scholarly journals Why leadership style matters: a closer look at transformational leadership and internal marketing

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 258-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morteza Akbari ◽  
Nader Seyyed Amiri ◽  
Saheb Imani ◽  
Niloofar Rezaeei ◽  
Pantea Foroudi

Purpose The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between transformational leadership (TL) and internal marketing which is underscored by the centrality of human resources in satisfying employee’s needs and how internal marketing, as a moderator and mediator, can facilitate the effects of transformational leadership on social capital and employee loyalty. Design/methodology/approach This study develops a model and a number of propositions based on preceding literature on transformational leadership and internal marketing on social capital and employee loyalty. Findings The model proposes that transformational leadership can play a vital role in codification of human resources variables such as internal marketing, which is founded upon the principle of paying greater attention to employees. Moreover, despite the research gap on the relationship between social capital and employee loyalty, it can be concluded that social capital can increase the level of employee loyalty to organization. Research limitations/implications The proposed model has a number of academic and managerial contributions. This study contributes the knowledge by examining the relationship between transformational leadership and internal marketing. Managerially, this study helps managers to emphasize the centrality of human resources in satisfying employees and increase their loyalty toward the company. In addition, guarantees management effectiveness and organizational success in reaching their intended goals. Originality/value Despite the growing acknowledgment the importance of transformational leadership as a process in which leaders and followers upgrade each other’s level of ethic and motivation. However, there are few studies on the role and importance of transformational leadership on developing and reinforcing the internal marketing.

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 1083-1099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashita Goswami ◽  
Prakash Nair ◽  
Terry Beehr ◽  
Michael Grossenbacher

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine affective events theory (AET) by testing the mediating effect of employees’ positive affect at work in the relationships of leaders’ use of positive humor with employees’ work engagement, job performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs); and the moderating effect of transformational leadership style on the relationship between leaders’ use of positive humor and subordinate’s positive affect at work. Design/methodology/approach Data were obtained from 235 full-time employees working for a large information technology and business consulting corporation. Moderated mediation (Hayes, 2013) was performed to test the proposed model. Findings Leaders’ positive humor was related to creation of subordinates’ positive emotions at work and work engagement. Positive emotions at work did not mediate between leaders’ humor and performance or OCBs. In addition, leaders’ use of transformational leadership style made the relationship between leaders’ positive humor and employees’ positive emotions at work stronger. Research limitations/implications This study provides evidence of the positive relationship of leaders’ positive humor with employees’ positive emotions at work and work engagement. Such knowledge may help to inform the training workshops in humor employed by practitioners and potentially create a more enjoyable and fun workplace, which can lead to greater employee engagement. Originality/value AET helps explain effects of leader humor, but the effects of are complex. Leader’s use of even positive humor is most likely to have favorable effects mainly depending on their leadership style (transformational) and if their humor successfully leads to positive emotions among employees.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 1082-1099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaithen Abdullah Al Harbi ◽  
Saud Alarifi ◽  
Aissa Mosbah

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the effect of transformational leadership on followers’ inventiveness and organizational innovation. It studies transformational leadership and innovation at the organizational level and creativity at the individual level. Design/methodology/approach A theoretical model was created, which entailed the development of variables and hypotheses. A survey instrument was used to obtain data, through a self-completion questionnaire. The final sample was made up of 503 individuals, recruited using a random sampling technique. Findings The results showed that transformational leadership has a significant positive relationship with both followers’ creativity and organizational innovation. Furthermore, a significant positive relationship was found between followers’ creativity and organizational innovation. In addition, the relationship between transformational leadership and followers’ creativity, through the mediating role of employees’ psychological empowerment, support for innovation, workplace relationships and employee learning, was also found to be both positive and significant. However, the data showed that intrinsic motivation does not significantly affect the relationship between transformational leadership and creativity. Practical implications The study provides guidance to organizations that need to change their leadership style and approach, as well as their innovation and creativity mechanisms, at a strategic level. The resulting guidance provides organizations with insight into how they can improve the creativity of their employees through motivating, supporting and inspiring them. Originality/value This study is an attempt to illustrate the extent to which transformational leadership can affect organizational innovation in Saudi Arabia, specifically in the public sector, and to explore how employees’ creativity can be improved. This research is beneficial for academics, organizations and policy makers, especially in the Gulf countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Secil Bayraktar ◽  
Alfredo Jiménez

PurposeDrawing from conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study empirically tests the impact of transformational leadership on commitment to and intention to support organizational change, proposing self-efficacy as a mediating mechanism. This study also aims to study whether the extent of change in the organization moderates the proposed relationship between transformational leadership, self-efficacy and change reactions.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted with a sample of 298 employees going through a major organizational change. The proposed moderated mediation relationship was tested by using PROCESS macro.FindingsThe findings showed that self-efficacy mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and reactions to change. Moreover, the extent of changes experienced by the employees moderated the relationship between self-efficacy and outcome variables. In other words, in high change contexts, self-efficacy appeared as a more salient and instrumental resource leading to positive reactions.Practical implicationsThe results guide change managers to display a transformational leadership style to enhance self-efficacy of change recipients to generate positive attitudes and behaviors during change. Also, this study shows that self-efficacy particularly gains importance when the extent of change is high.Originality/valueThis study makes several important contributions to the organizational change literature. First, it shows that leaders play a crucial role in generating resources that enhance employees' positive reactions to change. Second, the conditional factor of the extent of change has not received much attention in the literature. This study raises attention to the fact that the importance of such resources may differ across low versus high extent of change contexts.


2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 412-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena Para-González ◽  
Daniel Jiménez-Jiménez ◽  
Angel Rafael Martínez-Lorente

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the possible mediating mechanisms (human resource management (HRM), learning and innovation) that could exist in the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational performance. This topic has been studied only by a few groups of researchers and these researchers have not analyzed all these concepts jointly. Design/methodology/approach This research explores the relationships using partial least squares with data from 200 Spanish industrial companies. Analyzing the mentioned relationships in the Spanish context has been done by few researchers before. Findings The study reveals that the adoption of transformational leadership styles improves performance when specific systems of HRM practices, learning and innovation are developed in an organization. Originality/value This study, therefore, contributes to the understanding of the link between transformational leaders and performance by proposing a model in which it is evinced that this leadership style produces synergies between HRM, learning and innovation, which in the end, affect performance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 913-930 ◽  
Author(s):  
Usman Raja ◽  
Dave Bouckenooghe ◽  
Fauzia Syed ◽  
Saima Naseer

PurposeUsing social identity theory, the authors hypothesize that transformational leadership (TL) leads to better person-organization fit (P-O fit), which in turn contributes to the emergence of organizational social capital (i.e. OSC). Furthermore, the authors suggest that the relationship between P-O fit and OSC is contingent upon the level of TL. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachField study data were used to test the hypotheses. In total, 336 employees from eight different service sector organizations in Pakistan participated in this study. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the data.FindingsIn support of the hypotheses, the authors found that TL was positively related to both P-O fit and OSC. Also, P-O fit mediated the TL-OSC relationship. Finally, TL moderated the relationship between P-O fit and OSC.Research limitations/implicationsCross-sectional data were collected through self-reports, which raises concerns of reporting bias.Practical implicationsManagers can benefit from the study by focusing on TL as a vehicle for not only achieving change, but also for creating an environment that facilitates better P-O fit and enhanced OSC.Social implicationsThis study provided a rare opportunity to examine the proposed relationships in a developing country. This enhances our insight into the efficacy of theories that have been mainly developed and tested in developed countries.Originality/valuePrevious research hypothesized P-O fit as a mediator between leadership and performance, yet failed to receive support. The current study is unique by demonstrating that TL, as a relational leadership style, contributes to building an important resource (OSC) through the mediating effect of P-O fit.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Yuan ◽  
Haiyan Kong ◽  
Tom Baum ◽  
Yining Liu ◽  
Chao Liu ◽  
...  

Purpose This paper aims to explore the effects of leadership style and trust in leadership on employees’ affective commitment under the epidemic situation. Design/methodology/approach A total of 580 valid questionnaires were collected online targeting the hospitality and tourism employees working from home during the particular period of the COVID-19 Coronavirus crisis. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data with AMOS software. Findings The findings indicated that perceived transformational leadership was a positive predictor of trust in leadership and affective commitment. In addition to the positive contribution to commitment, trust in leadership also mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment. Originality/value The current study contributes to the literature on leadership and organizational commitment. The results of this study may provide a valuable guide to organizations, leaders and young employees.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia A. Katou ◽  
Michael Koupkas ◽  
Eleni Triantafillidou

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to integrate an extended by personal resource job demands-resources (JD-R) model in the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational performance. It is argued that the responsive, supportive and developmental leader's style will reduce employees' levels of burnout and increase their levels of work engagement and ultimately will increase organizational performance expressed by productivity, growth and creativity.Design/methodology/approachThe hypotheses were tested among a national sample of 1,011 employees in 107 Greek public and private organizations operating within an environment of economic and financial crises. The operational model was tested using a multilevel structural equation modelling.FindingsIt appeared that job demands and work burnout and job resources and work engagement, serially and fully mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational performance. Further, it is found that personal resources negatively and fully mediate the relationship between job resources and work burnout and positively and partially mediate the relationship between job resources and work engagement.Research limitations/implicationsData were collected using a cross-sectional design, not allowing dynamic causal inferences.Practical implicationsConsidering that the transformational leadership style reduces employees' levels of burnout and increases their levels of work engagement and accordingly improves organizational performance, organizations are well advised to encourage this leadership style.Social implicationsTransformational leadership by balancing job demands and job resources could have a positive impact on employee well-being.Originality/valueThe study, using multilevel testing, demonstrates that the extended JD-R model can be integrated into the transformational leadership– organizational performance relationship.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate McCombs ◽  
Ethlyn Williams

PurposeAlthough important for organizational performance, much is still unknown about the relationship between employee well-being and transformational leadership. The authors answer calls to consider the relationship (1) in an extreme context (i.e. coronavirus pandemic), (2) at the dimension level and (3) differences that exist depending on the employee's gender.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employed a two-wave study with data collected from 212 working individuals. Respondents reported their level of COVID-19 anxiety and leadership experiences at time 1 starting at the height of the pandemic and three weeks later reported well-being.FindingsThe authors found COVID-19 anxiety weakened the influence of transformational leadership style on well-being, and this was only the case for females. Further, the authors found that while the moderator of COVID-19 anxiety weakened the influence of core transformational leadership behaviors and intellectual stimulation on well-being, the more individualized and short-term focused transformational behaviors of individualized consideration and performance expectations proved to have resilient effects on well-being with no moderating effects. Looking at gender differences, the authors found that this was only the case for females.Originality/valueThe findings extend research by capturing an external shock concerning the coronavirus pandemic to better understand how transformational leadership style, its dimensions and employee gender, influence well-being. While the authors expected COVID-19 anxiety to weaken the positive effects of transformational leadership style on well-being, paradoxically the authors also expected differential effects when examining individual dimensions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 694-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shyh-Jer Chen ◽  
Miao-Ju Wang ◽  
Shih-Han Lee

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue that, in situations where transformational leadership (TL) is in effect, perceived meaningfulness in work plays a vital role in generating intrinsic motivation among employees; specifically, this can influence employees to endeavor to benefit their organizations through engaging in voice behavior. Design/methodology/approach In this empirical study, a cross-sectional dyad questionnaire method was adopted to collect data from 172 employees from 40 companies. Findings The results show that perceiving work as meaningful is positively related, through a direct effect, to promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors. Further, employees perceiving their work as meaningful were found to fully mediate the relationship between TL and promotive voice behavior, but not prohibitive voice behavior. These results indicate that employees under TL who consider their jobs to be meaningful engage in more voice behaviors that might eventually benefit their organizations. Originality/value This study demonstrates that meaningful work is a considerable predictor of voice behavior. The results show that when a person experiences TL, it increases the chances that they perceive their work as meaningful, which in turn encourages them to engage in voice behavior that can benefit their organization. The findings from this research suggest that organizations can create “win-win” situations that benefit both their employees and the organizations themselves.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Halim Busari ◽  
Sajjad Nawaz Khan ◽  
Siti Mariam Abdullah ◽  
Yasir Hayat Mughal

Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationship between transformational leadership style and factors of employees’ reactions towards organizational change in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan. Furthermore, to understand the importance of followership it has been analyzed as a moderating variable in the relationship between transformational leadership style and factors of employees’ reactions. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods study design was applied to investigate the factors underlying the phenomenon of transformational leadership and organizational change. A quantitative research design was followed by qualitative research questions to get more in-depth insights into the used relationships. The primary purpose of the qualitative study design was to support and strengthened the results of the main quantitative research design. Findings The results of the study showed that transformational leadership style was positively related to all three factors of employees’ reactions (frequency of change, trust in management and employees’ participation) towards organizational change. Moreover, followership has a significant effect on the relationship between transformational leadership style and factors of employees’ reaction. Practical implications This study suggests that for successful implementation of change in organizations, the employees play an important role and that managers with transformational leadership behaviour play a critical role in shaping positive change reactions. This study also highlights that both transformational leadership and followership are essential elements in shaping recipients’ reactions, with active followers contributing to the role of leadership in the change process. Originality/value This study is the first attempt specifically in Asian context to highlight the role of followership as a moderating variable in leadership theory in the organizational change context.


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