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Policy Authority
Category: Ethics and Culture

Corporate Values

Also known as: Company Core Values, Core Values, Organizational Values
Simply put

Corporate values are the fundamental beliefs and guiding principles that shape how an organization behaves, makes decisions, and sets priorities. They are typically stated clearly so that employees and leaders share a common understanding of what the organization stands for. In many organizations, these values are linked to the company's vision, mission, and strategy.

Formal definition

Corporate values are a small set of enduring, predetermined principles articulated by an organization to guide behavior, decision-making, and prioritization consistent with its vision, mission, and strategy. Within a governance context, they commonly form part of the tone at the top and cultural foundation against which conduct and decision rights are directed. They are distinct from formal policies, standards, and procedures, which operationalize expectations into specific requirements; values instead express the underlying principles those instruments are intended to reflect. This entry does not address implementation methods, measurement of values adherence, or specific legal or regulatory obligations.

Why it matters

Corporate values sit at the foundation of an organization's governance framework because they articulate the shared principles against which behavior, decision-making, and prioritization are directed. In a governance context, they commonly form part of the tone at the top and the cultural foundation that shapes how leaders and employees understand what the organization stands for. When values are clearly stated and linked to the vision, mission, and strategy, they can help align personnel around a common understanding, supporting more consistent conduct across the organization.

Values are distinct from the formal instruments that translate expectations into specific requirements. Policies, standards, and procedures operationalize expectations, whereas values express the underlying principles those instruments are intended to reflect. This distinction matters because articulated values on their own do not guarantee any particular conduct or outcome; they set direction rather than mandate specific actions. Organizations that treat stated values as interchangeable with enforceable requirements may overestimate the assurance those statements provide.

Because corporate values shape culture and decision-making, they are often referenced when governance professionals consider how an organization's stated principles correspond to its actual conduct. The value of a clearly articulated set of principles depends on the extent to which behavior and decisions are consistent with them, a matter that lies beyond the scope of this entry, which does not address measurement of values adherence, implementation methods, or specific legal or regulatory obligations.

Who it's relevant to

Governance professionals
Those responsible for organizational direction and decision rights may reference corporate values as part of the tone at the top and cultural foundation. Clearly articulated values can help express the principles that broader governance structures are intended to reflect, though values alone do not establish enforceable requirements.
Boards and senior leadership
Leaders often set and communicate corporate values as part of establishing shared understanding of what the organization stands for, commonly linking them to the vision, mission, and strategy. This positions values within their responsibility for setting organizational tone.
Compliance officers
Compliance professionals may find it useful to distinguish corporate values from the policies, standards, and procedures they administer. Values express underlying principles, while those formal instruments operationalize expectations into specific requirements; conflating the two can obscure where actual obligations lie.
Internal auditors and assurance providers
Assurance functions may consider corporate values as part of the cultural context in which conduct occurs, while maintaining the distinction between articulated principles and the controls and requirements they evaluate. Stated values do not by themselves provide assurance about actual behavior.

Inside Corporate Values

Guiding Principles
The foundational beliefs and priorities an organization articulates to shape how it conducts business, such as integrity, accountability, or respect. These typically inform tone at the top rather than prescribing specific operational rules.
Ethical Standards
Expectations regarding acceptable and unacceptable conduct that commonly translate corporate values into behavioral norms. These are often operationalized through a code of conduct and related policies.
Cultural Expectations
The shared attitudes and behaviors that values are intended to promote across the workforce. Culture influences how governance, risk, and compliance objectives are pursued in practice, though values alone do not guarantee cultural alignment.
Tone at the Top
The commitment demonstrated by the board and senior leadership to the stated values. In many governance frameworks this signaling is treated as a significant influence on the effectiveness of the broader control environment.
Stakeholder Orientation
The articulation of how the organization intends to treat stakeholders such as customers, employees, and communities. The specific stakeholders emphasized may vary by organization, jurisdiction, and sector.

Common questions

Answers to the questions practitioners most commonly ask about Corporate Values.

Are corporate values the same as a code of conduct or compliance policy?
No. Corporate values are the underlying principles that express what an organization aspires to stand for and how it intends to behave, whereas a code of conduct or compliance policy translates expectations into specific, often enforceable, rules of behavior. Values sit primarily within the governance pillar as directional statements, while codes and policies operationalize adherence and may carry disciplinary consequences. Conflating the two can lead organizations to treat aspirational language as if it were an enforceable standard, or to assume that publishing values alone satisfies compliance obligations.
Do stated corporate values guarantee ethical behavior or reduce misconduct?
Not on their own. Stated values articulate intent, but they do not by themselves ensure conduct or mitigate risk. Their influence typically depends on how well they are reinforced through leadership behavior, decision-making structures, incentives, and supporting controls. Treating a values statement as a control that guarantees outcomes is a common misuse; in practice, values shape culture only when they are embedded in governance processes and consistently modeled, and even then they do not eliminate the possibility of misconduct.
How can an organization embed corporate values into day-to-day decision-making?
Embedding values commonly involves reflecting them in governance structures such as board and management decision rights, incorporating them into hiring, onboarding, performance management, and incentive design, and referencing them when framing significant decisions. Many organizations also align supporting policies and procedures with stated values so that the principles are visible where employees actually make choices. The specific mechanisms vary by organization size, sector, and jurisdiction, and this entry does not cover particular tooling or implementation methodologies.
Who is typically responsible for defining and maintaining corporate values?
Responsibility commonly rests with the board and senior leadership, who set direction and are often seen as accountable for the 'tone at the top.' Defining and refreshing values may be supported by functions such as human resources, ethics, or compliance, but the articulation of organizational values is generally a governance matter rather than an assurance activity. Assurance functions may assess whether values are being embedded and observed, but that evaluative role should be kept distinct from the management responsibility for setting and promoting the values themselves.
How can an organization assess whether its corporate values are actually being lived?
Organizations commonly look to indicators such as employee survey results, patterns in reported concerns or whistleblowing data, behavior in decision-making, and consistency between stated values and observed leadership conduct. Independent assurance functions may review whether processes and controls reflect the values and whether culture aligns with stated intent. Such assessments are typically qualitative and indicative rather than definitive, and the relevant approaches vary by organization and context.
How do corporate values relate to risk management and compliance activities?
Corporate values can inform an organization's approach to risk and compliance by signaling the behaviors and priorities leadership expects, which may in turn shape risk appetite discussions and the design of the compliance environment. However, values do not replace formal risk assessments, controls, or compliance obligations, which address specific requirements and uncertainties. The relationship is one of alignment and reinforcement across the governance, risk, and compliance pillars, not substitution; values provide directional context while risk and compliance processes provide the structured mechanisms.

Common misconceptions

Corporate values are the same as a code of conduct or compliance policy.
Corporate values are high-level statements of guiding principles and typically sit within the governance pillar as part of the control environment. A code of conduct and compliance policies are more specific instruments that may operationalize values into required behaviors and adherence obligations; they are related but distinct.
Publishing corporate values guarantees ethical behavior or an effective ethical culture.
Stated values are aspirational and do not by themselves ensure conduct aligns with them. Their influence commonly depends on tone at the top, reinforcement mechanisms, and consistency between stated and lived behavior; a gap between the two is a recognized risk.
Corporate values are a risk management or assurance activity.
Corporate values are primarily a governance element that helps direct the organization. They are not themselves a risk assessment, a control, or an assurance activity, though they may shape the environment in which those activities operate.

Best practices

Ensure the board and senior leadership visibly and consistently demonstrate the stated values, recognizing that tone at the top commonly influences the wider control environment.
Translate high-level values into more specific instruments, such as a code of conduct and supporting policies, so expected behaviors are clear rather than left aspirational.
Periodically review whether lived behavior aligns with stated values, and treat any persistent gap as a governance and culture concern warranting attention.
Adapt the articulation of values and stakeholder emphasis to the organization's jurisdiction, sector, and size rather than adopting generic statements uncritically.
Reinforce values through mechanisms such as onboarding, communication, and performance expectations, acknowledging that publication alone does not embed them.
Keep the distinction clear between values as a governance direction-setting element and the separate assurance activities that may later evaluate culture or conduct.
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