Personal values and their impact on the opinion leadership of managers and employees in internal communication

Lührmann, J.; Stehle, H.; Gehrau, V.; Röttger, U.

Abstract

Opinion leaders play a prominent role in the internal communication network of organizations, although the concept and its drivers have rarely been addressed in internal communication research. Based on a representative online survey of 1,030 managers and employees in German private and public corporations, this paper analyzes the impact of personal values on the opinion leadership of managers and employees. The results show that specific personal values positively predict opinion leadership and particularly harmonizing behavior, with some differences between managers and employees. Theoretical and empirical implications for internal communication research and practice are discussed.