Mid Sweden University

Abstract

One of the most critical aspects for building quality and innovation in organizations is the role of values. Performance suffers when organizations fail to prioritize values. A challenge for many leaders is to understand deep-rooted values together with what they are and how they are developed. These deep-rooted values are reflected in the behaviors, language and signs occurring in the organization and can be seen as the organizations culture. When a culture is shaped, leadership is central and the managers in the organization are vital. Managers in an organization affect the predominating culture through their behaviors and approach to their co-workers. This make it interesting to try to find out underlying values held by managers striving for good leadership and performance. Underlying values can be unconscious and taken for granted, and thereby hard to ask about.  By using an interview guide inspired by Appreciative Inquiry (AI) (an approach based on generativity and positivity), underlying values and the leadership used by top managers can be discovered.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the results from the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) inspired interviews to explore the underlying values held by top manager and to identify soft aspects of leadership.

Methodology/approach – Top managers were interviewed as a part of a research project with the aim to support the development of value-based leadership that integrates company values, organizational culture, customer needs and sustainable development. A structured interview guide, inspired by AI, was developed and used to pinpoint their motivation and vision of a good organization in order to understand the values the leaders had and to identify soft aspects of leadership.  The interviews were analyzed in workshops with the whole research group and structured and visualized through affinity chart.

Findings – The results show underlying values held by top managers and identified soft aspects of leadership.

Practical implications – The presented interview guide can be used to identify the top managers underlying values and the presented results from the interviews can be used to inspire other leaders to develop their leadership in their striving of good leadership and effective organizations.