Proceedings

The second situation appears when the personal value system is changed by the
corporate value system. It is interesting to notice, however, that the change may
happen with or without the person’s awareness.
In a similar manner, Cambra-Fierro, Polo-Redondo and Wilson (2008) consider
that the influence of corporate values on individuals’ values system is not
immediate and that employees may need time to be persuaded that certain
values are correct.
The same authors make an interesting connection between the company size and
the influence of the corporate values on the personal values. They suggest that it
is very possible that in smaller companies, or in family business, the
relationships between shareholders, managers and workers are much more
personal and closer. So the chance that there is an identification of the
individual’s values with the company’s increases, while in larger companies
where the distance between management and workers is larger and the
relationships are more anonymous and impersonal, this may be more difficult to
achieve.
We find this idea to be relative true in its theoretical approach, but, in our
opinion, this may not be true at all when we look for it in the day-by-day
companies’ existence. The authors suggest that the employees hired in larger
organizations are less likely to be influenced by the corporate values because the
relationships between managers and staff are more ‘anonymous and
impersonal’. We consider that the attributes of the professional relationships are
not a decisive factor in establishing whether personal value system of one
employee is affected by the corporate value system. We suggest that one
decisive factor that generates such an influence is the number of the working
hours. A survey conducted by the European Management Association (EMA) in
2006 among middle, senior managers and directors from all sectors of activities,
including public, private and voluntary in five European countries (Germany,
Lithuania, Malta, Spain and the UK) shows an average working day that range
between 12 hours allocated for working time solely plus the time allocated for
travelling to and from work in Germany and 10 hours for the same purposes in
Lithuania.
Considering that the time allocated to work solely plus the time allocated for
travelling to and from work exceeds by far all other activities during an average
day (in descending order: rest time including sleep, 8 hours on average; time
with family 3 hours on average; sports/leisure time 1 hour average), it is almost
impossible not to be influenced by the working environment and by the
corporate values. Also, in a similar manner, the results of the EMA (2006)
survey states that in all countries, the majority of respondents do feel that their
personal behaviour is affected by the culture and philosophy of the company/
organisation within which they work. Malta was the country which had the most
respondents indicating that their personal behaviour was totally affected by the
culture and philosophy of the company/ organisation within which they work
(17.5 per cent of respondents hit response 1 = totally agree). Overall, the impact
of culture and philosophy of the company/ organisation appears to be strongest
~ 553 ~