Developing Personal and Workplace Values Through Retail Experience

The Nature of Values

Values are something that every individual and organization possesses, whether or not they are aware of them or consciously utilize them. They are the means by which all entities decide how to act. While we typically associate the term values with good values, a person could — and many do — value money over fairness, or pleasure over responsibility. Simply having values does not mean acting in a good way; rather, it means defining what values a person holds and what priority those values carry relative to each other and to the actions one takes.

In addition, although every individual and organization has values, values are also something that can be consciously and continually developed, refined, adjusted, and even changed. Personal experience in the workplace — through interactions with customers, coworkers, and a company's expressed and demonstrated values — can play a meaningful role in shaping one's own.

Target's Organizational Mission and Values

Target's mission, as stated on their website, is to become a leading consumer choice in the retail world "by delivering outstanding value, continuous innovation and an exceptional guest experience by consistently fulfilling our Expect More. Pay Less. brand promise" (Target, 2012). In practice, this means providing quality in both products and customer service while ensuring that consumers can find everything they need at prices they can afford.

The concrete goals that the company sets for its operations help to create, define, and perpetuate the values of the organization by giving clear objectives to strive toward — objectives that suggest practical, straightforward ways those values can be put into action. Community involvement, service with a genuine attitude, and offering products at accessible prices all support and reinforce these values (Target, 2012). Understanding how a corporate mission statement translates into everyday behavior is itself a valuable professional lesson.

Applying Workplace Lessons to Personal Values

In my own life, I do not personally value becoming a retail attraction or providing a high-quality "guest experience" in the corporate sense. That said, some of Target's values — approaching everything with the attitude of achieving the best of one's abilities, for example — have become practices I actively try to adopt. More importantly, Target's approach to its values, and my experience working there, taught me how to develop and truly implement my own values in a more conscious and concrete fashion.

I have always had a strong work ethic, but I had not always been proactive in setting professional and personal goals for myself and then applying that work ethic — that value of labor, as it were — to the achievement of those goals. My experience at Target, and the very clear way the company outlines its values and instructs its employees in working to fulfill them, taught me how simple and direct taking real action based on values — rather than simply reacting based on values — can be.

I am now able to put my values, from my work ethic to my commitment to honesty and integrity, into direct and positive action by developing concrete, everyday steps I can take to promote and demonstrate those values — and then actually taking them. This shift from passive reaction to active intention is perhaps the most important thing my time in the workplace helped me understand about personal value development.

Conclusion

Values are a part of everyone, and they can be a part of everyone's development, too. My work experience at Target helped me develop my values in a more active and practical direction. This has already helped me become a more productive and successful person, and in this way my values have contributed directly to my overall happiness.