by the integration of institutional perspectives with micro-level perspectives and approaches.