Are leaders with postgraduate degrees perceived to be more transformational? A quasi-experimental field study

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morris Mendelson ◽  
Jasmine Alam ◽  
Chris Cunningham ◽  
Adam Totton ◽  
Carrie Smith

PurposeTransformational leadership has been shown to have a positive impact on a host of employee level and organizational performance indicators. However, little research has sought to understand some of the antecedents of this style of leadership. The purpose of this paper is to examine the link between having a post-secondary education and perceptions of transformational leadership.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from two surveys issued in a mid-sized energy company located on the eastern seaboard of North America. One-way ANOVA comparing employees’ perceptions of transformational leadership exhibited by their supervisors that either did or did not have a post-graduate degree demonstrated a strong, positive relationship between the attainment of a Master’s degree and perceived levels of transformational leadership qualities.FindingsThe findings of this quasi-experimental field study demonstrated a strong, positive relationship between the attainment of a Master’s degree and perceived levels of transformational leadership qualities.Originality/valueThis study is the first of its kind to demonstrate that more educated managers are generally perceived to be more transformational in their leadership style.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles A. Scherbaum ◽  
Loren J. Naidoo ◽  
Roy Saunderson

PurposeEmployee recognition programs are ubiquitous, and recognition is a multibillion-dollar industry. Yet, very little research has tested the utility of recognition-based interventions. The purpose of this paper was to examine the impact of managerial training for employee recognition on the occurrence of recognition and unit-level performance.Design/methodology/approachThe design was a quasi-experimental field study of branches within a financial services company. Differences between a recognition training group and a no-training control group were examined using objective unit-level performance and recognition data before and after the training intervention.FindingsResults indicated that the training program led to more recognition and improved unit performance compared to control.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size was small, but the research demonstrates that managerial recognition training is effective.Practical implicationsThis research establishes the effectiveness of recognition training and describes its effects on important business outcomes, supporting the notion that recognition programs may be a worthwhile investment for organizations.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to demonstrate the benefit of training managers on effective recognition practices on recognition behavior and unit performance.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Dolnicar ◽  
Emil Juvan ◽  
Bettina Grün

Twenty percent of all global greenhouse emissions are food-related. Tourism and hospitality contribute significantly, with food accounting for nearly half of the waste these sectors produce. One type of food waste – plate waste – could easily be avoided. Plate waste is the food people leave behind uneaten on their plates. It does not increase the enjoyment of the meal, yet costs the hotel money, and harms the environment. We develop and test – in a quasi-experimental field study – a game-based intervention that reduces plate waste by 34 percent, and is available for immediate adoption by hotels globally. Our study contributes to theory by demonstrating the power of increasing pleasure in pleasure-seeking contexts when aiming to change environmentally significant tourist behaviour. Our findings also challenge established behavioural theories, which postulate that people’s beliefs are the key drivers of pro-environmental behaviour.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-80
Author(s):  
Maddalena della Volpe

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to acknowledge the value of joint educational entrepreneurship programs: universities impact on economic growth by building collaborative networks in order to encourage innovation through interdisciplinary training schemes. The case of the master’s degree in Entrepreneurial Innovation Management, set up jointly by the University of Salerno and the Universidad Católica de Pereira, is presented. Design/methodology/approach In order to conduct a competitive market analysis, the latest data on master’s degrees in economics and information technologies management have been collected by means of a scraping procedure in order to build a data set for analysis. The authors have considered the masters’ degrees offered in Bogotá, where most universities of Colombia are located. Findings The data point out that current master’s degree courses do not recognize the importance of interdisciplinary training, which is in great demand in the world of work: economics and computer science never run together and rarely do universities collaborate within a network to set up joint programs. Practical implications The entrepreneurial culture could yield economic and social benefits by training students for a dynamic, global and increasingly digital job market. The case study represents a first step in building a network, which could be extended to other countries in the future. Originality/value The originality of the study lies in the proposal of a joint Italy–Colombia master’s degree, which is set up within a higher education network and may prove useful in creating job opportunities in both countries involved. Moreover, the learning path balances two traditionally separated disciplinary fields: economics and computer engineering.


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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyubov Vanchukhina ◽  
Tatyana Leybert ◽  
Anastasia Rogacheva ◽  
Yulia Rudneva ◽  
Elvira Khalikova

Purpose A modern trend in the educational environment in recent years has been the permanent education system with the involvement of online study modes. It is based on multidisciplinarity and adaptivity of educational technologies, starting with the basic level of education – bachelor’s degree, and ending with gaining competences in the field of engineering and economics throughout the whole professional life of a student. The purpose of this paper is to perform a detailed analysis of development of permanent education in Russian universities, focusing on statistical data on popularity of jobs as to professional groups among employers and determining peculiarities of permanent education, based on the distinguished peculiarities of permanent education and requirements of business to develop a model of engineering and managerial education that would integrate two blocks of the educational process – engineering and economic, as well as include modern technologies of teaching. Design/methodology/approach The authors propose the modern model of engineering management education that is implemented in the Russian technical universities. Its distinctive feature as compared to the conventional educational technologies is gaining competences in the field of economics and management at the same time with engineering education at the second stage of education – the master’s program. The proposed model of engineering and management education results in obtainment of two diplomas by the student who is awarded with a master’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in economics. A difference of the offered model from the traditional educational technologies is obtaining competences in the sphere of economics and management together with engineering education at the master’s program. The result of the offered model of engineering and managerial education is graduate’s receiving two diplomas with master’s degree of engineer and master of economics. The paper shows the existing mechanism of implementing the model of engineering and economic education in a technical university by the example of the master’s program in Economics “Evaluation of economic risks during technological decisions (in oil processing and oil chemistry).” Findings The offered model of engineering and managerial education will allow training the engineers of a new type, who will be able to adapt to new tendencies and initiate the changes that are necessary for effective functioning of business in the conditions of digital economy. Originality/value The offered model of engineering and managerial education should be acknowledged as an innovational educational project that raises demand for graduates through their adaptability to employer’s needs and their usage of new tools of management that are based on exchange of information data and that form managerial task for information provision of the process of decision making and their further execution.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-108
Author(s):  
Amit Shukla

Purpose Though widely studied, organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) is yet to emerge as a thoroughly understood concept. For instance, citizenship behaviours emanating from self-serving motives remain largely unexplored. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of psychological ownership in differentiating individuals with genuine motives (“soldiers”) from those with self-serving motives (“actors”). Design/methodology/approach The study defines and operationalises genuineness of OCBs by comparing self-rated and others-rated citizenship behaviours. It is hypothesised that psychological ownership is positively associated with citizenship behaviour, and this relationship is positively moderated by degree of genuineness. All the hypothesised relationships are tested on the basis of empirical evidence produced by a two-wave study on a cross-hierarchical matched sample (n = 338) in a large Indian IT MNC. Findings A strong positive relationship between psychological ownership and citizenship behaviour was observed. A positive moderation by genuineness was also found suggesting that relationship between psychological ownership and citizenship behaviour became stronger with higher genuineness. In a nutshell, the results indicated that soldiers and actors could be differentiated on the basis of their relative scores on psychological ownership. Originality/value Apart from theoretical contributions, the present study offers a headway to managers in identifying employees who engage in citizenship behaviour out of genuine motives toward their organisation. As citizenship behaviours increasingly find prominence in employees’ self-appraisal, this differentiation assumes importance in promoting workplace fairness.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document