VALUES ORIENTED LEADERSHIP – CONCEPTUALIZATION AND PRELIMINARY RESULTS IN SLOVAKIA

Ľubica Bajzíková,Anna Lašáková,Ivana Blahunková

doi:10.3846/btp.2019.25

Ľubica Bajzíková, Anna Lašáková + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2019.25

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Abstract

The paper builds on the current trend in scholarly literature that reflects leadership from an ethical perspective. It introduces a new conceptualization of the values oriented leadership (VOL) and based on results of a pilot study, it informs on the level of VOL in the Slovak business environment and on systematic differences in VOL related to multiple individual and organizational factors. Contrary to the literature, results show that the VOL does not differ substantially between female and male leaders. Furthermore, this study adds to the current leadership ethics research also in that it includes two rarely investigated factors – the “length of leader-follower cooperation” and the “frequency of leader-follower interaction”. Both show an effect on the perceived VOL level; the theorized positive correlation with the frequency of leader-follower interaction is confirmed, nevertheless, somewhat surprisingly, results imply that the length of leader-follower cooperation affects negatively leader’s perceived ethicality at work. This study proves also differences in VOL based on regional company location and company size, with leaders in small companies rated significantly lower in VOL than leaders in large companies. The difference in VOL between leaders in Slovak-owned and foreign-owned companies is not established. Yet, compared to the private sector, this study confirms significantly lower VOL in the state-owned companies.

Highlights

The last economic and financial crisis has been, undoubtedly, a strong impetus for intensifying research within business ethics
In one of his speeches, the former President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso said that “as the financial and economic crisis progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that the moment has come to reconcile economic governance with our fundamental ethical values on which the European project has been based over the last 50 years” (European Commission 2009)
It was carried out based on the ELS tool (Brown et al 2005) and showed that Slovak followers perceived their supervisors as ethical leaders on a slightly above average level with the mean value 5.07 measured on a seven-point scale (Lašáková et al 2017)

Summary

Introduction

The last economic and financial crisis has been, undoubtedly, a strong impetus for intensifying research within business ethics. Declarations of many prominent authorities in both the political and business environment suggest that this issue needs to be handled with an increased attention. In one of his speeches, the former President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso said that “as the financial and economic crisis progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that the moment has come to reconcile economic governance with our fundamental ethical values on which the European project has been based over the last 50 years” (European Commission 2009). To address ethical concerns at the company level requires increasing the ethical awareness of leaders in organizations.

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