In a typically provocative talk at CEB's Link Conference last month, Furnham asked: "What is the value of values? Every company has the same ones, yet thinks it is unique."
He said written values often told you nothing about the true culture of an organisation. "If you really want to know a company's values, go into the organisation," he said. "Wander around and see how people behave. That will tell you more about the organisation than what's on the wall."
He also accused senior leaders of not "walking the walk" on corporate values. "Unless value-informed behaviour is modelled by the 'grown-ups', the whole thing will fail," he said.
Earlier this year Adrian Furnham was named the 2013 third Most Influential HR Thinker.
