Personal Values and Managerial Behaviour

A Comparative Analysis from Central Europe

Zlatko Nedelko, Vojko Potocan

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9783030199883
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030199890
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Education
• Index: Business

This book investigates the influence of personal values on managerial behaviour in modern organizations, and how this impacts upon company performance and relationships. With a focus on central Europe, the authors explore the notion of a personal values system and seek to identify the influencing factors behind behaviour. Providing a new methodological and contextual framework which goes beyond established measurements, the book offers insights into the most important studies in the area and will provide valuable reading to academics in the fields of management, organization and HRM, as well as practitioners and policy-makers.

© The Author(s) 2019

Zlatko Nedelko and Vojko PotocanPersonal Values and Managerial Behaviourhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19989-0_1

Begin Abstract

1. Personal Values and Managerial Behaviour: A Gap in the Knowledge

Zlatko Nedelko¹ and Vojko Potocan¹

(1)

Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia

Zlatko Nedelko (Corresponding author)

Email: [email protected]

Vojko Potocan

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

The main purpose of this chapter is to present the scope and the content of the book by outlining its central ideas—that is, how personal values influence managers’ behaviour. The chapter provides an overview of the literature about managers’ behaviour, their personal values and the correlations between the two. The discussion in this chapter lays out: (1) foundations for the study of management and managers in organizations; (2) foundations for the study of values, attitudes and the behaviour of managers; and (3) the main gaps in examinations of managers’ behaviour. Management studies of organizations and their various stakeholders have shown the importance of managers as a group of specialists charged with the accomplishment of desired (and well-grounded) goals and objectives of organizations through the administration and coordination of operations and through cooperation with other organizational stakeholders. In terms of theoretical applications, this chapter presents recommendations for further methodological and contextual study of personal values, behaviour and correlations between behaviour factors of managers. Practical applications include suggestions for the development of appropriate behaviour in organizations and the improvement of managers’ beliefs-values-attitudes-behaviour chain, and the benefits and drawbacks of managers’ behaviour are outlined.

Keywords

ManagementManagersValuesAttitudesBehaviourPersonal behaviourOrganizational behaviour

End Abstract

1.1 Introduction

Organizations assure their ongoing existence and long-term development by attempting continually to improve their operations and behaviour (Cooper & Argyris, 1998; Daft, 2018). In circumstances of limited availability of production resources and highly competitive markets, organizations can influence their results primarily through the creation and implementation of behaviour solutions, which are aimed at the matching of outputs to the demands of their internal and external stakeholders (Etzioni, 1997; Mullins, 2016).

Since 1970s, understanding and appreciation of management has grown tremendously (Certo & Certo, 2012; Daft, 2018; Jones & George, 2014). This has led to the development of various general and specific definitions of the term ‘management’. Webster’s dictionary mentions 25 different general definitions of management (Gove, 2002), the Oxford Dictionary of Business and Management offers 23 different definitions (Law, 2016) and the Dictionary of Word Origins provides 18 definitions (Ayto, 1994).

To avoid confusion given the available conceptualizations of management, we use the definition of management offered by Cooper and Argyris (1998, p. 24), and adopted by others (Jones & George, 2014; Mirvis & Googins, 2018; Ralston et al., 2014): “as administration and coordination of the activities in working of profit, non-profit, and government organizations”. According to Mullins (2016, p. 18) “managers are a group of specialists, who perform the basic management functions, namely planning, organizing, leading and controlling, and try to use the available sources of their organization (i.e. human, material, financial and natural), to reach the chosen aim of the organization”. Managers’ behavior in practice reflects mutual influence and interdependences between organizations and their environments (Kemmelmeier et al., 2002; Leslie et al., 2018; Lufthans & Youssef, 2007). For example, the prevailing relations and institutional regulations in organizations’ environment define the framework of organization and its management, but organizations’ managers also retroactively impact society (Daft, 2018; Etzioni, 1997; Robbins & Judge, 2016).

Furthermore, society’s demands and requirements, as well as the conditions and prevailing relations establish an organization’s philosophy (Cooper & Argyris, 1998; Hill & Hult, 2015; Mullins, 2016), which enables managers to define the foundations of the organization’s operating and behaviour. Following their selected philosophy, managers can shape the basic characteristics of the organization: its orientation (both internal and external), interests (whether internal or external etc.), theories for explaining the organization’s rationale and modus (e.g., social, economic, etc.), relations to various environments and stakeholders, goals of work (e.g., functional, process, institutional, humanistic, situation based) (Certo & Certo, 2012; Jones & George, 2014; Leslie et al., 2018) among others.

Studies by academics and practitioners have revealed that available conceptualizations of management show significant congruities in terms of fundamental contextual theories and corresponding knowledge (Cooper & Argyris, 1998; Jones & George, 2014; Leslie et al., 2018). Some examples from the literature that serve to demonstrate these include: developing of models for management, consideration of individual viewpoints of management, studies about aggregate and multiple social dimensions of management, cognition of relations between management and other organizations’ stakeholders (Certo & Certo, 2012; Cooper & Argyris, 1998; Daft, 2018).

These studies provide guidance for the operationalization of management through studies of management implementation in diverse organizations, process-consideration of management and the impact of management on organizational outcomes (Boiral, Raineri, & Talbot, 2018; Collins & Porras, 2008; Daft, 2018), among others.

Conceptualizations of management in response to competitive pressures calling for improved organizational behaviour are more biased (Cooper & Argyris, 1998; Hill & Hult, 2015; Leslie et al., 2018). Management research into heterogeneous motives of organizations’ stakeholders, the individual interests of organizations’ stakeholders and implementation of management under different circumstances (Boiral et al., 2018; Glavas & Kelley, 2014; Mullins, 2016) calls for further studies of such behaviour. Initial management studies were focused on managers’ behaviour and its impacts on providing direction, implementing plans, motivating people and utilization of chosen management ideas in organizations (Inglehart, 1997; Inkson, 2005; Parsons & Shills, 1962). More recently, management theorists have encountered contradictory results vis-à-vis the differences in managers’ behaviour caused by specific social factors (cultural, ethics related and such like), economic circumstances (level of development, current economic situation and so on) and several other circumstances and preconditions, which directly or indirectly determine managers’ behaviours (Furrer et al., 2010; House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004; Leslie et al., 2018; Ralston et al., 2014).

In addition, academics and experts have revealed the characteristics and patterns of relations between the behaviour of organizational stakeholders and the management of organizations, as well as the factors explaining these relations (Becker & McClintock, 1967; Glavas & Kelley, 2014). This line of research has exposed behaviour factors of individuals, groups and organizations—such as beliefs, values, attitudes, intentions and so forth—that are important in defining managers’ behaviour (Petty & Cacioppo, 2018; Rokeach, 1968; Schwartz, 1992).

As the field of management has evolved, several academics—such as Ajzen (2005), Fisher and Schwartz (2010) and Minton and Kahle (2014)—and ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Personal Values and Managerial Behaviour: A Gap in the Knowledge
• 2. Drivers of Managerial Behaviour
• 3. Personal Values and Managerial Behaviour
• 4. Towards a New Framework for Measuring Managerial Behaviour: An Initial Approach
• 5. Values and Managerial Behaviour in Slovenia: A Transforming Economy
• 6. Values and Managerial Behaviour in Austria: A Well-Developed Economy
• 7. Summary and Future Outlook
• Back Matter