The concept of well-being is closely related to that of ‘values’.
Values are something that we consider desirable, favorable, and important.
However, we are not always conscious of our values. Most of the time, we don’t even think about it.
For instance, we do not consciously value life-sustaining matters such as air or water.
We become aware of our values when we no longer have them or are about to lose them.
In the business setting, people working remotely for a long time may not consciously value their freedom. But when they are going to lose it or when they compare their situation with others,
they may realize how much they value it.
In other words, our subconscious values may stay relatively constant (e.g. water and food), but our conscious values shift depending on the current and future conditions.
Both conscious and unconscious parts of values are important to understanding factors affecting people’s well-being.Interviews alone often fail to reveal the part of values in the unconscious realm because people are often unaware of them.We need to pay attention to the routines and predispositions (i.e. preferred actions and tendencies) to understand the people’s hidden values when we make organizational decisions.