A Quest for effective vision: evidence from Australia

While leaders are widely exhorted to espouse visions, very little is known about what characterizes “effective” visions. A research model was tested to examine relationships between seven literature-derived vision attributes (brevity, clarity, future orientation, stability, challenge, abstractness, and desirability or ability to inspire) and content (customer and staff satisfaction imageries), and the performance outcomes of customer and staff satisfaction in retail stores in Sydney, Australia. Extending previous research, literature-derived Store Manager, Staff and Organizational Factors were simultaneously taken into account. Findings endorse the importance of espousing a vision characterized by the seven attributes, while vision content rendered no significant effects. The Store Manager and Staff Factors were found to create a significant impact on store performance, whereas the Organizational Factor was not significantly related to store performance.