The shift to inspiring leadership in developing European Union countries

Abstract

The study intends to analyze how the shift to inspiring leadership in EU modern organizations reflects in the preferred leadership among employees from post-soviet Baltic countries: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The main research question investigates employees’ perception of an ideal leader in developing EU countries. This perception is important for the employees’ work performance and sustainable economic growth. The study intends to compare Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian employees’ preferences for leader’s traditional roles (task-oriented behavior and relations-oriented behavior) and modern “more emotional and inspiring” views (charisma and social responsibility). 221 employees participated in the cross-sectional quantitative survey with self-administered internet based questionnaires. 124 Lithuanians, 40 Latvians, 57 Estonians filled in the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Leadership Behaviors (Yukl, 2012), Transformational Leadership Inventory (Podsakoff et al., 1996) and a scale from Servant Leadership Questionnaire (Barbuto, Wheeler, 2006) was used. Results of this study suggest that charisma is the most preferred characteristic of a leader. Relations-oriented behavior is also a significant factor in predicting an ideal leadership. Employees do not perceive task-oriented behavior and leader’s social responsibility as essential dimensions for an ideal leadership. Some significant differences in leadership preferences are revealed among countries. The study is based on under-estimated follower-centric perspective and examines interactive predictive value of different leadership dimensions to employees’ preferences. Data reveals that the shift to inspiring leadership have already occurred in the perception of employees from post-soviet Baltic countries. The comparison of three Baltic countries gives the insight about the challenges for management in still developing EU members.