Wade Danis

Values and Upward Influence Strategies in Transition: Evidence From the Czech Republic

The authors examine the impact of rapid socioeconomic and political transition on generational differences in values and behavioral preferences via a survey of 416 Czech managers, professionals, and business students. As predicted, the pre-transition generation favored individually beneficial upward influence strategies and values oriented toward conservation and self-enhancement; the post-transition generation favored organizationally beneficial upward influence strategies and values oriented toward openness to change and self-transcendence. Generational preferences for certain upward influence strategies are mediated by underlying differences in value orientations, which reflect historically idiosyncratic institutional conditions. These findings extend and integrate work on values and influence behaviors in the relatively unexplored context of transitional economies and have implications for those who wish to appreciate better how diverse value frameworks can be understood and managed in the context of global business.