Constitutive and Operational Values in Organizational Development

FORMAT | Presented paper

LANGUAGE | English

HOW TO CITE| Frunza, A., SANDU, Antonio, & Huidu, A. (2020). Constitutive and Operational Values in Organizational Development. Prezentat în cadrul 15th LUMEN International Scientific Conference Communicative Action & Transdisciplinarity in the Ethical Society | CATES 2020 | November 27th-28th, 2020 | Targoviste, Romania.

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ABSTRACT:

The main idea of the paper derives from researches previously developed in the specific of theoretical development of an organizational ethical axiology: how to guide institutions in their practices according to ethical values; how do the organisations identify these values and how do they originate or not their practice in ethical values? The process we have followed in our research so far has been a deconstructive – (re) constructive one, through which we have been able to identify a distinction between constitutive values, those values that lead to the emergence of a social institution, and operational values, as values that guides the functioning of those institutions (Caras (Frunză) & Sandu, 2014; Sandu & Caras (Frunză), 2014).
Once constructed, a value – in a process of negotiating interpretations and establishing values – it becomes constitutive for various social institutions. In the process of functioning of the social institution, it in turn establishes values – through communicative action, which it transforms into principles of good practice.
Although we find in the literature the distinction between intrinsic values and extrinsic values, we propose the model of the distinction between constitutive values and operational values, the former being those that underlie the emergence of a professional social system, and the latter at the basis of its functioning. In our view, principles transpose values into social practice, being the link between deontic axiology and social practice.
The term axiological ethics means, in general, the world of moral values, and in the context of professional ethics, the constitutive ethical values of that profession. In the practice of regulating ethical standards, the (operational) value is stated simultaneously with the principle that includes it, being usually followed by an explanation of its social applicability. In our opinion, the transition from values to principles is based on a deconstructive-reconstructive process, which makes the transition from the ethical universal to the social particular (Caras (Frunză), 2014; Sandu & Caras, 2013 ; Sandu, Frunza, Huidu, 2020).

KEYWORDS:

Operational Values; Constitutive Values; Organizational Development.