LEADERS, FOLLOWERS, AND VALUES

Phuoc D. Nguyen

Whether or not there are correlations between leadership, followers, and values and vice versa and having interlaced relationships between them?  Lord and Brown (2001) propose a correlation model between leadership, values, and subordinate self-concepts. Their model presents culture as the base of leadership, values, identity, and behavior. According to them, culture creates values directly. Moreover, culture impacts indirectly value through leadership; values create behavior, and identity supports values indirectly to create behavior. However, values are the base to create a culture that is not vice versa. Further, leadership is based on organizational, human, and individual values to shape the organization and stimulate cross-cultural leadership. Culture creates behavior that is based on values. Leadership is based on values and culture to adjust their own and subordinate behavior. However, subordinate behavior has also adjusted leadership style. Lord and Brown have not described the interaction between components of values, culture, leadership, and behavior. Their model shows a top-down flow from culture to behavior but they have not shown bottom-up flows from behavior to culture.

Ahn & Ettner (2013) study leadership values between multi-sectoral leaders versus MBA students across generations. They rank leadership values by multi-sectoral leaders versus MBA students. As a result, multi-sectoral leaders were ranked high for integrity, good judgment, and leadership by example values; medium ranking for decision-making, trust, and justice/fairness values; and low ranking for humility and sense of urgency values for executives. Besides, MBA students were ranked high for integrity, good judgment, leadership by example, and trust values; medium ranking for justice/fairness values; low ranking decision making, humility, and sense of urgency values. Consequently, MBA students complement a value high ranking of trust compared to executives. Trust value is very important to executives. Therefore, executives should focus on trust value. Both executives and MBA students should focus on justice/fairness value because this value is very important for leadership practice. MBA students should focus on decision-making value because this value is a need for managers. Both executives and MBA students should focus on humility. It is suggested that decision-making and a sense of urgency values are managerial values.