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Values
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Differences in value systems have enormous power to provoke conflict. The word “value” comes from the French verb “valoir,” meaning “to be worth” and has associations with valour, importance and worth. Values constitute our deepest sense of what is, in our respective views, right, correct and how things should be. We tend to be very prescriptive about issues which relate to our value system and we are likely to experience a challenge to our values as unacceptable or intolerable.
Examples of values would include:
- How we want to behave with each other.
- How we want to behave with customers.
- How we believe children, spouses, partners, employers, employees, unions, management, students, lecturers, doctors, dentists, lawyers, sportspeople, pro-abortion, pro-choice, dry cleaners, cigarette smokers and any other category of persons should behave.
When our values differ from somebody else’s it may cause conflict. The reason for this is that we see things differently due to our different value systems. Our values form the core of our being and are the “glasses” through which we see the world. When anybody challenges what we believe in, we feel that we must protect it.
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