This
paper examines whether intra-cultural differences in basic values affect
followers? preferences for transformational versus transactional leadership. It
was conducted on a sample of 564 employees of 36 organizations in Turkey, a
country with diverse sets of values due to its Westernization efforts. Data were
collected by means of a questionnaire that included Schwartz?s Values Inventory
and the Leadership Practices Inventory of Posner and Kouzes. Canonical
correlation analysis results supported the hypotheses that employees who are
high on Schwartz?s Self-transcendence dimension would prefer transactional
leaders, while employees who scored high on Openness to Change dimension would
prefer transformational leaders. Little support was found for the hypotheses
predicting that those high on Conservation values will prefer transactional
leaders and those high on Self-enhancement (i.e. power and achievement) values
will prefer transformational leaders. Implications are discussed for the
expectations that transformational leaders are particularly relevant for
developing countries since they are instrumental in social and organizational
change.
Keywords: Values, Schwartz's Value Inventory, leadership, transformational and transactional leadership