The thought expressed in this paper that organizational viability is partially a function of the congruency of managerial values with the values of those who are managed is not new, but it does point out a problem with which we are faced. To do something about organizational viability as related to values we must have theoretical framework which enables systematic thought about values and we must have a framework which generates testable hypotheses in respect to the role if values in organizational problems. Such I will present and manipulate within this paper.

This hypothesized relationship between the values of the managed and the values of those who are managing derives from an existential conception of the sources of value systems and of the source of control systems. Value systems and control systems are seen as parts of a large dynamic system that is called a level of human existence. Within the point of view of this paper, it is the level of existence that determines the nature and character of the value system. And, it is the level of existence that determines the way a particular level believes behavior should be controlled. And it is the level of existence that determines the degrees of behavioral freedom that a manager or one who is managed has when making choices. Thus, a person who is at a definable and describable level of human existence can make certain ethical choices and not other ethical choices. He at a higher level is freer and can make more choices but he at a lower level is constricted and thus can make fewer choices. He at a certain level of existence can choose to control behavior certain ways because to him such will be right but he cannot choose to control behavior other ways because to do so would to him, be wrong.

To comprehend the above it is necessary to examine the level of existence conception of man’s nature, the value systems hypothesized as related thereto, the related managerial control systems and the way value and control systems interact to effect organizational viability. This can be done by focusing, first, upon the level of existence conception of man’s nature.

Conceive, with me, that the human organism tends, psychologically, to move through a series of hierarchially ordered systems to some equifinal end, yet tends, under certain describable circumstances, to stabilize and live out his life at any one or a combination of the stages within the hierarchy. Human behavior, then, in all its form is like any growth phenomenon. It tends to develop naturally through definable but overlapping stages by an orderly progression from a less complex, to a more complex stage and finally to its ultimate level of possible organization. Behavior is like a seed. It can, when certain releasor conditions occur, grow through all its natural stages to its ultimate form or like the released seed, behavior can be fixated or even reorganize and take on a form not usually of its nature.

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