Selflessness and management - an antagonism?

Abstract

Management literature emphasize mainly efficiency and profit maximization. Selflessness seems not to be a necessarily usual trait for managers and is not educated in management schools. However, managers are also human beings with a personal history and have developed personal values. Therefore, these values may be also influence factors for management decisions. The question of this paper is, if managers are only rational driven on basis of their business targets or do they act on basis of their personal value scheme. For this paper three categories and some of the included values of the Schwartz's value scheme are considered. The three categories tradition, benevolence, and the category universalism are analyzed in a survey with 118 managers of different branches. The hypothesis is, that managers do rate those values low which are connected with selflessness. However, the study could show, that management reality is not that easy. There is evidence that management is connected with high personal and business values, although the small sample provides the basis for further research.