Why do values conflicts derail otherwise capable teams?
Eight core work value types. Built on five years of model development and 30+ years of TMS research. One window that explains why people fight hardest over what they believe in.
In the workplace, people will expend significant energy to preserve their core work values and defend them against violators. That is why infringements of work values lead to terminal conflicts in teams in a way that personality clashes rarely do. The Window on Work Values, developed by Dick McCann and grounded in Schwartz’s foundational research on values, maps eight value types into a “window” so HR and L&D leaders, consultants and team leaders can surface and resolve the value differences that personality tools never reach.
- Identify the eight core value types driving workplace behaviour.
- Build Team Charters and Values Statements your people will actually use.
- Resolve values-based conflict before it becomes terminal.
Download the Window on Work Values ebook.
Window on Work Values ebook
Download the Window on Work Values ebook and map the eight value types that drive workplace behaviour.
What’s inside the ebook
- An introduction to values as defined by Schwartz (1992, 1994) and applied to the workplace by McCann.
- The Window on Work Values: eight value types arranged across two axes (Self Focus vs Group Focus, Organisational Constraint vs Organisational Freedom).
- A breakdown of each value type: Individualism, Collectivism, Compliance, Empowerment, Authority, Equality, Independence and Conformity.
- Visual patterns showing the most common value-pair conflicts (Authority-Equality, Conformity-Independence).
- Reliability and structural validity data from a sample of 3,024 respondents.
- The Individualism-Collectivism and Compliance-Empowerment dilemmas, including the trap of “Complying Empowerment”.
- Organisational Values data from 800 respondents, broken down by gender, age and organisational size.
Why this matters for HR and L&D leaders
Most culture programs stall at the slogan level because values are treated as words on a wall, not behaviours people are willing to defend.
The Window on Work Values gives HR and L&D leaders a validated model that connects each value type to observable workplace behaviour. It powers Team Charters, values alignment work, conflict mediation, succession planning and the design of behavioural ground rules teams will actually live by.
Where personality tools explain how people prefer to behave, this model explains what people believe is right, which is where the deepest workplace conflicts originate.
Why this matters for consultants and facilitators
Surface drivers of team friction that personality and preference tools cannot reach.
Running a values workshop alongside a Team Management Profile session gives clients a second layer of insight: not just how the team prefers to work, but what it is prepared to fight for.
Who this ebook is for
- HR and people and culture leaders shaping organisational values, culture or change programs.
- L&D specialists designing leadership, team or culture programs.
- OD consultants and facilitators running team or leadership interventions.
- Team leaders preparing a Team Charter or working through team conflict.