Aligning Military and Soldiers’ Values Hierarchy

Abstract

Studies on the fit between the person and the environment i.e. P-E fit are widespread. One aspect of P-E fit is values congruence i.e. the fit or similarity between the values of the organization and the employees' values. However, there has been no study that reported the congruence between an organization's value hierarchy (i.e. the ranking of its values) and those of its employees. This study investigates the values hierarchy congruence between the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) and its soldiers and the relationship with satisfaction. A sample of 214 officers in the MAF were obtained. When the top 5 values were used in analyses, values hierarchy congruence scores were significantly correlated with soldiers' satisfaction (.122, p<0.05). This suggests that not only should the values of the soldiers and the organizations be similar or congruent, but the priority or ranking of these values are important as well.