Fernando: Core values

IDEALLY, every organization adopts core values that serve as their moral guidance in their day to day activity. Without this set of values, establishments are lost with their moral distinctiveness. The individual-employee will have to follow his/her own set of moral values and this is when problems arise because values will become subjective. One employee may have values which may not conform to the belief of many. The core values should set the moral standard of the employees’ characters and the company’s ideals.

Employees have different backgrounds and expectedly they have different set of values though they may not be too far unalike because they live and raised in one country. Filipinos have its identity because of their values. Strong family-orientation and strong religiosity are two characteristics known to us.

This is because we put high regard on family and religion. Yet the individual experiences of employees including the kinds of environment they were raised by affected their views and ideals in life which triggered the differences in values. One may have parents who do not practice their faith and so he/she too does not see religion as significant. This may not be the case for other employees.

Core values are socially accepted moral beliefs that are culture-based. Stephen Covey wrote that this is like a compass that provides a direction. The Department of Education (DepEd) espoused four core values to be lived by all employees of the department and same core values to be embodied by all Filipino learners; these are makaDiyos, makatao, makabansa, at makakalikasan. Administration, teachers, and support staff of the department must then strive that students embrace these values as they progress in school.

Core values must also guide every school’s handbook in terms of disciplinary action. For instance, mulling a classmate is punishable either by suspension or expulsion because it directly contradict the core value of makatao. Destructive criticism of faith practices of other students in the school can result to reprimand or other disciplinary actions because the student who did it acted against the value of MakaDiyos. Of course, aside from the disciplinary action, the school’s primary goal is to educate the students of these core values that they may be immersed and eventually embrace them.

It is a big challenge for the school administrators to make these core values felt because in reality they are just words put into placards and nailed on school walls. For an organization like DepEd it is important to understand that our core values should be our primary guide and reference in educating the students. The students should be molded through these values.

The same moral norms are applied to the teachers and administration. We have our personal set of values as pointed out in the beginning but these should be set aside once we assume our duties as teachers or DepEd employees. We cannot just reiterate our personal views if they do not agree to the core values of the department. Other organizations such as business companies also have their own core values.

One company may not enter a partnership with another whose owner is involved in a corruption or sex scandal. Many movie actors and television personalities were laid off from their jobs these past years because of their involvement in sexual harassments. Though these personalities are big assets to their companies, the company owner had to remove them because of their failure to follow their core values.

Integrity, equality, and justice are some of the core values adopted by many organizations.

Helping a student pass is a noble task but even helping should follow a norm to make it acceptable. We can help the students pass by allowing them to cheat or by providing them key answers yet it is easy to look at these as erroneous by looking at our core values. The curriculum being taught under the Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao (EsP) Department is a general set of values. The students need to know and understand the importance of values thus all possible values to be discussed should are tackled.

The core values set by DepEd are four of broad values that demand obedience from all personalities, such as teachers and students. These four values now should be learned and prioritized in their application.

Core values help balance the differences of individuals working in an organization because they set the moral norm to be followed. When one joins an organization, it is understood that he/she is willing to sacrifice his/her own values if they undermine the core values of the institute. It is encouraged then that all organizations, such as DepEd whose stakeholders include learners, that they do their best to imbibe such and inculcate them to the learners.