Abstract:

Objective and Purpose:
Values have increasingly gained recognition as important factors for organizational success in recent years. Values are a major component of an organization's culture (Schein, 2010) and have increasingly gained recognition as important factors for organizational success in recent years (Huhtala et al., 2011; Valentine et al., 2002). However, there are deficits in the value orientation of managers and employees. The goal of the present study is to implement work-oriented training measures to foster values in organizations in the financial sector.

Theoretical framework:
Approaches to foster values can be traced back as early as Kohlberg’s theory of moral development (Kohlberg & Turiel 1971; Lind, 2012; Oser, 2001). The goal of fostering values is not simply to promote passive conformity to values, but to encourage reflective thinking directed by values. As cases, enriched with dilemma situations, represent an authentic part of reality, they allow training participants to reflect upon possible solutions in ethical dilemmas (Zumbach & Mandl, 2008). Therefore we assume that work-oriented training measures are optimally suited, as it relates learning contents directly to the daily actions of the training participants’ workplace (Sonntag & Stegmaier, 2007). From an educational point of view, we suggest that working with authentic cases including dilemma situations from everyday business are particularly potent for fostering values.

Design of the study:
This paper presents an implementation model for developing training measures to foster values in cooperative banks. In this context the present work shows the requirements analysis, conception and realization.

Results:
The requirements analysis includes two empirical studies which aimed at value-related training needs assessment and the further specification of training needs.
(1) An online survey with 506 employees and 186 managers in 16 banks: According to managers and employees values are an important topic in their banks.
(2) Interviews with 7 employees and 9 managers from another 16 banks: This closer look revealed that there are problems in relating abstract values to practical examples for action.

The conception includes two steps:
(1) A stakeholder workshop with executives from 4 banks and 7 experts of the banks further education institute was conducted to identify values particularly relevant for training. Six values were selected that seemed particularly important for training. For each value, two authentic scenarios including dilemma situation were generated by executives and experts.
(2) These scenarios are developed into cases with trainers from the banks further education institute suited for training. These cases each describe a dilemma situation from the daily workplace operations of managers and employees. Enriched with tasks for reflection, these cases can be implemented in work-oriented trainings measures.

The realization:
The realization is ongoing. Cases were integrated in specific seminars.

Research/Practical Implications:
The implementation model presented here can serve as an example for a comprehensive procedure to foster values. The empirical part of this project demonstrates that values have to be concrete and related to practical work-oriented situations to support specific training needs. The developmental part demonstrates how work-oriented training measures on values can be tailored to training needs by drawing on authentic cases.

Keywords:

Fostering values, work-oriented training measures, financial sector.