Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior - Soltanieh ...

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Lead through Vision and Values *
SHELLEY A. KIRKPATRICK
Two key leadership principles are leading through vision and leading through values.
Vision statements can inspire followers to attain high levels of performance. For example,
Pierre Omidyar founded eBay in order to “ [make] the power of the internet available
to . . . people. ” Another example is FedEx ’s vision statement of “ [producing] outstanding
financial returns by providing totally reliable, competitively superior, global, air – ground
transportation of high priority goods and documents that require rapid, time - certain
delivery. ”
Leaders also can motivate others through the values that they define for their organizations.
Values define the acceptable means through which the vision should be attained.
Grocery - chain Wegman’s, for example, chooses to attain its vision as well as profi tability
goals through its values, which include caring about and listening to its workers, having
high standards in the pursuit of excellence, making a difference in the community, and
empowering employees.
In this chapter, proven principles are presented for leading through vision and values.
Vision - based leadership is described fi rst, followed by values - based leadership.
LEADING THROUGH VISION
A vision is a leader ’s statement of a desired, long - term future state for an organization
(Burns, 1978 ; House, 1977 ). Although a leader may have a vision of what the organization
can become over the long run, the vision will have little impact on followers unless it
is communicated. The communicated vision is referred to as a vision statement. Most vision
statements are not intended to be achieved within a given period of time; instead, they are
intended to be pursued or worked toward on a daily basis over a long timeframe.
* Note: I am grateful to Selena Rezvani, Mark Leheney, and Susan Goughnour for the
helpful comments and assistance in preparing this chapter.