It’s increasingly common for employees to want their employer to reflect their values and be good corporate citizens, but are companies doing so? A recent study from Oxford University sheds some light on the values businesses themselves talk most frequently about.

The report reveals that the most frequently referenced value by companies is “collaboration”, closely followed by “integrity”, “excellence”, and “customer service”. Sadly, values such as “humility” and “hope” were cited the least, which is worrying as humility has been strongly linked to executive success.

Corporate values

The results emerged after data was pulled from the FTSE 350 and aim to fully explore both what companies appear to value and what they mean by those values.

The findings highlight the growing importance of both emotional and personal values in organizational life. Among the values to emerge are things such as empathy, courage, and passion, none of which appeared in earlier reports.

Less positive is the absence of values such as humility, curiosity, and hope, which are all largely under-represented, despite significant research highlighting their importance. These values are especially absent from firms in the finance and legal world.

The role values play

The importance of values has become particularly prominent during the pandemic where periods of extreme stress were experienced by employees and customers. Companies with strong values were able to use these as a guide to help them navigate the crisis.

What’s more, there is an increased emphasis on corporate values, with those values coming under more scrutiny than ever before.

“As companies seek to put values into practice, a focus on character development, organizational design, and responsible leadership can help businesses to join aspiration to action,” the researchers conclude.