Personal values and leadership effectiveness

The study sought to evaluate the personal values profile, the predominant leadership styles, the leadership effectiveness, and the relationship between personal values balance and leadership effectiveness of a group of Brazilian executives. In order to evaluate the personal values profile a closed instrument of the rank order type has been developed and applied. To identify the predominant leadership styles, as well as the leadership effectiveness of the involved executives, it has been used as an instrument available in the market. To verify the relationship between personal values balance and leadership effectiveness, the linear regression method has been used computing the linear correlation coefficient between the before mentioned variables, involving 400 executives. The study has shown that the executives have an unbalance in their personal values profile, with predominance of economic and theoretical values. Additionally the study has uncovered lack of flexibility regarding the leadership styles, presenting styles of selling and sharing ideas as dominants. The study also showed that the leadership effectiveness of the involved executives was at a moderate level. Finally, the research pointed out a high positive relationship between personal values balance and leadership effectiveness, and, furthermore, it showed a better balance of personal values, if one considered only the part of the sample involving executives working in organizations which presented better results in the three previous years (50 executives). (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.