¹Institute for Management Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Correspondence: R Maseland, Radboud University Nijmegen, Institute for Management Research, PO Box 9108, Nijmegen NL-6500 HK, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 243 611 564; Fax: +31 243 612 379; E-mail: R.Maseland@fm.ru.nl

Received 12 July 2007; Revised 19 October 2007; Accepted 4 December 2007; Published online 25 September 2008.

Abstract

This note provides an explanation for the presumably counterintuitive, negative correlations between values and practices reported by the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness project. We argue that such results are compatible with basic microeconomic insights concerning diminishing marginal utility. This explanation implies that values surveys, as they are, generally elicit marginal preferences rather than underlying values. Therefore they are a problematic instrument for the measurement of cultures, and need to be improved so as to discriminate between the importance attached to an objective in general and that attached to it given current levels of satiation.