Broadening Vision Around Values: An Integrative Two-Factor Theory of Workplace Value Congruence

Abstract

Value congruence is an important determinant of human behavior in organizations. It influences positive states for workers (e.g., a sense of belonging, job satisfaction, and positive affect) and is beneficial for organizational work practices (e.g., commitment, citizenship behaviors, and tenure). Conversely, value incongruence leads to negative states (e.g., out-groups, organizational exit, and depressive symptoms). To date, values have been conceptualized context-free (e.g., human or personal values) or disaggregatedly in the work environment (e.g., work values, political values, leadership values, and cultural values) and value congruence has been viewed almost exclusively as a positive construct. Based on the underlying theories of variation theory, salient value similarity hypothesis, self-categorization theory, and signaling theory, and adopting the ‘similarity leads to attraction’ and ‘dissimilarity leads to repulsion’ hypotheses, we develop an integrative two-factor theory of value congruence. This model integrates work, political, cultural, and leadership values, and conceptualizes the impact of congruency and incongruency as two separate psychological processes. We conclude with a discussion of directions for future research.