Leadership styles in the context of the meaning of life - an empirical analysis

Purpose: This article presents research into the interdependencies between leadership styles and the sense of meaning of life, perceived as a psychological category. Design/methodology/approach: The aim was to either capture the relationship or reveal the lack of dependency between the leadership style preferred by managers – understood in a theoretical approach as a mental representation – and the experienced sense of the meaning of life. Two recognised and reliable research tools were deployed: the WERK Leadership Style Inventory, by U. Brzezińska and M. Rafalak, and the Purpose in Life Test, by J.C. Crumbaugh and L.T. Maholic. Findings: The research demonstrates that the sense of meaning of life, as a psychological category, does not influence managers’ preferences in terms of the adopted leadership style. Research limitations/implications: Research continuation is advisable, but with a larger sampling group and additional breakdown into the organisation’s levels and decision-making autonomy of the managers involved. Practical implications: The lack of correlation between experiencing the sense of life and the declared leadership style – as demonstrated – may imply that such axiological alienation might affect efficiency and generate stress and dissatisfaction with one’s vocational activities. Social implications: This includes the axiological aspect, understood as the feeling of sense of life, in managerial behaviour schemes, which may effectively drive the organisation towards corporate social responsibility. Originality/value: It was demonstrated that leadership style seems to be a construct from a different axiological category than sense of life and, therefore, is largely subject to the influence of situational contexts, such as corporate culture or standards.