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Robert F. Russell: Emory & Henry College, Emory, Virginia, USA
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Received: April 2000 Revised/Accepted: December 2000
The topic of values has become an important item of debate in many arenas, particularly in the field of leadership. Woodward (1994, p. 95) postulated that, "leaders lead from their values and beliefs", but we are experiencing a leadership crisis because self-interest motivates many leaders. The primary purpose of this article is to examine the existing literature regarding the role of values in leadership. Secondarily, the paper extracts various portions of the values in leadership literature and applies it to servant leadership. The fundamental proposition of the article is that the personal values of servant leaders distinguish them from other leader types.
The role of values in leadership
Values are important parts of each individual's psyche. They are core beliefs - the underlying thoughts that stimulate human behavior. Rokeach (1973) defined values as prescriptive, enduring standards that have cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. Since values are prescriptive, they play an important role in determining the choices we make. Values are enduring standards that collectively form the value systems of our lives.
Personal values of leaders
Kouzes and Posner (1993) postulate that the process and practices of leadership are fundamentally amoral, but leaders are themselves moral or immoral. Consequently, the personal values of leaders have very significant effects on leader-follower relationships (Burns, 1978; Deal and Kennedy, 1982; Kouzes and Posner, 1993). In addition, values affect leaders' moral reasoning and personal behavior.
Moral reasoning
Values affect moral reasoning by influencing judgments about ethical and unethical behavior (Hughes et al., 1993). Individuals with strong value systems tend to behave more ethically than those with weak value combinations (Hughes et al., 1993). However, males differ from females in their moral reasoning modes, with females showing higher relationship and caring characteristics (Butz and Lewis, 1996).
Behavior
Personal values and value systems result in characteristics or attitudes that in turn affect behavior (Malphurs, 1996; Rokeach, 1968). Rokeach (1973) went so far as to say that the definition of values includes their behavioral influence. England and Lee (1974) identified seven ways in which values affect leaders:
1 Values affect leaders' perceptions of situations.
2 Leaders' values affect the solutions they generate regarding problems.
3 Values...