Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1317 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here.
Preamble
This post is based on Harvard Business Review article. Link at the end.
From Values to Action: How Leaders Make Principles Hold Under Pressure
Part 2 of 2 — Turning Organizational Values into Everyday Behavior
What happens to organizational values when following them becomes difficult? The answer determines whether values are merely corporate language or an actual part of organizational culture. Values do not become real simply because leadership declares them. They become real when they are embedded into the organization’s decisions, systems, incentives, leadership behavior and consequences. In other words, values need an operating system.
1. Start by Defining the Lines You Will Not Cross – Most organizations spend considerable time identifying what they want. Far fewer define what they refuse. When people know where the boundaries are, they have greater confidence when making difficult decisions.
2. Give Someone the Authority to Enforce the Value – A value without authority is merely an aspiration. The HBR framework therefore makes an important point about giving people the authority and courage to enforce boundaries. A value becomes credible when the person responsible for protecting it has the authority to act.
3. Align Incentives With Values – This may be the most overlooked part of values-based management. Organizations frequently say one thing and reward another. Employees notice these contradictions immediately. They do not need a leadership seminar to understand what really matters. The Institute of Business Ethics makes a similar point: recruitment, performance management, incentives, goals and leadership practices can either support or undermine an ethical culture. You cannot build a values-driven organization while maintaining incentive systems that systematically reward values-violating behavior.
4. Make Bad News Safe to Tell – A values-driven organization needs a strong flow of uncomfortable information. Bad news should travel upward faster than good news. Unfortunately, organizational cultures often do the opposite. Bad news are held at various points. By the time the information reaches the CEO, the original problem may have been substantially softened. A CEO cannot make a good decision using information that has been culturally sanitized. Leaders therefore need to make it safe to report problems.
5. Protect the Messenger – A speak-up culture collapses if employees see that those who raise concerns are punished. Suppose a junior manager reports that sales representatives are using questionable promotional practices. Management investigates and finds a problem. If the employee is subsequently excluded from meetings, transferred to an undesirable position or labelled “not a team player,” everyone else receives the message. “Do not create problems for senior management.” This is why psychological safety is not a soft HR concept. It is a risk-management mechanism.
6. Use Real Cases to Teach Values – The HBR framework’s third element is particularly interesting: stories. Policies tell employees what to do. Stories tell employees what the organization remembers. Every organization has stories. The question is, which stories become legends? The story of the person who rescued the quarter? Culture is built partly from the stories organizations choose to repeat.
Ranbaxy: A Warning About the Cost of Weak Boundaries
The Ranbaxy case demonstrates the potentially enormous consequences when scientific and regulatory boundaries are not adequately respected.
In 2013, Ranbaxy USA pleaded guilty to felony charges relating to the manufacture and distribution of certain adulterated drugs and to making false statements to the FDA. The company agreed to pay $500 million in criminal fines, forfeiture and civil settlements. The U.S. Department of Justice described issues including cGMP violations, false statements and problems involving stability testing and regulatory reporting.
Earlier, the U.S. government had alleged that Ranbaxy submitted false data in drug applications, including backdating tests and submitting test data where test samples did not exist.
7. Create “Values Under Pressure” Scenarios – One practical exercise for leadership teams is to stop discussing values only in abstract terms. Instead, ask: “What would we do if…?” A high-performing salesperson is accused of violating a promotional policy. Does performance change the investigation?
8. Measure the Culture – What gets measured gets discussed. Organizations should therefore consider measuring whether values are actually being experienced. But there is an important caution. A low number of complaints does not necessarily mean a healthy culture. It could mean that employees do not trust the reporting system. A sudden increase in reports may sometimes indicate that employees have become more willing to speak up. Numbers therefore need context.
9. Make Values Part of Management by Objectives – Values should not sit separately from performance management. They should be incorporated into the way objectives are established and reviewed. For example, an executive’s annual objective could include:Deliver business growth while maintaining full compliance with company policies and applicable regulations, with zero substantiated ethical violations under the executive’s responsibility. A quality manager could have an objective relating not only to compliance but also to proactive identification and resolution of recurring quality risks.
10. The CEO’s Behavior Is the Strongest Signal – Ultimately, no values framework can compensate for contradictory leadership behavior. If the CEO says: “Tell me the truth.” But becomes angry when the truth is inconvenient, employees learn not to tell the truth. Employees watch leaders much more carefully than leaders realize. The CEO’s behavior is therefore not merely one example of culture. It is a signal that defines culture.
A Practical Five-Step Values Framework
or organizations that want to move from values statements to values-based management, I would suggest five steps.
Step 1: Define the values – Choose a small number of values that genuinely matter.
Step 2: Define the refusals – For every major value, identify behaviors the organization will not tolerate.
Step 3: Assign authority – Give specific people the power to stop, challenge, escalate or investigate when boundaries are threatened.
Step 4: Align systems – Ensure recruitment, objectives, incentives, promotions, recognition and consequences reinforce the values.
Step 5: Tell the stories – When employees demonstrate courage, integrity or responsibility under pressure, make those stories part of organizational memory.
This creates a reinforcing cycle:
Values → Boundaries → Behavior → Decisions → Stories → Culture
And culture then influences the next generation of decisions.
The Final Leadership Test
Every organization will eventually face a moment when values become expensive. The real values of an organization are revealed by what it is willing to sacrifice rather than violate.
Concluded.
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For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intent to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, any claim is lodged, it will be acknowledged and duly recognized immediately.
Reference:
https://hbr.org/2026/09/will-your-organization-stand-by-its-values-even-when-its-hard
