Institutionalizing Accountability

as a Core Value among Our

Employees

Summer Internship Project 2020

Project Head: Achin Das (Chief Talent Officer)

Project Mentor: Madhu Rentala (Senior Manager)

Acknowledgment

It is my honour to work on the value institutionalization project for Presented by

the UL Technology Solutions. Values are building blocks of any Abhinav Kumar
organization, and being part of bringing those values into life in an Summer Intern
organization in a summer internship project is itself a quite big thing. 29-06-2020
I am extremely thankful to Achin Das (Chief Talent Officer), project head for extending this

opportunity. I am grateful to my project mentor, Madhu Rentala (Senior Manager), for

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continually guiding me throughout the Project. Regularly taking progress meets, and giving

valuable stimulating suggestions helped greatly in completing this Project.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to Jithin Chakkalakkal (Associate Talent Manager)

for consistently providing valuable inputs & feedbacks and Roshna K S (Communication

Lead) for helping me out in designing the campaign plans. Final thanks to Ishita Sampt for

weekly informal sessions to gauge our progress and whether we are facing any kind of

problems with regard to the projects. And a big final thanks to the ULTS team who made sure

we get the right guidance during this remote/work from home summer internship project.

Abhinav Kumar

Summer Intern

29-06-2020

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 Executive Summary

The project ‘Institutionalizing Accountability as a core value among employees’ has three

different components – 1) Metrics & Processes to measure the employees’ Accountability, 2)

Survey to measure the present level of employees’ understanding of Accountability and 3)

Campaigns to institutionalize Accountability as a core value in the organization. The report

starts with the Introduction – whereby we take a walkthrough with the organizational

structure of ULTS and a synopsis of the literature studies undertaken to find the relevant

Organizational Behaviour metrics for Accountability. Then we move to the outcomes for

each component.

Metrics & Processes to measure the employees’ Accountability

After conducting a thorough literature review, Work Engagement, Proactiveness &

feedback/help seeking attitude are identified as relevant OB metrics. Work Engagement is a

positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and

absorption. Proactiveness - Workplace behaviour characterized by taking initiative in solving

work-related problems or in creating new challenges or in contributing new ideas.

Feedback/help seeking attitude has been clubbed as an element of Proactiveness. A proactive

employee is keen in reflecting on his performance by constantly seeking feedback and

constructively reflecting on them. UWES (Utrecht Work Engagement Scale) which is

worldwide accepted questionnaires has been recommended for measuring Work Engagement

whereas for measuring proactiveness an ‘Accountability Dashboard’ has been created

whereby continuous rating by team members & supervisor will be used to get Proactiveness

score. Both proactiveness & work engagement score will be then average-out for

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Accountability score. An excel dashboard has been attached to showcase the layout along

with all the relevant calculations.

Survey to measure present level of accountability understanding of employees

For this a situational judgment questionnaire consisting of 7 questions each assessing one or

more characteristics of our accountability definition is created.

Campaigns to Institutionalize Accountability as a core value

Campaigns are created across three elements – 1) Making values visible at every touch point

– email signatures, blogs, printed artifacts, 2) Incorporating Values in action – workshop

with managers by talent development team/OB experts, Recognizing Culturally Aligned

employees and 3) Integrating Personal & Organizational Values – Ur Life Telling Stories

(ULTS), Value Ambassadors. Apart from these, Hiring for Values and Inducting Values

during Induction is also recommended.

All the campaigns are designed keeping in view the constraints prevailing due to Covid19

situation. All the additional stuffs like material for the campaigns (email signature graphics,

Blog ideas etc.) are included in the Appendix.

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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................5
UL Technology Solutions....................................................................................................................6
Vision.................................................................................................................................................6
Mission..............................................................................................................................................6
Values of ULTS...................................................................................................................................7
...........................................................................................................................................................7
Accountability....................................................................................................................................7
Organizational Overview...................................................................................................................7
Measuring Accountability – Metrics, Processes....................................................................................9
Work Engagement.............................................................................................................................9
Proactiveness...................................................................................................................................11
Measuring the Present Accountability Understanding of Employees..................................................16
Questionnaire for Present level of Accountability Understanding..................................................17
Campaigns to Institutionalize Accountability as a core value..............................................................21
Making Values Visible at every touchpoint......................................................................................21
Email Signatures..........................................................................................................................21
Blogs............................................................................................................................................22
Printed Slogans on Tea/Coffee Cups............................................................................................24
Values in Action...............................................................................................................................24
Online session with managers.....................................................................................................24
Recognizing the Culturally aligned Employees.............................................................................25
Integrating Personal & Organizational Values.................................................................................26
#One Day ULTS (Ur Life telling Stories)........................................................................................26
#Value Ambassadors...................................................................................................................28
What Else.........................................................................................................................................29
#Hiring for Values........................................................................................................................29
#Inducting values during Induction..............................................................................................30
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................31
Appendix.............................................................................................................................................32
Accountability Quotes.....................................................................................................................32

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 Blog Ideas........................................................................................................................................36
References...........................................................................................................................................38

Introduction

Mission, Vision, and Values of any organization act as a guiding principle for moving ahead

on the success curve. UL Technology Solutions, being a new entity in the corporate world,

has a defined Mission & Vision and Values. However, the values are yet to be formally

integrated in the organization. Among the core values of UL Technology Solutions,

Accountability is one of the critical values & this Project focusses on the institutionalization

of Accountability in the organization.

If we talk about values, there are numerous research which has been done in this field. For

this Project, Edgar Schein’s model of organizational culture is used for understanding the

depth to which values can be institutionalized and how it can be done. This model has three

dimensions – 1) Observable Artifacts that consists of stories/legends, organizational

language, physical structures/décor etc. 2) Espoused Values that comprises of concepts or

beliefs, ethics, ideologies which are not directly observable but can be distilled from how

people explain and justify what they do 3) Underlying Assumptions which refers to

foundations of culture which is so widely shared that people are themselves unaware of them

and it includes assumptions, mindset & philosophies.

Along with this some value frameworks are assessed to understand the motivation factors for

commitment to organizational values. Schwartz’s value theory helped in understanding the

relationship between the Schwartz’s values and what are the underlying motives in each type

of value. Hofstede’s dimension of cultural values is studied to understand what shapes the

underlying assumption in the Schein’s model and how that can be used for the Accountability

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as a value. After that Value Congruence principles are used to identify the Organizational

Behaviour metrics related to Accountability which is discussed later in the report.

Three component model of Organizational commitment and Ajzen’s theory of planned

behaviour are studied to understand how values can be incorporated first in the attitude and

then, in behaviours of the employees. Then different Leadership styles like participative,

adaptive & transformational and the role of management is studied in driving and

maintaining the Organizational value change campaigns.

These all helped in finding the right measurable metrics of Accountability, and designing the

campaigns for value institutionalization. Moving on towards the outcome, let’s first get

acquainted with ULTS.

UL Technology Solutions

ULTS is specialising in disruptive technology including Blockchain, IoT, AI & Analysis,

GIS, ERP, IMS and Cyber Security along with Web and Mobile applications development.

Started in 2011, ULTS is following the footsteps of parent organization Uralungal Labour

Contract Cooperative Society (ULCCS) via giving priority to Trust, Timeliness & Quality

Delivery. ULTS expects to flourish as a major IT company across the country in next five

years

Vision

“We strive to be the “Partner of Choice”, for our clients to become exemplary achievers in

their respective industry, for productivity, agility and innovation, in turn transforming the

lives of the common people while developing world-class experts in sustainable

technologies”.

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Mission

 Exponential values through extreme automation

 Affordable and Accessible Value of Innovation

 Best environment to help individuals reach their potential.

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Values of ULTS

CLIENT TIMELINESS QUALITY WITH

VALUE CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT

TEAMWORK & PERSONAL

COLLABORATION ACCOUNTABILITY

Accountability EQUALITY &

Accountability is taking INCLUSIVENESS ownership of a commitment with

an intent to complete it by proactively identifying dependencies, resolving them and standing

by for the outcomes.

Characteristics:

 We don’t pass the buck - we hold ourselves accountable for the commitments made,

our actions and outcomes

 We take responsibility to understand our goals and deliverables

 We focus on proactively solving the problems that slow down our work

 We keep all the stakeholders updated about how we are progressing with our work

 We go above and beyond to deliver the results that we committed

 We seek feedback on our actions and improve our results by making constructive

inferences

Organizational Overview
ULTS has a functionally structured organization which can be categorised into two main

faction 1) Project Enabling Faction and 2) Supporting faction. Project enabling faction

comprises of Centre of Excellence (COEs) with its different sub-units, Sales, Solutioning and

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Delivery (Banking, Insurance, education). Supporting Faction has 4 also sub units which are

listed below.

1. Project Enabling Faction –

1.1. COEs –

1.1.1. GIS

1.1.2. ADM (€)

1.1.3. ADM (I)

1.1.4. IMS

1.1.5. DIGITAL

1.1.5.1. Cybersecurity

1.1.5.2. AI & Analytics

1.1.5.3. Blockchain

1.1.5.4. IOT

1.2. SALES

1.3. SOLUTIONING

1.4. DELIVERY

1.4.1. BANKING

1.4.2. INSURANCE

1.4.3. EDUCATION

2. Supporting Faction –

2.1. TALENT EXCELLENCE TEAM (HR)

2.2. FINANCE

2.3. PURCHASE

2.4. COMMUNICATION

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 Measuring Accountability – Metrics, Processes

After conducting thorough background study of the Organizational Behaviours and reviewing

the papers on Accountability, Metrics identified for the Accountability are – ‘Work

Engagement, Proactiveness, Feedback/help Seeking Attitude.’

An overall accountability score of the employees and different units & sub-units of the

organization will be calculated via measuring these three factors.

Work Engagement
‘Engagement is a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by

vigor, dedication, and absorption. Rather than a momentary and specific state, engagement

refers to a more persistent and pervasive affective-cognitive state that is not focused on any

particular object, event, individual, or behaviour.’ (Schaufeli B.W. & Bakker, B. A. (2003))

Engaged employees are highly dedicated, energetic, and absorbed in their work. Work

engagement of employees are best assessed via self-administered survey. Easy and reliable

way is to use UWES (Utrecht Work Engagement Scale). UWES is widely recognized

survey across more than 80 countries and has a good degree of Internal consistency,

reliability and validity of the survey questions. UWES uses three scales via 17 questions to

measure Work Engagement. These scales are:

1) Vigor: refers to high level of energy and mental resilience while working, willingness to

invest effort in one’s work, persistence in the face of difficulties

2) Dedication: refers to being involved in one’s work, finding meaning in one’s work, being

challenged, and experiencing sense of enthusiasm, inspiration and pride

3) Absorption: refers to being fully concentrated and engrossed in one’s work whereby one

has difficulties detaching oneself from the work.

Standard UWES survey uses a 7-point scale which ranges from 0 – never to 6 – always

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A shortened version of UWES(UWES-9) is also available which consists of only nine

questions with three under each category. Apart from UWES, other work engagement

surveys can also be created on the above three factors.

The above image depicts the UWES questionnaire, with the meaning of each response. After

the survey, descriptive statistics can be used to calculate individual score, mean and standard

deviation. Afterwards, an absolute or relative scale can be used to group employees into

different groups based on the percentile with a score attached to each grade.

Individual Work Engagement Score will be further used for calculating Accountability Score.

For example:

We can have 5 grades depending upon the percentile that they fall into (Relative scale)

Very Low (Bottom 20), Low (20-40), Average (40-60), High (60-80), Very High (80-100)

Or

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Similarly, we can have an absolute scale depending upon the individual percentage they score

out of a total of 6 and then group them into 5 categories based on the percentage

Very Low (Bottom 50%), Low (50-60%), Average (60-75%), High (75-90%), Very High

(90-100%)

This will also give a cluster of employees with similar score on work engagement which will

be used along with Proactiveness score to get Accountability score.

Proactiveness

Workplace behaviour characterized by taking initiative in solving work-related problems or

in creating new challenges or in contributing new ideas. Proactive employees may be seen as

problem-focused (how to overcome hurdles) or vision-focused (driven by goals to achieve

their ambitions - incl. skill development/ learning initiatives etc.)

Feedback/help seeking attitude can also be clubbed as an element of Proactiveness. A

proactive employee is keen in reflecting on his performance by constantly seeking feedbacks

and constructively reflecting on them.

Since it is characteristic of individual behaviour, it can be best measured via

supervisors/managers/peers.

This can be done in two ways:

1) Rating of employees on Proactiveness by supervisors/managers via questionnaire created

on proactive behaviours element on a quarterly or half-yearly basis.

2) Continuous rating on the basis of different Project meets as well as at the end of quarter or

Project (whichever is early) by both peers and managers

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Continuous Measurement

Under this there will be two set of ratings, one after the Project meets (at regular intervals

like after every meet/ alternate meet/ every three meets etc.) and other at the end of Project or

at the end of three month whichever is earlier.

After Project meets (at pre-specified intervals), all the project members will rate the others on

a scale of 1-5 on three parameters

1) Enthusiasm, 2) Clarity ,3) Co-ordination

Enthusiasm – Enthusiastic attitude is an indication of high level of involvement thereby

contributing positively to the ideas & initiatives.

Clarity – Clarity in individual’s thought process & work is an indication of level of

preparedness and effort & dedication behind his work

Co-ordination – Coordination simply means making things work together smoothly. It also

implies putting different ideas & things into the right perspective. In a work setting, day to

day co-ordination with employees, different tasks and activities is an indication of good team

player who is ready to help others as well as not hesitant in seeking help thereby actively

solving the problems that may be encountered beforehand.

At end of any project/ three-month period

Under this there would be a set of questions on which supervisor/manager will rate the

employees (on a scale of 1-5) as well as provide feedbacks.

1) How did I fare on the expectations as part of Project?

2) Have I participated actively in all the projects meets and provided valuable insights?

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3) How has been the consistency in my performance?

These three questions provide feedback on the performance as part of being proactive

employee. A proactive employee strives to maintain consistency in his/her performance,

actively participates and presents his ideas and opinions in the meetings and at the same time

always try to gauge the expectations off him and achieve those.

Since these things can be captured over a period of time and can be best assessed by the

supervisors, hence they would be rating team members on a scale of 1-5 on these three

questions and also provide valuable feedbacks to the members in the form of remarks.

Calculation

Both the parts of evaluation will have equal weightage.

An average score on the basis of ratings given to three components after the Project meets

across every Project will be calculated at the end of 3-month period.

Both the average supervisor score & project members continuous rating score will be

average out to provide an overall Proactiveness Score on a scale of 1-5.

Accountability Score: {(Work Engagement Score) + (Proactiveness Score)} / 2

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The picture here shows the layout of accountability dashboard depicting the accountability

score over a period of time, continuous project team mates rating on the three factors and the

feedback received by the employee from the supervisor at the end of the quarter.

The picture here depicts the section which will be used to rate the team members on the three

factors after the meets (at specified regular interval, generally after each 3 rd meet or a week’s

interval whichever is early)

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This image shows the section of supervisor’s dashboard. It has additional section where he

has rated the employees at the end of quarter on three questions asked in the feedback

section.

Project Members Average Supervisor Proactiveness Score Work Engagement Score Accountability Score
overall rating Score (Based on Survey Data)

2.911111111 2.911111111 3.2 3.055555556

2.866666667 3 2.933333333 2.7 2.816666667

3.177777778 3 3.088888889 4.3 3.694444444

3 3 3 3.3 3.15

This image shows how the accountability calculation has been arrived at.

Accountability
Dashboard.xlsx

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Note: Detailed calculation has been shown in the attached Excel file. Data has been assumed

to display the outcome on the dashboard.

Measuring the Present Accountability Understanding of Employees

In this stage, we are focussed on knowing the present level of understanding of the

Accountability among our employees. We are trying to assess what kind of actions they will

take in their day to day work related situations. For this, a situational Judgement

questionnaire is designed consisting of seven questions. Each question assesses the

employees on one or more characteristics of out Accountability Definition. Each question has

four responses with each response has its own meaning and a numerical value attached to it –

a) Most likely -7

b) Likely -5

c) Somewhat likely - 3

d) Least likely -1

The numbers are indicative of relative importance and not the degree of

superiority/importance of one option over the other. These will be then used to calculate an

overall accountability understanding score both of individual employees and across different

functional units. Characteristics assessed by each question are –

Question 1 – Proactively solving the problem that slows down our work/ identifying

dependencies/ help seeking attitude/ Not passing the buck

Question 2 – Going above & beyond to deliver the result/Understanding goals and

deliverables

Question 3 – Help seeking attitude/ taking responsibility to understand goals and

deliverables/Proactively solving the problem that slows down the work

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Question 4 – Taking ownership of the commitment/ Understanding goals and deliverables

Question 5 – Keeping stakeholders updated/Going above and beyond to deliver the Project

Question 6 – Proactively solving the problem that slows down our work/ Going above and

beyond to deliver the Project

Question 7 – Not passing the buck/ Keeping stakeholders updated about the progress/Help

seeking attitude

Questionnaire for Present level of Accountability Understanding

1. You are in mid of completing a task. For proceeding further, you are dependent

on some task elements of a co-worker who is progressing slowly. What would

you do in such situation?

a) Assist the co-worker in the task completion, if possible, thereby completing

your task faster

b) Talk to co-worker & understand his situation & then make team lead aware

with the situations of both

c) Report to the team lead about your inability to move ahead because of delay in

co-worker’s task

d) Wait for the co-worker to complete the task & state the reason for delay when

the project head seeks it

2. While working on a project after some initial directions from the project head,

you have some innovative ideas which may enhance the project deliverables

quality. What would you do?

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 a) Carry out a clear assessment of the positive & negative aspects of the idea

implementation & then present the ideas to the project manager

b) Write mail to the project manager regarding the new ideas & how you feel it

will help the Project

c) Set aside the ideas, as incorporating new ideas will lead to delay in Project due

to fresh start and additional resource wastage

d) Do nothing and focus on completing your assigned part as overthinking

outside the task scope can degrade and delay the task completion

3. You have been assigned some tasks after the project kick-off meet. However, you

don’t get clarity regarding how to proceed & which areas to focus. What would

you do?

a) Make project manager acquainted with your situation and ask him for

necessary help

b) Approach to the peers & other contacts who have previously handled such

tasks and seek their help

c) Discuss your situation with other team members & ask for their suggestions

d) Go on carrying out the task as per your own understanding and research &

prepare your doubts to ask in the next meet

4. While working on a critical project with tight deadline, your manager has asked

you to assist him in some other important tasks also. What would you do?

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 a) Assess how much you can contribute after knowing the task requirements

without hampering ongoing project quality and communicate it to the manager

b) Talk to the project team members & ask them to share some task loads off you

after making them understand the urgency of the task with the manager

c) Assist the manager with his task while managing side by side your project task

d) Acquaint the manager of your inability to assist him because of the critical

nature of Project

5. You have encountered a minor discrepancy while compiling the final parts of the

product to be delivered that may lead to some occasional glitches without

hampering overall objective too much. What would you do?

a) Communicate the issue to team member who worked on that part & assist him

in getting it fixed while keeping project manager updated

b) Let the project manager know about the issue and act as per his directions

c) Let the client know about the discrepancy & the degree of impact it might

cause on the product objective. Then act as per client’s demand

d) Leave it as issue is quite minor & you are not the one who have caused it.

Also, reworking on it can incur extra cost and time of the organization

6. You have been asked to look after the task of a co-worker who is on leave. Both

of you are handling similar tasks in the Project which is near its completion.

What would you do?

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 a) Ask the co-worker on leave to co-operate remotely as much as he can & carry

out rest of the task by yourself

b) Take over the task and work overtime to make sure both your and co-worker’s

tasks are completed on time

c) Ask the project manager to allocate it to some other member/include extra

team member as your task is too much demanding

d) Take over the task along with asking the project manager to revise the

deadline citing work done in haste can adversely affect project quality

7. While working on a project, your task was dependent on two other co-workers

who have not completed their part on time. As a result, Project has been delayed.

What should have been done by you to avoid this?

a) Talk to co-workers frequently regarding the task and proactively assisting

them to complete their tasks thereby completing your task on time

b) Keep the project manager and other team members frequently updated about

the project progress and different dependencies

c) Inform the project manager beforehand about the dependencies of your tasks

and how you cannot progress because of co-worker’s delay

d) Do nothing, as you have completed all the relevant parts except the ones’

dependent on the co-worker’s task

Options for each of the above seven questions are in order of most likely to least likely for

ease of understanding. However, for the actual questionnaire, they are in a randomised

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fashion. All the options are positively worded & can be the most likely response under

different circumstances but have been given ranking as per our desired response.

Campaigns to Institutionalize Accountability as a core value

Campaigns are designed keeping in view the psychological, Organizational Behaviour, &

marketing concepts. Any campaign for value institutionalization must appeal to the core of

the people’s mind and those should be corroborated with the organization wide presence for

complete immersion.

Value driving campaigns will revolve around three aspects

1. Making values visible at every touch point

2. Incorporating values in action

3. Integrating personal & organizational values

Making Values Visible at every touchpoint

The purpose of this one is to make our values visible at those places where consciously or

sub-consciously employees would pay attention. Initially, the touchpoints selected are the one

that have higher attention span & can’t be ignored.

Email Signatures

Most frequent touch point, values communicated in the signature will most likely be

frequently read

 Quotes in the signature

 Values mentioned in the signature

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Plan –

Managers would be given images as shown above containing values and quotes

associated with those values. Instructions to put those images alongside their

signature. This can be done immediately.

Implementation tasks

• Creating value slogans centered around our definition with a decent graphic

background

• Collecting 10-15 quotes on Accountability & Timeliness

• Creating a draft of how to integrate those in the mail id signature

• Sending the draft along with the images of slogans & quotes to managers

• Follow up

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Blogs
Open platform for sharing stories, experiences, creative items like visual templates, fictional

story telling animation centered around importance of values, how to live by values.

Employees can share any thought, ideas, learnings or initiatives regarding the organization’s

culture or goals – appreciative comments will promote employees’ identification with

organization.

Management sharing Organization’s success feat and how values factor in those successes.

Implementation tasks

• Starting with the first blog on the Accountability by communication team and its

importance just after the inaugural session

• Tagging people to comment and engage in the discussions on the platform

• Sending mails to everyone whenever a new blog is updated with catchy subject line &

snippet of the story

• Asking managers and team leads to narrate the stories about values in action during

their projects via mail

• Asking senior managers to pin some motivational items centred around organizational

success and how values helped in achieving them atleast once a month

• At least one post from talent development team per week on how to live by values,

how values create leaders, how values shape organizations

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Printed Slogans on Tea/Coffee Cups

People drink tea/coffee to relax themselves. Usually lasts

for 5-10 mins which will drive greater attention, discussion

& subsequent retention of the values in the subconscious

mind. Whenever things regarding values would be the point

of attention, these values will be reflected in mind most

probably.

Plan –

There are many players who sell personalized printed mugs. We can send our slogans;

they have their own graphic team who can customize them and print. This exercise

will take 25-30 days.

Values in Action

#Keeping Leaders at the Centre Stage

Online session with managers

Session to make manager acquainted with what is expected from them to promote

Accountability and to lead by example.

Why? – Values flow from top to bottom. Followers emulate their leaders

Plan –

This will be more like a Value Workshop for the managers consisting of two sessions,

each of 2 hr, Speakers from Top management (Preferably talent development team) or

professionals in the Organizational Behaviour field will be conducting it.

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Agenda of the session

 How to effectively communicate the importance of the Project in terms of

organizational mission, values and goals as well as personal benefits (skills,

learnings, recognition)

 How to induce participative leadership (Delegating, encouraging feedbacks &

suggestions, appreciating involvements)

 How to promote inspirational motivation (showing enthusiasm & optimism,

attracting commitment, energizing followers, attractive Vision of the future) and

intellectual simulation (appealing to follower’s sense of logic & analysis,

challenging followers to think creatively and find solutions to difficult problems)

Recognizing the Culturally aligned Employees

Recognition is a powerful tool of motivation to continue working in the same fashion or to

perform even better. Hence, recognising culturally aligned employees and attaching

incentives to their cultural performance will make employees motivated to be culturally

aligned. This can be done via giving a letter of appreciation, a bonus in salary, publishing his

portraits across company websites and social media pages or by sharing their stories on

websites, social media platforms/LinkedIn –

1. What is his accountability/timeliness story?

2. What he did differently?

3. What can be done more?

4. Do values gained have relevance outside the work environment also?

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Plan –

We can start this by sharing the stories of some of the employees who has been

accountable in the eyes of management by sharing their story on blogs. We can ask

them to write their story centering around above 4 questions.

After this on the basis of our accountability score of employees, we can recognize the

culturally aligned employees and provide the incentives as discussed above.

Integrating Personal & Organizational Values

#One Day ULTS (Ur Life telling Stories)

This will be an online video session. It will provide space for the employees to share their any

interesting moment with focus on situations, values that gained or utilized, outcomes. Their

ULTS moments that they cherish, where they want to see the company in upcoming years,

their learnings and values gained.

This is a stimulating exercise where employees will learn, acknowledge and reflect

importance of values both in personal & professional life.

Why This?

 Promoting informal interaction thereby greater cohesiveness (Promoting

feedback/help seeking attitude)

 Giving moments to employees to reflect back on their ULTS journey. This will lead

to self-assessment of their journey, ambition, what they expect from their work and

what kind of contribution they always wanted to make to their work & organization.

This self-reflection continuous exercise will drive the employees slowly but steadily

towards their ambitions and greater contributions.

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  Helping employees to identify themselves with the organization rather than their

work. Employees who identify themselves with the organization rather than their

work, they strive to bring the best for their organization & treat the organization like

their extended family.

Plan –

It should be conducted twice a week, with each session of 40 mins- 60 mins, 3-4

speakers in each session with 40-50 attendees. One speaker would be preferably a

manager in each session.

Inaugural Session – The inaugural session will act as a platform for formally

launching the Values of the Organization. It will have speaker from the senior

Management (preferably atleast 2 speakers) – more like a motivational session

centered around the importance of strong values in personal & professional life.

Agenda of Inaugural Session

 Walk through our organizational Value – Accountability

 Why we need it, why values are conscience of an organization, how values act

as a guiding tool

 Success stories centered around values from the parent organization that has

shaped its journey – to ingrain pride for the organization

 How strong values can differentiate between a leader and a follower

 What we expect from our value aligned employees

 How we will reward our culturally aligned employees

Succeeding Sessions Agenda –

 Any interesting moment from his life with focus on situation, values that

gained or values utilized

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  Their ULTS moments that they cherish, Values gained, where they wish to see

his department/company in upcoming years

 Managers should also share how values shape leaders, and how they use those

in managing activities and feats achieved

Implementation Tasks

Pre-Session Tasks

 Sending mails to managers and employees of different functional units to

volunteer their name for the #ULTS

 Sharing them with the format and agenda of the session

 Reminder mail regarding their session and the time and date

Post Session Tasks

 Floating survey questions to gauge their feedback about the session

#Value Ambassadors

Value ambassadors will act as a liaison between the talent development team & the respective

functional unit. It will lead to decentralised value adoption process along with driving high

participation among employees while conducting value related activities.

 One Value ambassador in each functional unit

 Initially selected in random way from a list of volunteers

 Thereafter, assigning the best culturally aligned employee of the unit as value

ambassador

Responsibilities:

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  Point of Contact between Talent development team and the functional unit

 Responsible for nominating the member from their unit for #Ur Life Telling Stories

 Monthly updating a blog on Value based Workmanship in the respective unit

 Suggesting ideas to make the unit more value aligned

 Collaborating with other value ambassadors to discuss and review the value-based

functioning in the organization

 Responsible for carrying out any other activities promoting core values among

employees of the respecting unit

What Else

#Hiring for Values

Making Accountability an important part of our hiring process. We can have a structured

assessment process where we can assess the potential hires.

Plan –

 Sharing Culture deck on our hiring page – we can ask every potential hire to go

through them beforehand

 Cultural fit psychometric test -we can hire psychometric test conducting agencies

who can design the questions based on our values and also provide the assessment

result of our potential hires

 Situational Questions hovering around the personal & organizational values to

understand person-organization fit & person-job fit

#Inducting values during Induction

Induction is the first thing through which newly hired employees are immersed in the

organization. It must be utilised as a platform for making employees acquainted with the

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organization’s mission, Vision & values. They must be given sessions on what expected as an

ambassador of ULTS, & how the organization will shape their ambitions.

Plan –

 Leaders talk centred around importance of values at organizational & personal

level

 Highlighting the role of value in shaping the success and growth of organization

 Value workshop from the talent development team – where by they will learn how

to demonstrate values in the workplace & mutual co-existence of personal &

organizational values.

Along with these, it is the leaders who have to assume the responsibility of living by values,

demonstrating and communicating the values every now & then. Every employee is an

ambassador of the organization and the organization’s values are the dress of these

employees. Institutionalization of this essence in the mind of every individual is the ultimate

goal of any Value institutionalization campaign.

Conclusion

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Institutionalization of a core value in an organization is a dynamic process owing to constant

changes in the employees’ pool, adoption of new work environment or the external

environmental & hygiene factors. In such dynamic conditions, to make values lively, Leaders

have to keep demonstrating the values every time as Values always flow from top to bottom.

Relevance of values for the organization needs to be emphasized every now & then.

Some of the campaigns like the #ULTS (Ur Life Telling Stories) and Value Ambassadors are

designed to maintain the relevance of the values in the dynamic corporate culture. However,

from time to time Value Workshops (like one designed for the managers) need to be

conducted to make sure employees use them in their everchanging work-nature and corporate

environment. Also the process of measurement need to be evaluated from time to time to

make it more inclusive with the changing work environment.

Overall, the processes and the campaign plans as part of Project are designed through in-

depth study, however, the impact of any such plans must be assessed from time to time. This

project measures only accountability as a core value via a dashboard, other core values’

measurement can be integrated in the same dashboard and they can also be clubbed as part of

employees’ performance appraisal.

At last, to make human resource as the companies’ foremost competitive advantage,

employees’ regular feedback about the existing value structure should be taken and valuable

suggestions should be incorporated to make Organizational Value truly inclusive.

Appendix
Accountability Quotes

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Page | 34
Page | 35
Page | 36
Blog Ideas

Mutual existence of personal values & organizational values –

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https://hbrascend.org/topics/what-to-do-when-your-values-clash-with-your-companys/

Decisions based on Values –

https://hbrascend.org/topics/how-effective-leaders-make-tough-decisions/

A story of Accountability –

https://talkingtalent.prosky.co/articles/a-story-of-accountability

Understanding and adapting to a new organizational culture –

https://www.amanet.org/articles/understanding-and-adapting-to-a-new-organizational-culture/

Importance of Organizational Values –

https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/organization/importance-of-organizational-values/45124

Working with people you don’t like –

https://hbrascend.org/topics/how-to-work-with-people-you-dont-like/

Inspiring Change through Value based leadership –

https://www.businesstoday.in/opinion/columns/inspiring-change-through-values-based-
leadership/story/274648.html

The Value in Values –

https://thestorytellers.com/the-value-in-values/

Giving Voice to Values –

https://www.babson.edu/academics/executive-education/babson-insight/leadership-and-
management/giving-voice-to-values-in-leadership/#

Lessons in Management from Street Vendors –

https://hbrascend.org/topics/lessons-in-management-from-street-vendors-tapan-singhel/

Collaborating at workplace –

https://hbrascend.org/topics/sometimes-colleagues-are-the-best-coaches/

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How to be Proactive at work –

https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-secret-to-climbing-up-the-ladder-when-no-ones-telling-you-
how-to-do-it

Proactivity & career –

https://blog.hotmart.com/en/being-proactive-at-work/

Being Proactive: Blessing or Bane –

https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-23/edition-11/being-proactive-work-%E2%80%93-
blessing-or-bane

The Ordinary Heroes of the Taj –

https://hbr.org/2011/12/the-ordinary-heroes-of-the-taj

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