Unrequited Profit: How Stakeholder and Economic Values Relate to Subordinates' Perceptions of Leadership and Firm Performance

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine the indirect effects of executives' stakeholder and economic values on firm performance through their followers' perceptions of leadership and followers' extra effort. Analyses of data collected from separate surveys of chief executive officers (CEOs) and two subsets of followers in 520 firms in 17 countries show that CEOs' emphasis on economic values is associated with followers' perceptions of autocratic leadership, whereas CEOs' emphasis on stakeholder values is associated with followers' perceptions of visionary leadership. Additionally, visionary leadership relates positively to employees' extra effort, which in turn relates to firm performance; however, no relationship is found for autocratic leadership. We discuss how predominant decision-making values that are oriented toward a range of stakeholders may yield more favorable outcomes for leaders than values that focus primarily on economic-based issues.