Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Pedagogy - Job Education, Further Education, grade: 1,7, University of Hagen, language: English, abstract: Nowadays, guiding principles are an important instrument in organization- and personnel development. They create direction through agreement on and definition of common goals and values. According to Belzer (undated, p. 14), it can be assumed that 90 percent of all businesses have a guiding principle. However, what lies ahead on the path to a guiding principle? The aim of the present paper is to present the steps of the process, key success factors and obstacles with the development of a guiding principle. The paper is structured as follows: Chapter 2 explains the term guiding principle and explores why over the course of recent years guiding principles have become increasingly important in organization- and personnel development. Chapter 3 introduces the development of guiding principles in theory, addresses particularities during the developmental phase, and explains the need for monitoring of guiding principles. Possible problems with the development and implementation of guiding principles are the focus of chapter 4. Based on the presented theories, the author of this paper draws conclusions in chapter 5.