The purpose of this article is to clarify whether congruence between espoused and attributed organizational values (CEAOV) in contemporary business circumstances is a necessity or just ‘nice to have’. Accordingly, two objectives are formulated: (a) to investigate whether CEAOV has a direct impact on organizational effectiveness and (b) to assess the mediating effect of organizational commitment between CEAOV and organizational effectiveness. The research was conducted within 15 Croatian companies ( n = 523). Data were collected through content analysis of the (...) official websites of the companies, surveys of employees, semi-structured interviews with the members of top management and analysis of publicly available financial reports. A conceptual model is proposed regarding the mediating effect of organizational commitment on the impact of the espoused–attributed value fit on effectiveness. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used for the analysis. The results show that CEAOV positively affects organizational effectiveness through the mediation of organizational commitment. The only path to attaining effectiveness is through commitment. No direct effect is found. Our research sheds light on the relevant role of authenticity, in the light of value congruence, in every organization. When employees and organizations live their values to the same degree, there is an impact on organizational commitment and hence on organizational effectiveness. (shrink)