Active Citizenship and Civic Responsibility - Civic Values in a Business Organization Vodafone’s Values-Based Organization (VBO)
The promotion and practice of active citizenship and civic responsibility by all Egyptian institutions is fundamental to enhanced governance and improved services in Egypt. A first step in activating citizenship is awareness, performance and promotion of civic values and ethical norms, roles and principles of responsible citizens and civic responsibility. Civic values are the values we learn to respect as citizens – the values of good governance in democratic societies.
This story was presented by Hassan Helmy, the Senior Program Manager at Vodafone Egypt’s Values Based Organization (VBO) on how individuals in a large multi-national organization can make their voices heard. Since late 2007 Vodafone started the process of becoming a Values Based Organization (VBO) in order to support the company’s growth and to have a competitive edge in the market. Walking through a long process, all employees reached and agreed upon three values that work coherently together. These are:
What’s a VBO?
- A place where power is shared
- A place where inspired leaders, creative teams and passionate people come together to deliberately create their own destiny
- A place where everyone is valued, respected and developed
- A place where rules and titles are secondary to serving the customer
- “There started to be cohesion between people and this is what I dreamt of: integration and forgetting that they are foreign Sudanese refugees. Integration between different people is what I was thinking about all along.”
- ““As civil society, we are cautious in whom we assume partnership with, because often this can make or break us.” “Corporate Social Responsibility is not a button you push and suddenly you achieve perfection, there is a learning curve”. “I had a meeting with Vodafone and values came up, values I could share whereby I could best utilize their good will to best serve my action and deliver in a context where it best serves them.” Lynn (WESC).
Becoming a VBO was not easy. At the beginning, the team faced some resistance to the idea of integrating values in the company.
The team started by conducting a number of workshops for about 10% of the company’s employees. Participants named the values they felt are important and presented them to the management team.
Three years later, the team decided to use a different approach. They replicated the exercise with another 10% of employees and conducted focus groups to find out if anything needs to be changed or fine tuned.
Finally, the team, along with the employees who attended the workshops, prioritized the outputs and decided on the above three main values. Today, all new employees are exposed to these values when they join Vodafone.
Later, surveys were conducted and the results showed that Vodafone employees’ satisfaction increased considerably after integrating these values as part of the work culture.
The surveys also showed that 70 % of employees said that the VBO has made a difference in their own personal development.
Now people are proud to work for Vodafone and would recommend it to others as a best workplace. In addition, turnover of Vodafone employees decreased and even those people who left the company wanted to return back. 
The change that took place in the personal development of employees and their increased satisfaction happened when the company realized the importance of ‘hearing the voices of its people’ and integrating into the corporate culture values that address people’s needs and concerns. This is Vodafone’s story of the importance of values in the workplace and working “beyond just making money.” By listening to the story, it becomes apparent how Vodafone’s work is related to the ACE Strategy and how civic values were advocated in the business sector.
| Our performance and delivery to the customer is about simplicity, quality and success. |
How I am in harmony with my values is about being resourceful and positive. |
As a team working together, we are about equality and celebration. |
Vodafone Egypt