The Expressed Values of Business Leaders as They Make Decisions to Retain Their Businesses during Crisis

The Expressed Values of Business Leaders as They Make Decisions to Retain Their Businesses during Crisis

By Anna Angeline M. Cataluña, PhD in Leadership Studies - Business Leadership track Candidate

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to construct a framework of values for business leaders during crises based on the experience of chosen leaders from the food service industry in the Philippines during COVID-19 pandemic. Using web content analysis of these leaders’ interviews, the research summarizes and analyzes the expressed values of these leaders, which led them to continue their businesses amidst the crisis. This paper provides a baseline framework on these critical values, which could help current and future business leaders in their decision-making when faced with challenging situations. The results show that leaders’ values affect the way they make decisions for their enterprise, and these values relate to the person of the leader, the operational and relational aspects of the enterprise, and the whole of industry and society. At the core of the framework of the business values in decision-making is the person of leader, where the leader's values on optimism, future orientation, mindfulness, resilience or perseverance are key. The leader needs values that help make decisions to sustain business operations, including innovativeness, culture of learning, and agility. The leader also expresses and cultivates values, which are healthy in terms of relationships in and out of the enterprise. A genuine concern or malasakit towards employees, customers, and the community brings a powerful push for the leader to make his or her decision in continuing business amidst crises. Lastly, the leader's values towards the whole business ecosystem plays an important role, given that the crisis hit the whole industry and beyond. This is the reason why the leader's cooperation with key partners and even with its competitors takes a higher ground because the concern is for the whole industry to make it out of the crisis. 

3pm Monday, 4 April 2022 (Online)

Adviser:

Ma. Assunta C. Cuyegkeng, Ph.D. 

Panelists:

Mendiola Teng-Calleja, Ph.D. 
Edna P. Franco, Ph.D. 
Roberto Martin N. Galang, Ph.D.
Anna A. Mendiola, Ph.D.