Environments of value: the pursuit of value in organisational cultures

This paper engages with a new approach in psychology and its application to the business environment. Rooted in client observation in therapeutic environments in conjunction with post-doctoral work, the lens I propose endeavours to discern how issues of value are generated in everyday workplace contexts. Such contexts are a site of contested struggle to pursue a high value for ourselves. This motivation acts as a psycho-social driver. I propose the notion of organisational culture as 'environments of value' within which value is released. I suggest how this construct might inform the emerging concept of shared value as requiring five literacies about: 1) shareholder value and return for risk; 2) value for the social environment linked to respect for the natural environment; 3) inner value of those in the enterprise, which when unlocked, releases energies and adds value; 4) nurture of non-quantifiable qualities that promote human flourishing; 5) understandings of how power relations distort the way organisations operate. The link between promoting an environment of value within which these literacies flourish and the added value for the organisation arising from such a culture is then signposted.