A great deal of psychological research has examined the concept of values and how values affect our thinking and behavior. Value can be defined as an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence. Values express what a person believes should happen or ought to happen, and they are relatively stable and enduring from situation to situation, though they can also change and become more complex, particularly as a person gains more experience.

Value statements are organized into a person’s value system, which is a learned organization of rules for making choices and for resolving conflicts. As a system, values help us decide what action to take and how to assess both our actions and the actions of others.

Ethics follow from values in guiding practitioners in how to implement and enact values. Ethical beliefs outline more and less desirable behaviors, based on a set of underlying values. In a survey of organization development and human resources professionals in the early 1980s, practitioners admitted that there was no widespread definition of ethics for the field. Several scholars collaborated on an early draft of a statement, which was further revised.