A632.5.5.RB – Protected Values in Decision
Making
Protected
values are a part of most people’s decision-making processes. “People often
draw a line in the sand to create values that are protected from trade-offs”.
(Hoch & Kunreuther, 2005). I am no different when it comes to having
protected values. I value life, religion, and family when it comes to drawing
the line in the sand, and making a decision. Following a baseline of protected
values has challenges and can cause a variety of changes in priorities
depending on the situation. “The unbending nature of PVs creates challenges for
policy makers seeking to evaluate the trade-offs among values”. (Hoch &
Kunreuther, 2005). These values influence my decisions at all times,
especially when it is a personal decision.
My values
are what they are, my values. I look at honoring my country, religion, and
family with high regard. In most cases, I use these values to influence all of
my personal decisions and some of my work related decisions. I emphasize work
related decision because I must account for other people values in the
decision-making process when it comes to company decisions. For example, when
I used to work at Dick’s Sporting Goods, I used to have a coworker who was a
Muslim. Now, I am Catholic, but my coworker would request to have several
breaks between working hours to do his prayers. Nevertheless, instead of saying
no, I was able to find a way to help him and respect his religion. The idea
would be to honor the individual’s beliefs and if work permits it, allow
specific break periods to pray.
Another
value that I find some conflicts with is life. For example, in my protected
value of life, I began questioning whether killing was acceptable in war, or
the death penalty, or in precision strikes against terrorists. In my value of
freedom, I began to question how far I am actually okay with “freedom” being
given. What about hate speech, or radical extremists, or the separation
of church and state? And in equality I began to question my beliefs about
discrimination based on gender. What about women on the front lines? What
about separating men and women’s sports? All of these questions made me aware
of the fact that these values that I considered to be strong, protected values,
may not be as strong as I thought.
The last
protected value is my family. I live every day on earth for my family. This
value seems to be gaining back strength in America compared to the past
decades. We were founded on family and with so much separation and multiple
family members working the simple family dinner tighter is disappearing. I
think social media has helped to stay in contact with family members with
pictures and activities. This is the new dinnertime. I value family in my
decision processes because most people can relate to having a family.
Protect
values have downsides also and can cause conflicts in the decision making
process. “Values can be inconsistently expressed across context, which is why
preferences do not always reflect deeply held values”. (Hoch & Kunreuther,
2005). It is imperative to remember and understand protecting values occur
by recognizing conflicts of interest, zero tolerance policies, and whom the
values will affect. Try not to force personal values on others who have their
own values. The purpose is to make a sound decision that is recognized by
others as being sound. People may not always be happy with the decision, but
the decision should be fair.
References
Hoch, S. J., & Kunreuther, H. C. (2005). Wharton on
making decisions. (1st edition.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment