Values like attitudes are hypothetical constructs which serve as internal guides for one’s behaviour. Like attitudes values make behavioural choices more certain and less random. They make behaviour more predictable. Values like attitudes deals with one’s orientation towards different aspects of social environment. It is an important life goal or standard of behaviour for a person. It is a standard towards which the individual has strong positive orientation. A value is not merely a preference Infact it is preference which is justified morally, by reasoning or by aesthetic judgment.

Values are specific convictions/ideas that guide specific mode of conduct or end state of existence which is personally or socially more preferable.

Thus values are Important and lasting beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture about what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable. Values have major influence on a person's behavior and attitude and serve as broad guidelines in all situations.

Some common business values are fairness, innovation and community involvement.

Values are “things that have an intrinsic worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor,” or “principles, standards, or qualities considered worthwhile or desirable.” Values constitute an important aspect of self-concept and serve as guiding principles for an individual. Human values are the virtues that guide us to take into account the human element when one interacts with other human beings. They are the many positive dispositions that create bonds of humanity between people and thus have value for all of us as human beings. They are our strong positive feelings for the human essence of the other.

It’s both what we expect others to do to us and what we aim to give to other human beings (“Do unto the other what you wish for yourself”). These human values have the effect of bonding, comforting, reassuring and procuring serenity.

Human values are the foundation for any viable life within society: they build space for a drive, a movement towards one another, which leads to peace. Human values thus defined are universal: they are shared by all human beings, whatever their religion, their nationality, their culture, their personal history. By nature, they induce consideration for others. Human values are, for example:

brotherhood, friendship, empathy, compassion, love. openness, listening, welcoming, acceptance, recognition, appreciation; honesty, fairness, loyalty, sharing, solidarity; civility, respect, consideration;

The function of most of these basic values is to make it possible for every human to realize or maintain the very highest or most basic universal core values of life, love and happiness.

Value (Sociology)

In sociology, the meaning of value is different from meaning of value in economics or philosophy. For example, in economics values means price. Social values form an important part of the culture of the society. Values account for the stability of social order. They provide the general guidelines for social conduct. Values such as fundamental rights, patriotism, respect for human dignity, rationality, sacrifice, individuality, equality, democracy etc. guide our behaviour in many ways. Values are the criteria people use in assessing their daily lives; arrange their priorities and choosing between alternative course of action.

Values are standards of social behaviour derived from social interaction and accepted as constituent facts of social structure. They are objects that social conditions desire. These are culturally defined goals and involve “sentiments and significance.” These consist of “aspirational reference.”

Values are expected to be followed for judging and evaluating social interaction, goals, means, ideas, feelings and the expected conduct. Without such evaluating standard, it would be difficult to judge individual behaviour or social action. Values aim to integrate expected individual behaviour and social action. It tends to forestall tension and as such have tension management role.

In simple words, values may be defined as measure of goodness or desirability.

Value (Economics)

Economic value is a measure of the benefit provided by a good or service to an economic agent. It is generally measured relative to units of currency, and the interpretation is therefore "what is the maximum amount of money a specific actor is willing and able to pay for the good or service"?

Note that economic value is not the same as market price, nor is economic value the same thing as market value. If a consumer is willing to buy a good, it implies that the customer places a higher value on the good than the market price. The difference between the value to the consumer and the market price is called "consumer surplus". It is easy to see situations where the actual value is considerably larger than the market price: purchase of drinking water is one example.

Said another way, value is how much a desired object or condition is worth relative to other objects or conditions. Economic values are expressed as "how much" of one desirable condition or commodity will, or would be given up in exchange for some other desired condition or commodity

Value (law)

Value within the context of law, particularly with respect to contracts, is a concept closely related, but not identical, to that of consideration.

At common law, certain transferrable obligations were only enforceable if the transferee had acquired them for value. Under the rules of equity, the rights of a bona fide purchaser for value would not be interfered with. State courts of various jurisdictions in the US adopted varying definitions of what constituted "value".

Value (ethics)

In ethics, value denotes something's degree of importance, with the aim of determining what action of life is best to do or live (deontology), or to describe the significance of different actions (axiology). It may be described as treating actions themselves as abstract objects, putting value to them. It deals with right conduct and good life, in the sense that a highly, or at least relatively highly, valuable action may be regarded as ethically "good" (adjective sense), and an action of low, or at least relatively low, value may be regarded as "bad".

What makes an action valuable may in turn depend on the ethic values of the objects it increases, decreases or alters. An object with "ethic value" may be termed an "ethic or philosophic good"

Characteristics of Values

• Values have cognitive, affective and directional aspects.
• Values serves as criterion for selection of action .They constitute ground for decision making
• Values are learned and are determined by culture, personal experiences and societal institutions. Values are developed by some kind of experience of pain, pleasure gratification of goals and by social approvals and disapprovals.
• Values are defined by analytic construct and they are not object bound.
• Values are highly stable and enduring. They undergo a change as a result of changes in society, social institutions and individuals self awareness.
• Values are resultant of societal demands and psychological needs. They are the determinants of attitudes , judgments, choices and actions

Types Of Values

According to Spranger values are of six types. These are: Theoretical values, Economic values, Aesthetic values, Social values, Political values, Religious values

According to Rokeach values are of two types. These are : Instrumental values, Terminal values

• Instrumental values are beliefs or conceptions about desirable modes of behaviour that are instrumental for the attainment of desirable goals e.g. honesty.
• Terminal values refers to beliefs and conceptions about the ultimate goal or end state that are worth striving for e.g. wisdom

Development of Values

Values develop due to children’s internalization of cultural norms including beliefs regarding what is appropriate and what is inappropriate at very young age. These cultural norms are internalized through various socialization processes (identification, internalization, role playing, rewards and punishments, trial and error).Parents during socialization of children facilitates value development by rewarding socially approved behaviour and punishing the behaviour which are disapproved. They also make an effort to ensure that child is exposed to appropriate role model so that he can identify with them and internalize their values.

Role of family

For children, the family represents a certain type of environment where they could find support, safety and security – it is the basic background for them. A child is a product of a family and it is reflected in his/her features, behaviour and values. The values that a child receives in a family will probably determine his/her behaviour in the future. Family values among the members of a family are based on the relationship of affinity and touch mostly feelings, emotions and interests established on mutual respect of people living in a family.

The family and society is important in developing the moral values of child. There is a close contact between the parents and children, which determine the personality of child. Family is the foundation on which values are built.

Moral values like truthfulness, happiness, peace, justice are instilled in children’s thoughts, feelings and actions and they function as ideals and standards that govern their actions in their life. The value system practised in the family becomes automatic to the young family members if they are taught moral values systematically.

The family, shapes the child’s attitude towards people and society, and helps in mental growth in the child and supports his ambitions and values. Blissful and cheerful atmosphere in the family will develop the love, affection, tolerance, and generosity. A child learns his behavior by modelling what he sees around him.

Family plays a major role in helping a child socialize and has great influence and bearing on the progress of the child. Joint family system, the presence of elders in the family plays the effective role in social and moral development of the children. It will also help young generation of the family to imbibe human values and eradicate their negative mental tendencies when they are among elders.

Children identify themselves with their parents, other family elders and adopt them as their personal models for emulation and imitation. The behavioural problems are set correct only by the involvement of family in the child’s life as they spend most of their time in adolescence with the parents.

Family is the first social organisation that provides the immediate proximity from which the kid can learn his behavior.

Social standards and customs defined by a family provide the emotional and physical basis for a child. Values developed by a family are the foundation for how children learn, grow and function in the world. These beliefs, transmits the way of life a child lives and changes into an individual in a society. These values and morals guides the individual every time in his actions. Children turn out to be a good person because of the value taught and given by his family members Ideas passed down from generation to generation make up a family values. Customs and Traditions followed and taught by the family leads a disciplined and organized life.

Families values helps the child to stand strong on his views despite others efforts to break through with opposing beliefs. A child has a strong sense of what is right and wrong and are less likely to become victims of deviant influences.

Role of Schools

It is 1st formal agency of socialization .It teaches cultural norms and values through formal and informal ways. Schools teaches values  in both formal and informal ways. School by incorporating moral stories and life histories of great leaders in its curriculum impart values to its pupils in formal ways.

School also provides informal ways of socialization .Peer group, teachers etc. also imparts values to students. Students learn values either by coming in their direct contact or by observing their behN aviour. Teachers act as role model for students. Children learn many values from their good teachers by incorporating their behaviour pattern in themselves.

Peer group also plays important role in shaping attitudes and behaviour of its member. Group identity and group pressure ensures that its member should show some normative beviour .While following this normative behaviour some values gets inculcated in its member’s behaviour . In school, children are members of a small society that exerts a tremendous influence on their moral development. Teachers serve as role model to students in school; they play a major role in inculcating their ethical behavior.

Peers at school diffuse boldness about cheating, lying, stealing, and consideration for others. Though there are rules and regulations, the educational institutions infuse the value education to the children in an informal way. They play a major role in developing ethical behaviour in children.

Role of Media

Media is mode of communication .When this communication happens with masses it is called mass media. Mass media including social networking media is becoming important agency of socialization, hence, its role in value fostering is becoming increasingly important. Mass media can bring social change by shaping people’s attitude, opinions, beliefs, values etc. This social change is brought by mass media by imparting information, by providing role models etc. Present day revolution of social networking sites such as facebook,orkut, what’s up , twitter etc. are also promoting good values among its members by popularizing some acts and behaviours as good and bad.

Values and Ethics

As a concept, values are often interchanged with ethics (and not infrequently also with standards), particularly in relation to addressing corruption or maladministration. While there is a close and often interdependent relationship between both, such interchanging is problematic for the study of either concept, and it is notable that in Canada, a distinction was drawn between both in the establishment of an Office for Public Service Values and Ethics in 1991. A similar distinction is necessary here. As noted above, values in and of themselves do not have agency i.e. they do not actually do anything. Instead it is the application of ethical codes to values that will lead to particular behaviour. Ethics, therefore, are in effect the rules that translate values into everyday life. At its most basic, ethics is about determining what is ‘wrong’, ‘good’, ‘bad’ or ‘right’, and ethical choices are informed by values which help actors decide on what option to take when faced with an ethical dilemma. While the values of different bureaucracies may vary between states, similar ethical challenges are routinely met, particularly in respect of issues of resource management. It is because of conflicts between ethical and unethical behaviour that Codes (or Standards) of Conduct and rules of procedure have emerged in importance. They provide an aide or benchmark against which decisions can be made and acted upon. PUBLIC SERVICE VALUES In his work on changing public sector values, Van Wart argues that ethics are a sub-set of values, and that values form our broad, socially derived ethical standards for how the world should operate. Ethics, he proposes, is doing the right thing, that is, acting on values. Values inform all aspects of ethical decision-making - ethical judgment, ethical choice and ethical behaviour - and are reinforced by them. Similarly, Gortner proposes that ‘an understanding of the role of values in choices clarifies many of the issues related to ethics in public administration’. In the context of malpractices being exposed in multinational corporations, a range of corporate governance and legal requirements are now in place for the oversight and audit of such organisations. Many of these requirements have also been applied to public organisations. As well as the development of extensive rules and regulations guiding the activities of public and private organisations, there is a focus on the adoption of ethical values and work practices which encourage adherence to the spirit as well as the letter of these requirements. Distinctions between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ values are misplaced, as how values are interpreted is in and of itself a value-based act. Therefore, by definition, values cannot be negative or positive - rather, how they are used to inform decisions and performance can be viewed from negative or positive viewpoints. For example, confidentiality as a value may be interpreted in a positive manner (provides for trust between an organisation and its customers) or negatively (it inhibits transparency). In a similar vein, not all values are ethical values (i.e. concerned with right and wrong), and values may be unethical or non-ethical. Also, some ethical values, including fairness and honesty, are more germane to the public service than others