Building a Conceptual Framework of Values Capital for Educational Leadership

Abstract

What makes a great leader great and what makes a leader become ordinary? Leadership is fundamentally a value-laden activity and values as conceptions of the desirable that guide the way social actors. Values are generally acknowledged to be central to the field of leadership. By reviewing the related literature and analyzing the relevant concepts, this article is trying to bring up a new idea which the author called “values capital” and to build up a conceptual framework for leadership. This study suggests that corporations need to counter the predominant value of self-interest in the global marketplace by proactively managing the ethical context of the organization. Perceived value congruence positively correlated to such affective outcomes as satisfaction, commitment, and involvement and negatively with performance. Organizational leaders can prime different values identities according to which are appropriate for the particular context. Four elements including principle, consequence, consensus, and preference of values are identified to be the keys of the conceptual framework of values for leadership.