The Mediating Role of Leadership Behavior and Orga

CEOPersonalValuesandMiddleManagerResponses:TheMediatingRoleofLeadershipBehaviorandOrganizationalCulturePingpingFuChineseUniversityofHongKong,[e-mail]@asu.eduJunLiu,JiwenSong,YanJiangSchoolofBusiness,RenminUniversityLiangdingJiaNanjingUniversity,Nanjing,ChinaLanLiChineseEntrepreneurSurveySystem,BeijingChinaYongJuanLiInstituteofPsychology,ChineseAcademyofSciences,Beijing,ChinaChunHuiChineseUniversityofHongKong,HongKongWeikuWuTsinghuaUniversity,Beijing,ChinaTheworkdescribedinthispaperwasfullysupportedbyagrantfromtheResearchGrantsCounciloftheHongKongspecialAdministrativeRegion,China(ProjectNo.CUHK4457/04H).WethanktheChinaEntrepreneurialSurveySystem(CESS)forcollectingthemajorityofthedataandJiangYanforhercapableassistanceintheprocess.1CEOPersonalValuesandMiddleManagerResponses:TheMediatingRoleofLeadershipBehaviorandOrganizationalCultureABSTRACTDoCEOvaluesmatter?Mostresearcherssayyes,butfewhavebeenabletoempiricallyprovethat.UsingtheQ-sortmethodtomeasureCEOvaluesandHLMtotesttheeffectsofCEOvaluesplayedonmiddlemanagerresponsesin42Chinesecompanies,wefoundthatCEOvaluesaffectthemanager’sattitudinalresponses,butnottheirjobperformanceasratedbytheirsuperiors.OurresultsalsoshowthatleadershipbehaviorsandorganizationalculturepartiallymediatetherelationshipbetweenCEOvaluesandmiddlemanagerresponses.Keywords:CEOvalue,leadershipbehavior,andorganizationalculture2Leadersleadbytheirvaluesandbeliefs(Woodward,1994).Researchershavepointedoutthatleadervaluesaffecttheirperceptionsofsituations(England&Lee,1974),businessdecision-making(Badar,Gray,&Kedia,1982;Barnett&Karson,1987,1989;Learned,Dooley,&Katz,1959;Kuczmarski&Kuczmarski,1995;Lloyd,1996),corporateculture(Barney,1986;Schein,1992),andindividualandorganizationalsuccess(England&Lee,1974;Watson&Williams,1977;Meglino,Ravlin,&Adkins,1989).Inpractice,executivevaluesarefoundtodictatethewaysorganizationsconductbusiness,treatemployees,ordealwithcustomersandsuppliers(Barney,1986),andhavebecomemeaningfulpointsinexplainingthesustainedsuperiorfinancialperformanceofgreatcompaniessuchasIBM,Disney,Sony,andsoon.Surprisingly,however,littleresearchhasempiricallyexaminedthemechanismthatshowshowleaders’personalvaluesexerteffectsonfollowersdespitethemanyobservations.Inthisstudy,weaimtofillinthegapbyinvestigatingthelinkageamongtopleaders’personalvalues,theirleadershipbehavior,organizationalculture,andfolloweroutcomes.Thecurrentstudyaddressedtworesearchquestions.First,howdoCEOpersonalvaluesrelatetothemiddlemanagers’attitudinalandbehavioralresponses?WhatistheroleofCEOleadershipbehaviorandorganizationalcultureintherelationshipbetweenCEOpersonalvaluesandmiddlemanagerresponse?Specifically,wewillexplorethepotentialmediatingroleofleadershipbehaviorandorganizationalculture,aswellastheinteractiveeffectbetweenthetwoonfolloweroutcomes.Existingliteraturehasfocusedprimarilyonthedirectlinkagesbetweenthetwomediatorsandoutcomes,thatisbetweenleaderbehaviorsandfolloweroutcomes(e.g.,Bass,1985;Bass&Avolio,1993;Lowe,Kroek&Sivasubramaniam,1996;Fuller,Patterson,Hester,&Stringer,1996),orbetweenorganizationalcultureandoutcomes(e.g.,Pool,2000;Rousseau,1990;Denison,1990;VanderPost,deConing,&Smit1998).TheempiricalliteraturehaslargelyignoredthelinkbetweenCEOvaluesandoutcomes,asmediatedbyleaderbehaviorandorganizationalculture.3Wechosetwocontextstoexaminethisissue:Chinesefirmsandthemiddlemanagersinthefirm.WechosetheChinesecontextnotonlybecauseofthepervasiveroleCEOsplayinChinesefirms(Fuetal.,2002),butalsobecauseofChina’sgrowinginfluenceintheworldeconomy.Duetotheinfluenceoftraditionalculturalvalues,ChinesefirmsareoftenviewedaslargefamilieswiththeCEOasthehead.Followers,whoaregenerallyeagerto“pleasethefather,”oftenlookathowtheirleadersbehavetodecidetheirownbehaviors.SuchmentalityisnotinconsistentwiththeobservationintheWest,butthestrengthdiffers.TheChinesecontextmaximizesourchanceofobservingtheexecutiveleadershipeffect.Second,wefocusedonmiddlemanagers’responsestotheCEOinfluences.MiddlemanagerswhoareimmediatelybelowthetopmanagementteaminChinesefirmsarehighlysensitivetothewantsandneedsoftheCEObecausetheirfuturecareerdependsontheCEO’sjudgmentoftheirperformanceandpotential.FocusingonthislevelwouldalsoprovideameaningfultestoftheCEOeffectsincemiddlemanagersarenottheimmediatesubordinatesoftheCEOandtheirresponsesmayrepresent,tosomeextent,thereactionsoftheremainingorganizationalmembers.Beingthelinkagepins(Katz&Kahn,1978)oftheorganization,middlemanagers’attitudesandbehaviorcouldhaveseriouseffectonthetemperoftheemployeesinthelowerorganizationallevel.MowdayandSuttonclearlyarticulatedtheneedtochoosetherightleveltoexamineCEOinfluencewhentheysaid:“Leadershipisoftenadistalcontextualinfluence.Mostmembersoflargeorganizations,rarelyifever,comeintocontactwithexecutivesandmayfindthattheleader’sdistalattemptsatinfluencearemediatedbymoreproximalmid-levelmanagers”(1993,p.224).CONCEPTUALBACKGROUNDANDHYPOTHESESAttitudinalandBehavioralResponsesoftheMiddleManagersDuetotheirimportancetotheorganizationaloutcomes,wef