Subordinates' basic values and the appeal of transformational and transactional leares in Turkey

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.