Page 162 - DMGT519_Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills

Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills

Notes This applies to organisations as well, and organizations too exhibit Terminal Values. However,
Terminal Values can be changed and this can be seen when there is a change of top management
or CEO.
Figure 8.1: Terminal and Instrumental Values

Our personal values are our convictions regarding what we believe is important and desirable. Each of
us has a “complex of values.” A values complex is the set of values that we hold and the conflict,
.
compatibility, and hierarchical relationships among them . Personal values come in two varieties;
terminal and instrumental . Terminal values are the desired end-states that a person strongly
3
wants to achieve such as “a comfortable life”, “freedom”, or “salvation.” Each individual has a
different set of terminal values in his or her values complex. Instrumental values are convictions
about a person’s desired characteristics or ways of behaving such as “ambitious”, “forgiving”,
or “polite.” We possess instrumental values because we believe that each one helps us achieve
our terminal values. For instance, “ambition” may be an instrumental value that helps one
progress toward the terminal value of “a comfortable life.”
The first facet in Schwartz and Bilsky’s (1987) definition of values classified values as representing
either terminal goals (end states, phrased as nouns, e.g., obedience) or instrumental goals (modes
of behavior, phrased as adjectives, e.g., obedient). This distinction has been proposed both by
philosophers (e.g. , Lovejoy, 1950; Rescher, 1969) and by psychologists (e.g., Braithwaite & Law,
1985; Feather, 1975; Rokeach, 1973), although some have doubted its validity (e.g., Dewey, 1957).
Schwartz and Bilsky (1990) found distinct regions occupied almost exclusively by terminal or by
instrumental values in the multidimensional value space i n all seven samples they studied. This
provided support for the meaningfulness of the instrumental-terminal facet for the organization
of people’s values.
There were, however, puzzling elements in the relevant past findings. Distinct regions emerged
for the values usually phrased as terminal and instrumental, even where all the values were
phrased in terminal form (Finland) and where the language (Chinese) precluded discrimination
between terminal and instrumental values (Hong Kong). This suggested that something other
than the terminal- instrumental distinction was producing the empirical discrimination observed.
As an alternative interpretation, Schwartz and Bilsky (1990) proposed that the empirical
discrimination might be an artifact of the serial order in which the values were rated. They did
not explain how an order effect might produce distinct regions. One process, however, seems
clear: As respondents go through the questionnaire, they may shift their subjective scale of
importance as they encounter values of greater or lesser importance than those encountered
previously. Consequently, shifts in scale use would reduce correlations among values located at
a distance from each other because they would be likely to be rated on different subjective
scales.

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