Values are the beliefs of a social group. These are often very strongly held beliefs and they are often for something or against it.
It's no surprise that the word values comes from a word that means "to be worth something": People often view their values as so precious that they'd be willing to fight for them. Sometimes they do fight for them. The "core values" of a company or organization, while maybe not exactly worth fighting for, do, however, represent what that organization believes in and believes its mission to be.