The case study of this chapter disposes of the notion of profit maximization as the major driving factor of an organization. There are other salient visions that should drive profit maximization. Making a profit becomes the means to an end, not an end. The aim of this chapter is to find the probable connector between entrepreneurial self-efficacy, strong family values, and the kind of leader who possesses these combinations. The knowledge search revealed that a strong interpersonal relationship between the authentic leader to all stakeholders in the organization and the response to the same from the stakeholders to the leader is key to the success of the organization and authentic leadership. Effective leadership performance is linked to high competencies, skills, characteristics, and behaviors in meeting an organization's strategic objectives. The leader must be willing to communicate with employees within and relate to the external stakeholders in holding high the flagship of leadership.
TopIntroduction
The development of leadership abilities has been documented to be rooted in the leader’s personal development, self-awareness, and their ability to transform goals and values into an effective influence (Northouse, 2019). It is important to understand the process individual goes through to comprehend themselves, their beliefs, and values. it was established that emerging leaders start their journey of leadership at different stages of self-awareness (Liu, Venkatesh, Murphy & Riggio, 2021). Leadership intentionality demands a primary understanding of these processes to achieve trust and deeper level of the follower’s commitment. Therefore, a leader’s grip in understanding the theoretical process becomes the immediate task of this discourse (Judge, Woodward, Gilham, Blom, Hoover, Schoeff, & Bellar 2021).
Entrepreneurial success and performance were traced to be positively linked with entrepreneurial self-efficacy (Norena-Chavez, & Guevara, 2020). An individual’s level of self-efficacy is instrumental to set challenging goals, subsist towards the achievement of specific goals under volatile, difficult, and stressful conditions, and used to recover from persistent failure under adverse circumstances (Asebedo, & Payne, 2019). Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief in their personal capability to accomplish a job or specific set of tasks (Bandura, 2000). Self-efficacy as a concept is the degree to which people perceive themselves as possessing the ability to perform effectively differing roles and tasks of entrepreneurship (Chen, Green, & Crick, 1998). Chen, Gully & Eden, (2004) documented that there is a positive association between general self-efficacy and performance. The attention of this chapter will be on the presence of entrepreneurial self-efficacy coupled with family values as instrumental variables to make an individual authentic leadership success. Several studies that confirm the positive relationships with self-efficacy will also be considered.
Successful family business is evidenced in the different relationships at work. The relationships are between the family business and employees, vendors, customers, and family. Emotionally, these relationships are attributed to family values that make the entrepreneurial businesses distinct (Minola, & Kammerlander, Kellermanns & Hoy 2021). Family firm institute (2021) identified five dimensions of the family values that helps to shape family business behavior. These values are deeply rooted and instrumental in driving the performance of family business decisions and actions that relate to strategy, innovation, corporate governance, stakeholder relations, corporate social responsibility, and effective management practices. The dimensions were derived from higher order values that comprised of openness to change, self enhancement, self-transcendence, and conservation (Schwartz, 1992).
In aligning family values to entrepreneurial self-efficacy coupled with sound leadership behavior, this chapter examined how these variables relate to the success of the family business. Perhaps in between the variables of this chapter lies a strong cord that binds the leader to his entrepreneurial self-efficacy and his family values. Finding the chord is the aim of this chapter. A quality, attitude, and behavior that is synonymous with the variables found in a successful leader.
The successful journey of an entrepreneurial leader over three decades that cannot be traced to specific qualities and virtues become unrelatable to the younger generation and therefore meaningless. Such learning becomes gainful if it can be applied with the hope of certainty of result and positive outcome. Our study is an entrepreneur who started his first job by picking potatoes for ten cents a bag. The man spent twenty-five years of his life finding his way to the top, only to give away reasonable percentage of the family fortune. Therefore, of interest to this chapter is the strong moral standard, honesty, honorableness, patterns of behavior, and integrity of a young man raised with nothing from the high school in Idaho, Utah United States.