These value conflict situations may occur within the individual, for example, relatively unnegotiable personal core values of the individual may run counter to professional or organizational requirements. Value conflicts may also occur as outcomes of interactions among two or more other individuals. Some researchers and theorists have concluded that these value types are therefore not important influences on administrative practices. Among existing values theories, only a few relate well to the nature and function of values in educational administration. Conducting research on the nature and function of values in administration is fundamentally problematic.
Values resist empirical verification.
Like the wind they are unseen forces. Furthermore, the presence and action of values cannot be reliably or explicitly tracked by scientific methods alone. Caution in interpreting the motivational base associated with a value is necessary since a given value may be held at any level of motivation ranging from preferences, the rational values of consequence and consensus, to the level of trans-rational ethics. Furthermore, it is common for individuals to deliberately or unwittingly manifest or articulate one value while being actually committed to another, usually further down the motivational hierarchy. There are a number of obvious implications.