Ikea had a lot of incentives around the workplace to get their employees to adapt Ikea’s values. The problem was however that there were too many values. They only needed a few values – the core values that resonated with the employees. This way the employees would gain knowledge about IKEAs values and become purpose driven employees.
The people in HR at IKEA wanted to use values more in their work with the employees. But they didn’t know if this was possible or not. And did their employees know anything about their values?
Values are hard to do interviews about. It can be a fluffy thing for employees. Does an employee know the values of IKEA even though the can’t name the values?
Through in-depth interviews with people from management and staff in the warehouse I got insights into how IKEAs values were used and perceived. Field studies were used as a way of gaining insights into how exposed they were to IKEAs values in their daily work.