Alignment of Leaders' Espoused and Practiced Values on Employees' Organizational Identification
[Thesis]
Solola, Olukayode
Winston, Bruce E.
Regent University
2021
165 p.
Ph.D.
Regent University
2021
The purpose of this phenomenological inquiry was to understand the impact that the alignment of a leader's espoused and practiced value has on an employee's organizational identification. Leaders have a significant influence on their followers' actions and views on issues, and the value that a leader espouses resonates with employees and inspires them to identify with the organization. Followers have an increasingly pivotal role in ensuring that organizations function both ethically and professionally. The theoretical construct that undergirded this study is the social identity approach (SIA), which is made up of the social identity theory (SIT) and the self-categorization theory (SCT). This researcher employed a qualitative phenomenological inquiry to explore the lived experience of followers and revealed how they responded to the alignment/misalignment of their leaders' espoused and practiced values in identifying organizationally. Purposeful sampling was used to identify 10 participants from a multinational bank, with participants split equally between the Ghana and Nigeria staff. These two West African countries have a diversified population with international exposure, and therefore provided a varied view. The findings of this study provided evidence of the impact that the alignment or misalignment of leaders' values has on the organizational identification of followers.