Leadership-Interview-Transkript - Sozialpsychologie - Goethe ...

Alice Eagly: Well, I think they make a lot of difference, yeah. People do have these broader
goals for society. The society they would like to live in is one notion of values. And you know
at the more individual level I suppose one´s ultimate life goals could be conceived to have it´s
values. What you want to, what you are doing anyway and your career and your family life
there are those broader notions.
Rolf van Dick: But all these organizations have their mission´s statement somewhere in the
entrance hall and do these statements, and that all refer to values I guess, matter for the people
on the shop floor?
Alice Eagly: Well, they only matter if they are actually shared, I think. So an organization
can say “We are very progressive, we are very, friendly to the environment…and this and
that” but if the people in the organization…Those need to be values that are shared for the
organization to actually bring them forward. And so, but then if they turn out to be false, if an
organization says “We do this, we do that…” and then the people in this organization could
see they don´t. Or they could be very disappointed which then would lower people’s
motivation. So, you know, there is a lot of ethical breaches in modern corporations, perhaps
particularlyin the United States, we have horriblescandals sometimes about misuse of funds
and whatever. Promoting drugs that ended up being damaging and they actually knew ten
years ago and that sort of thing. And so the company no doubt would have these good goals
that were public but then when they actually were unethical or not socially responsible that´s
obviously a failure which could be really damaging internally as well as externally. Yeah, so I
think that when values…when leadership is effective, the values are shared at many levels.
And then that helps people to be committed and motivated. They think this is a good
organization and I´m proud to work here and I want to promote these values through my
work. And leadership symbolizes that of cause for the organization as role models. So yes, I
think at that level thinking about leadership and organizations is very important.
Rolf van Dick: Okay. Thank you very much.
Alice Eagly: You are welcome.
Rolf van Dick: Thank you!