ALIGNING ONE'S
HIERARCHY OF
VALUES
HIERARCHY OF VALUES
God
Self
Family
career
Friends
Community
Country
VALUES AND VALUES INDICATOR
A Value Indicator is a dynamic gauge element that is used to
track the changing of a data value or a data range on a scale.
CHARACTERISTICS OF AUTHENTIC VALUES
Put simply, authenticity means you're true to your own personality,
values, and spirit, regardless of the pressure that you're under to
act otherwise. You're honest with yourself and with others, and you
take responsibility for your mistakes. Your values, ideals, and actions
align.
For perceivedvalues to become authentic values, they must possess the
following characteristics:
1. They are freely chsen and not imposed on the person. Neither is one pressured to adopt them.
When a child goes to mass on a Sunday because it is what his parents want him to do, he is not
exhibiting a real value for the sacrament. The Holy Eucharist becomes a real value to him only if he
goes to mass out of his volition, not because of parental instructions or pressure.
2. Real values are best internalized when one is faced with alternatives yet he chooses the value more
than any alternative.
Example: A lady has a choice to marry, to embrace the religious life or become single. But she opts tp become a nun
because she finds the religious life a better source of fulfillment.
3. It is chosen after due reflection.
Values are adopted on the basis of their worth and value. It is only
when a person is convinced of the real merits of a valued object
that it becomes internalized as a real value.
Values are chosen after weighing the benefits and other
consequences. One must be convinced that the positive
effects outweigh the negative consequences.
4. It is prized and cherished.
An object of worth and value to a person is prized and cherished. The person
finds it beneficial, it gives him happiness, peace of mind, a sense of security,
inner joy and other positive rewards.
5. It is publicly affirmed.
A valued object, person or thing is something that a person can openly
show the world that it is significant to him.
6. It is acted upon and acted on consistently.
Something cannot be considered a real value when person does not act on it nor spend
time for it. A wife may consider her family important but is she does not consistently
perform her duties as a wife and mother, her family is not of real value to her.
True values are addressed in a person’s career plan, life goals and daily routine.
7. It is a patterned, repeated action.
A real value is not only acted once, but consistently, following a pattern. It is internalized as part of
person’s lifestyle and daily routine.
Values conflict
Sometimes people in a relationship get into conflict with each other because of opposing
values. With this conflict, decision making and problem solving becomes difficult, if not
impossible. This happens when parties involved in the controversy refuse to recognize and
understand their differences.
Example: Business partners clash over the ethical standards they expect each other to
uphold. A negotiator refuses to do business with a potential counterpart she deems unsavory
on moral grounds. Parents bar their teenager from attending an event they think might be
dangerous.
