Personal Values and Innovativeness Across Cultures

Abstract

The main purpose of this chapter is to assess the impact of manager's personal values on their innovativeness in USA, Germany, China, and Slovenia. The chapter, (1) presents the typical attributes of working and behavior in the selected countries using also Hofstede's cultural dimensions, (2) outlines the importance of personal values for managers according to the Schwartz value theory, and (3) assesses the impact of personal values on managerial innovativeness across cultures. The chapter will reveal: (1) the typical attributes of working and behavior in organizations in USA, Germany, China and Slovenia, and (2) the state of importance of single values and dimensions of values for management across the considered countries. The discussion compares values systems and enables an estimation of the impact of personal values on innovativeness in the selected countries. The findings present a building block for future steps toward increasing the innovativeness, based on importance of values and the influence of values on innovative behavior.