The increasing understanding that values play an important role in underpinning sustained organisational performance and growth has captured the interest of both practitioners and researchers. At the same time, research interest into the impact of individual values on behaviour and performance has been growing. Psychological research has treated values and personality as distinct constructs. The values literature lacks a clear and shared taxonomy and means of operationalising the construct. Studies exploring the nature of the impact of individual values on a range of behavioural outcomes have produced varied and contradictory results. Research exploring the relationships between values and personality has produced inconclusive findings and been critiqued for conflating distinctly different constructs. This paper explores the relationship between personality and values, based on a sample of 73 managers participating in Executive MBA programs. Analyses found very few significant relationships between personality and individual values supporting the existence of a ‘Jingle Fallacy’. It is proposed that the relationship is more complex and interactive than has previously been suggested. The paper concludes with a discussion of the practical implications of this study.
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