Leadership style and service orientation: the catalytic role of employee engagement

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 292-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sapna Popli ◽  
Irfan A. Rizvi
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Styles ◽  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Employee Attitudes ◽  
Service Orientation ◽  
National Capital Region ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of leadership style and employee engagement (EE) as drivers of service orientation (SO). The competing models approach used in this study examines three models of influence on SO. The first model evaluates the influence of leadership on SO, the second focuses on the influence of EE on SO and the third explores the influence of leadership on SO through EE. The study provides evidence to support that the relationship between leadership styles and SO is impacted by EE. The results suggest that organizations need to develop systems and processes that focus on the employee and EE for definitive service outcomes. At a theoretical level, the paper provides a direction for further exploration of an integrated theory of leadership and engagement to drive SO in organizations. Design/methodology/approach This empirical study uses a cross-sectional descriptive design. Hierarchical regression and mediation analysis were applied to process the data that were collected from more than 400 front-line employees from five service sector organizations in the Delhi-National Capital Region (Delhi-NCR) of India using validated instruments. Findings The results from this study reveal both direct and indirect relationships among the variables. EE emerged as a critical variable that influences SO of employees. EE partially mediates the transformational leadership style-SO relationship and also the passive-avoidant-SO relationship and it fully mediates the transactional leadership-SO relationship. While all relationships of leadership-engagement, leadership-SO and engagement-SO are significant, the mediating effects accentuate the importance of EE in organizations. Practical implications Leadership style on its own has a direct bearing on EE and SO of employees, the three associations are significantly impacted under the mediating influence of EE. With EE emerging as a critical factor, organizations need to ensure engaging behaviors are measured and enhanced throughout the employee-life-cycle including hiring, training, rewarding and managing performance. The results of the study suggest that an integrated approach of developing and inculcating leadership styles that drive EE could be the basis for leadership development programs especially in the service sector organizations. Originality/value The originality of the paper is derived from the three variables studied in the context of the sample characteristics (front-line employees, young), industry sector (across service sector) and geographical location (Delhi-NCR-India). Not many empirical studies on these variables are available from the region. The empirical evidence on the influence of EE adds weight to the growing strategic importance of EE in organizations. The research also highlights leadership and EE together influence specific employee attitudes and behavior (SO).

Exploring the relationship between service orientation, employee engagement and perceived leadership style: a study of managers in the private service sector organizations in India

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sapna Popli ◽  
Irfan A Rizvi
Keyword(s):  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Service Orientation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Private Service ◽  
Structured Equation Modeling ◽  
The Given

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between leadership, employee engagement and service orientation, specific to the private service sector organizations in India. The paper also explores the ability of leadership style and engagement to predict service orientation in the given cross section. Design/methodology/approach – The paper has used a single cross-sectional descriptive design. Purposive sampling has been used to identify respondents who are managers in the private service sector organisations in India. A valid sample size of 106 has been used for the analysis. Instruments used for perceived leadership style are as follows: Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X short form); Employee Engagement E3 (DDI) and Service Orientation (Frimpong and Wilson, 2012). Findings – Service orientation is found to be strongly correlated to employee engagement and employee engagement is a strong predictor of service orientation. The other relationships which are significant and moderately correlated are that of transformational leadership and employee engagement and also of transformational leadership and service orientation. Research limitations/implications – The study highlights the importance and significant role of leadership and employee engagement for higher service orientation in the given cross section. The mediating impact of employee engagement of the leadership style and service orientation relationship could be further explored through path analysis or structured equation modeling techniques. Practical implications – The research emphasizes that organizations need to focus on employee engagement as much as they focus on customers. The differential advantage to organizations will come through the employees and their behaviors towards customers. Appropriate leadership styles that drive engagement and service-oriented behaviors can be fostered in organizations to drive service performance. The mediating impact of employee engagement of the leadership style and service orientation relationship could be further explored through path analysis or structured equation modeling techniques. Originality/value – The research is focused in the private service sector organizations in India and data and results support the need to focus on employees for higher scores on customer parameters. The respondents are from a cross section of service organizations and, hence, emphasizing the interplay of the three variables across organizations. The paper supports the critical role of leadership and employees in creating a higher service orientation.

Effects of emerging leadership styles on engagement – a mediation analysis in a military context

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Ruiz Moreno ◽  
María Isabel Roldán Bravo ◽  
Carlos García-Guiu ◽  
Luis M. Lozano ◽  
Natalio Extremera Pacheco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Servant Leadership ◽  
Leadership Styles ◽  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Authentic Leadership ◽  
Proactive Personality ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThis paper aims to report the findings of a study examining the relationship between different leadership styles and engagement through the mediating role of proactive personality.Design/methodology/approachServant leadership, paradoxical leadership, authentic leadership, employee engagement and proactive personality were assessed in an empirical study based on a sample of 348 military personnel in Spain. The questionnaire data were analyzed through SEM using EQS and bootstrapping analysis using the PROCESS macro for SPSS.FindingsThe results reveal that servant leadership style in officers partially impacts their cadets' engagement through proactive personality but that authentic and paradoxical leadership styles do not mediate the relationship. The authors also verify a direct relationship between proactive personality and engagement.Practical implicationsThe study implications advance the literature on leadership in emphasizing new leadership styles to increase proactive personality and engagement in the military context. This study verifies the importance of military leaders fostering servant leadership as an antecedent of proactive personality. Finally, the authors show that servant leadership partially impacts engagement through proactive personality.Originality/valueThis study explores the relationship among servant, paradoxical and authentic leadership styles, proactive personality, and engagement – relationships that have not been explored theoretically and tested empirically in the military context.

Leader-member exchange and employee resilience: the mediating role of regulatory focus

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (9) ◽  
pp. 1062-1075
Author(s):  
Shiva Kakkar
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Styles ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Regulatory Focus ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Employee Motivation ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether leader–subordinate exchange (LMX) quality influences subordinate resilience. Drawing upon Higgins’ (1998) regulatory focus theory, it is hypothesized that high LMX leaders induce a positive appraisal of situations which primes promotion regulatory focus in subordinates which in turn increases employee motivation and resilience. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a cross-sectional survey design. Responses were collected from 139 employees of three information technology and enabled services organizations in India. Data were analyzed using PLS-based structure equation modeling package ADANCO. Findings LMX was found to be positively related to employee resilience. Promotion regulatory focus mediated the relationship between LMX and employee resilience. Practical implications The study demonstrates that leader interaction and behaviors can promote resilience in employees. Organizations need to see how supervisors can be trained to “frame” challenges and adversity in a manner that motivates employees and promotes resilience. Originality/value Previous studies have found different types of leadership styles to be associated with subordinate resilience. This suggests that there are certain factors across various leadership styles that influence resilience. The study uses LMX theory to suggest that it is not leadership style but underlying dimensions such as trust, reciprocity and clarity that play a vital role in cultivating employee resilience.

How organizational culture and leadership style affect employees’ performance of genders

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 630-651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bassem E. Maamari ◽  
Adel Saheb
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Training And Development ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Survey Tool ◽  
Service Companies ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
Prejudice And Discrimination

Purpose This paper aims to highlight the importance of organizational culture on the leader’s style and the effect of the chosen leadership style on the team’s performance. It surveys a strata of leaders from the Middle East in the current turbulent environment. Design/methodology/approach A research paper based on a quantitative data collection in the service sector from a large number of stratified sampled firms and respondents. Findings The cross-sectional data from 40 service companies reveal some interesting results highlighting the interrelationships between these three variables. The findings suggest that managers need to build on this concept finding in providing further training and development of employees’ skills in addition to an organizational culture of acceptance, adaptation and diversity. Research limitations/implications Electing to use a specific set of criteria in sampling might have resulted in eliminating a meaningful different direction in the results. Moreover, the size of the survey tool limited the number of variables to test with the study. Practical implications A number of implications are worthy of mention. First, devising reward programmes that are fairly attractive to both genders independently of each other should be a managerial priority, along with the creation and development of strong organizational cultures. Social implications Finally, a coupled performance and organizational culture of efficiency at the workplace, if not paralleled with a proper leadership style that fosters positive results, will only result in partial improvements in the big organizational picture, resulting in the persistence of the old prejudice and discrimination along the gender and age lines. Originality/value The study examines a suggested model in a new environment that is known to be deeply rooted in old-fashioned paternalistic managerial behaviour, and where change, if occurring, is extremely slow to introduce.

The interaction effect of transactional-transformational leadership on employee commitment in a developing country

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Puni ◽  
Sam Kris Hilton ◽  
Benedicta Quao
Keyword(s):  
Transformational Leadership ◽  
Leadership Styles ◽  
Transactional Leadership ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Interaction Effect ◽  
Employee Commitment ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Transformational Leadership Style

Purpose While substantial a number of research studies have examined the effect of leadership styles on work-related behaviour, the interaction effect of transactional-transformational leadership on work-related behaviour has been rarely investigated in a developing context. Thus, this study aims to examine the interaction effect of transactional-transformational leadership on employee commitment in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach The study used descriptive and cross-sectional survey designs. Cross-sectional data was obtained from 360 employees in the aviation industry of Ghana and analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and hierarchical regression techniques. Findings Transactional leadership style has a significant positive effect on employee commitment. However, when transformational leadership was added on transactional leadership base, there was no augmentation effect of transformational leadership style in predicting employee commitment. The results further indicate that there was a negative interaction effect of transactional and transformational leadership styles on employee commitment. Practical implications The findings imply that organizational leaders can improve employee commitment by purely resorting to transactional leadership behaviours. Leaders can also enhance employee commitment by augmenting transactional leadership behaviours on transformational leadership, as the reverse has no augmentation effect. Originality/value This study considerably complements existing leadership literature by establishing how a transformational leadership style can augment and/or interact with transaction leadership style to influence employee commitment in a developing country.

Does organisational politics affect leaders’ ability to engage Ghanaian Bankers?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwasi Dartey-Baah ◽  
Rexford Kojo Agbozo
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Styles ◽  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Transactional Leadership ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Organisational Politics

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of transformational and transactional leadership styles on employees’ work engagement and the moderating effects of perceived organisational politics (POPS) in indigenous Ghanaian Banks. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a cross-sectional survey design and a quantitative approach to gather data from 430 respondents through the use of structured questionnaire. The covariance-based structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data with the aid of statistical package for social sciences and AMOS. Findings The analyses revealed that transformational leaders had a positive influence on employee engagement while transactional leadership did not have a significant influence on employee engagement. POPS also had no influence on employee engagement. Furthermore, POPS failed to moderate the relationship between leadership styles and employee engagement. Practical implications The findings of this study provide important practical implications for managers and policymakers in the banking sector of Ghana in engendering good leadership and political environments that will promote the engagement of employees. Originality/value The variables used in this study and the context, present interesting and fresh insights into the interplay between leadership styles, POPS and employee engagement, thereby contributing to the discourse on the leadership and human resource management literature. Furthermore, this study fills a gap in literature and challenges prior conceptions that negative political climates within the public and private banks is chiefly responsible for the recent troubles some banks have faced in Ghana’s banking sector.

Exploring leadership styles in government hospitals in Kuwait

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 458-476
Author(s):  
Talal ALFadhalah ◽  
Hossam Elamir
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Leadership Styles ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Leadership Behavior ◽  
Organizational Outcomes ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Transformational Leaders ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose This paper aims to determine and assess leadership styles in six government general hospitals. Design/methodology/approach This is a cross-sectional study that uses a self-administered questionnaire to determine the leadership styles by self or followers’ rating. The participants were 66 leaders and 1,626 followers. The data were analyzed using suitable statistical methods. Findings The prevailing leadership style of hospitals’ leaders is the transformational style, where self-rating as transformational is higher than followers’ rating. The demographic characteristics of leaders are statistically insignificant. Research limitations/implications Other health-care settings were not included in the study. In addition, the study is designed to determine the relationship between variables, not to identify cause and effect. However, effective leadership has a substantial value and impact in health care. The paper confirms the existence of a transformational style effect on all organizational outcomes and represents a baseline for future studies in determining leadership styles and organizational culture types to highlight improvement areas. Practical implications The paper recommends designing training programs to improve transformational leadership behavior. Moreover, investment in research is needed to understand how to build transformational leaders. In addition, leaders' recruitment must be conditioned by obtaining a leadership certification. Originality/value This topic is under-researched in Kuwait health-care system. The use of leadership style as an indicator for a health-care organization's performance is still not well known in Kuwait.

Interactive effects of organizational goal orientations on bank-employee’s behavior

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 402-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaewon Yoo ◽  
Yeonsung Jung
Keyword(s):  
Service Sector ◽  
Psychological Empowerment ◽  
Goal Orientations ◽  
Task Interdependence ◽  
Service Orientation ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Role Behavior ◽  
Employee Behaviors ◽  
Bank Employee

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test the effects of the service orientation on bank-employee behaviors; to empirically examine the moderating role of the productivity orientation in an effort to explain when and why the simultaneous pursuit of the service orientation and the productivity orientation negatively affect the financial service employee psychological empowerment; and to explore any contextual factors that can suppress or facilitate the bank–employee behaviors.Design/methodology/approachA single cross-sectional descriptive design was used for this study. Purposive sampling was used to identify the respondents who were bank employees in financial-service-sector organizations in South Korea. To analyze the data, a confirmatory-factor analysis (CFA) using LISREL 8.5 was employed. Conditional process modeling was performed to test the moderated mediation and the moderated-mediation hypotheses.FindingsThe results showed a significant relationship between the service orientation and the frontline-employee behaviors, thereby establishing the psychological empowerment as an intervening mechanism. The findings also suggest that the moderating role of the productivity orientation weakened the positive effect of the service orientation on the bank-employee psychological empowerment. This research identifies the positive interactive effect of the customer power upon the psychological empowerment of the employee extra-role behavior. The task interdependence enhanced the link between the psychological empowerment and the employee in-role behavior.Research limitations/implicationsThe specific service sector that was chosen is retail banking. The cross-sectional nature of the data is considered a limitation; furthermore, the self-reported nature of the completed questionnaires might have resulted in the common method bias. Further research should be conducted to collect longitudinal data from other service sectors to verify the hypothesized relationship. Extensions into other sectors that differ in terms of the customer power degree and the task interdependence level could lead to a contingency framework that shows if and how the hypothesized linkages can be changed according to the contextual factors.Practical implicationsFor managers who want or need to pursue the strategic goals of the service orientation and the productivity orientation simultaneously, this study offers useful insights into the management of the strategic dilemmas that stem from service-setting multi-goal pursuits from an employee perspective. Second, the significant positive relationships that were observed between the values of the overt customer power and the extra-role behavior suggest that constraining and influential customer behaviors are likely to produce a structured working environment that encourages the bank-employee extra-role behavior. Third, the results also suggest that the task structure (task interdependence) may influence the employee in-role behavior. Thus, managers should encourage an organizational sense of belonging for their employees and an understanding of the essential nature of the employee work role in terms of a competitive organizational performance.Social implicationsIn banking circumstances, stickiness on product orientation by cutting cost will deteriorate the level of customer service and will then reduce customer revenues. In this case, disgruntled staff and unhappy customers perceive that their interests are being sacrificed in the pursuit of greater productivity. In this situation, revenues may fall faster than the reduction in costs. Thus, it may be proven that the cost of the dual demands from these two orientation types outweigh the benefit. Bank executives may perceive organizational productivity orientation as being an easier and more evident tool to use for reducing cost, especially with the existence of tough competition. Critically, in addition to poor service quality, this study indicates that there is a side effect of productivity orientation practice. Thus, managers should use caution in the concurrent employment of the two types.Originality/valueThis study identified the reason for the negative service outcomes that result from the simultaneous pursuits of the service orientation and the productivity orientation. From an employee perspective, it might be proven that the costs of the dual-service and production-orientation demands may outweigh the benefits. Thus, this proposed research model, in which the frontline autonomy acted as a key mediator and the customer power and the task interdependence were salient moderators, has been shown as crucial in the transmission of the impacts of the service and the quality orientation, and in the blunting of the service-productivity trade-offs that are due to the employee’s perceived multi-goal orientations.

The impact of dissonance in schema based leadership perceptions on employee engagement

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 1309-1329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sugumar Mariappanadar
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Leadership Styles ◽  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Leadership Perceptions ◽  
Supportive Leadership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Differentiated Leadership ◽  
Perceptions Of Leadership

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible consequences of the intra-individual level-based perceptions of participative, supportive and instrumental leadership styles and the dissonance factors of leadership styles perceptions on employee engagement using the information-processing and connectionist perspectives of leadership perceptions. Design/methodology/approach Hypotheses relating to direct and moderated effects of perceptions of leadership styles on employee engagement were tested using a two-stage intra-individual level study (n=172 in each stage). Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Findings The findings revealed that perceptions of preferred and experienced supportive leadership styles are individually important predictors of employee engagement. It was also revealed that differentiated leadership styles have stronger (complementary) effect on employee engagement when the perceptions of experienced participative and supportive leadership styles were aligned with perceptions of respective preferred leadership styles. Furthermore, it was also found that the low level compared to the high level of dissonance factor or the difference between preferred and experienced instrumental leadership style acted as a complementer on employee engagement. Research limitations/implications This study has made contributions to facilitate scholars to build better information-processing models and implicit theories for differentiated leadership and employee engagement links. Finally, the study provides new information on the consequence of perceptions of leadership style and the dissonance factor of leadership perceptions on followers’ actions such as employee engagement. Originality/value This will be the first empirical study examining the relationships between the dissonance factor of leadership perceptions of participative, supportive and instrumental styles and employee engagement.

Driving employee engagement: how personality trait and leadership style impact the process

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (10) ◽  
pp. 1457-1473
Author(s):  
Simone Meskelis ◽  
J. Lee Whittington
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Styles ◽  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Authentic Leadership ◽  
Leadership Behavior ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive Leadership ◽  
Big Five Model ◽  
Individual Traits ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of how personality traits and leadership styles impact employee engagement. Design/methodology/approach A field study involving a total of 100 participants was conducted to investigate the relationship between honesty–humility, authentic leadership and employee engagement. Hypotheses were tested using correlation and regression analyses. Findings The results show that honesty–humility impacts employee engagement and that authentic leadership functions as a substitute for honesty–humility. Research limitations/implications Further studies are necessary to examine how honesty–humility interacts with other leadership styles. Further studies can also expand the understanding of this relationship across different cultures. Practical implications Employees bring engagement to work through their individual traits but organizations can help create an environment that fosters engagement through positive leadership behavior such as authentic leadership. Originality/value This study extends the understanding of the role of individual differences beyond the established Big Five model, by adding the honesty–humility dimension. In addition, the authors examine the moderating effects of authentic leadership on the relationship between honesty–humility and engagement.

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