Empowering and Directive Leadership: The Cost of Changing Styles

We examine the cost of leaders changing between empowering and directive leadership styles on team outcomes. In a laboratory experiment, we collected data from 240 participants in 80 teams. Confederates enacted different leadership styles and led teams of participants in performing a series of tasks. When leaders changed their style from directive to empowering, teams took time to respond in terms of higher satisfaction with leader and affective commitment. However, when leaders changed their style from empowering to directive, the deterioration of satisfaction with leader and reduction in affective commitment were immediate. Moreover, teams of leaders who had been consistently directive showed higher affective commitment as compared to teams of leaders who had a history of being empowering but later shifted to being directive. First time managers can get inputs on how they should enact their leadership style and be aware that switching between styles may impose long-term costs on the team’s affective commitment and satisfaction with the leader.

Leadership Style in Amateur Club Sports: A Key Element in Strategic Management

Leadership is key in sports management, as it allows organizations to endure over time. Leadership style determines how an organization or sports club works. The purpose of this study is to investigate employees’ perceptions of the leadership style of presidents (managers) in amateur clubs and how it influences the effort, efficiency and satisfaction of those employees. The sample consists of club managers (N = 334), of whom 286 are men and 48 are women, with an average age of 42.05 (±9.64). The subordinate version of the Multifactorial Leadership Questionnaire is used, and it is found that club presidents mostly use the transformational style, regardless of sports discipline. A descriptive analysis of the qualitative variables consists of absolute and relative frequencies. ANOVA is used for comparisons between groups, and forward multiple regression is used to determine the effects of different variables. There are significant differences between the managers of collective and individual sports clubs in terms of efficiency (p = 0.014) and satisfaction (p = 0.04). Leadership style had significant effects on effort, effectiveness and satisfaction, while the genre and type of sport did not, corroborating the positive predictive power of the transformational and transactional styles. Transformational and transactional leadership styles positively and statistically significantly predict the extra effort of subordinates, the perceived effectiveness of leadership and satisfaction with the leader. Leadership training brings advantages in the stability and sustainability of sports clubs.

Leaders—watch out for LMX differentiation: A multilevel model of leader-related antecedences and consequences of LMX differentiation

Research has shown that leader–member exchange differentiation affects individual and group outcomes. However, it is not yet clear how such unequal treatment affects the team’s perception of their leader in terms of leader-related outcomes, such as perceived leader communication quality, satisfaction with the leader, and perceived leader effectiveness. We analyzed how leader–member exchange differentiation in teams affects leader-related outcomes, and how it is affected by transformational leadership at the team level. Multilevel analyses of data from 92 teams with 831 employees indicated that leader–member exchange differentiation within teams is negatively related to leader-related outcomes, whereas transformational leadership is negatively related to leader–member exchange differentiation. In addition, we found positive indirect effects from transformational leadership to the leader-related outcomes via leader–member exchange differentiation.

Transformational Leadership, Systems, and Intrinsic Motivation Impacts on Innovation in Higher Education Institutes: Faculty Perspectives in Engineering Colleges

Learning institutes are unique places for innovation, technical transformations, and social changes, which are the main pillars for sustainable development. The purpose of this study was to examine the innovation capacity building through the impact of transformational leadership on followers’ satisfaction and output in two engineering colleges: one in a public university in the United States and the other in an International Branch Campus in Qatar. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire was used to assess leadership style, and three output indicators were chosen to represent innovative outputs. Innovation-driven systems and Intrinsic motivation were other innovation drivers assessed through the designed survey. The Statistical Package of Social Science was used to identify the correlated constructs of leadership styles and outcomes. The explanatory sequential mixed method helped explain the underlying reasons for the quantitative results through interviews with faculty. The study showed that leaders (deans) exhibited different ranges of transformational leadership styles, yet were lower than the norm. Moreover, transformational leadership traits, in addition to contingent rewards from transactional leadership, were highly correlated with followers’ satisfaction with the leader and the system. As this was a cross-cultural study, context affected the participation rate and response results, as hesitation to evaluate the dean was common in a high power–distance context.

Perceived leadership behaviours and their effects on IT departments in Swiss financial companies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of perceived transformational, transactional and laissez-faire (LF) leadership behaviours on both the effectiveness of the leader and satisfaction with the leader, as perceived by information technology (IT) subordinates in the Swiss financial sector.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 182 IT professionals from 45 Swiss financial companies rated their perceptions using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X short). Results were evaluated using partial least squares based structural equation modelling.FindingsIdealised influence (attributed) and individualised consideration as well as contingent reward (CR) leadership are positively related to effectiveness and satisfaction. LF leadership had a strong, significant negative effect on both outcomes. No augmentation effect of idealised influence and/or inspirational motivation over the effects of CR was found. These results are partly contradictory to findings of earlier studies. Additionally, stability problems/discriminant validity issues were found for some of the examined constructs.Practical implicationsManagers and leaders in IT departments in Swiss financial institutions should be advised of the possibly strong effects of CR on outcomes, together with the risks of potentially highly negative impacts of LF leadership, as well as the possible limitations of the stability and validity problems found. Leadership training could be used to this end. The paper gives specific advice on how the different findings could be included in such training.Originality/valueIT can significantly contribute to a firm’s success, and leading people who deliver technology is becoming more important in an increasingly digitised world. No previous research has illustrated the effects of leadership behaviours on IT departments in Swiss companies.

The effect of leader personality on follower behaviour

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of the leader-member exchange (LMX) on the relationship between leader personality and follower attitudes and behaviours, including task performance, satisfaction with the leader and organisational citizenship behaviour. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a multifaceted perspective to examine the relationships among the research variables, data were collected from 67 leaders and 372 followers. To test the hypotheses, hierarchical linear modelling analyses were conducted. Findings The results indicate that leader extraversion is positively related to follower task performance and that leader agreeableness is positively related to follower organisational citizenship behaviour and satisfaction with leaders. Moreover, the results indicate that the quality of the LMX relationship partially mediated the positive relationship between leader extraversion and follower task performance and fully mediated the relationship between leader agreeableness and satisfaction with leader and organisational citizenship behaviour. Practical implications The findings of this study support the mediating role of the LMX relationship between leader personality and follower attitudes and behaviours. Hence, it is worthwhile to examine the effects of leader personality in an organisational context. Originality/value The originality of this study is that it focusses on the integration of leader personality, LMX, and follower attitudes and behaviours in a single study, providing a model that indicates the mediating role of LMX in the relationship between leader personality and follower attitudes and behaviours.

Revisiting of Theory X and Y

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of leaders’ Theory X and Y managerial assumptions on subordinates’ attitudes and behaviors. Design/methodology/approach – Military leaders (n=50) completed a questionnaire with Theory X and Y scale and their subordinates (n=150) completed a questionnaire with the scales of satisfaction with leader, affective commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior. The paper used hierarchical linear modeling to test the hypotheses. Findings – The results indicated that the Theory Y management style is significantly and positively associated with subordinates’ satisfaction with the leader, affective commitment, and organizational citizenship behaviors. The Theory X management style had a significantly negative impact on subordinates’ satisfaction with the leader, but no significant impact on affective commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. The findings of the present study suggest that the Theory X and Y managerial assumptions are a worthwhile basis from which to examine several important organizational and individual outcomes. Research limitations/implications – The sample consisted of military personnel and were predominantly male. This may limit the generalizability of the findings. Practical implications – The findings of the present study suggest that the Theory X and Y managerial assumptions are a worthwhile basis from which to examine several important organizational and individual outcomes. Originality/value – Although McGregor's (1960) Theory X and Y have contributed to management and leadership thinking and practice for many years; empirical studies examining the Theory X and Y managerial assumptions in a work environment are very scarce. By examining the effect of leader's Theory X and Y managerial assumptions on follower's attitudes and behaviors, the study provides important insights for leadership literature.

Transformational Leadership in the Local Police in Spain: a Leader-Follower Distance Approach

Based on the transformational leadership theory (Bass, 1985), the aim of the present study was to analyze the differences in leadership styles according to the various leading ranks and the organizational follower-leader distance reported by a representative sample of 975 local police members (828 male and 147 female) from Valencian Community (Spain). Results showed differences by rank (p< .01), and by rank distance (p< .05). The general intendents showed the most optimal profile of leadership in all the variables examined (transformational-leadership behaviors, transactional-leadership behaviors,laissez-fairebehaviors, satisfaction with the leader, extra effort by follower, and perceived leadership effectiveness). By contrast, the least optimal profiles were presented by intendents. Finally, the maximum distance (five ranks) generally yielded the most optimal profiles, whereas the 3-rank distance generally produced the least optimal profiles for all variables examined. Outcomes and practical implications for the workforce dimensioning are also discussed.

Ethical Leader Behaviour and Leader-Member Exchange as Predictors of Subordinate Behaviours

The role of leader or leadership in management has occupied the attention of both theorists and practitioners alike. Of late, its role has also been considered significant in ethical issues given the exposure of various ethical scandals. Research on ethical leadership, despite its importance, is limited. Part of the problem may lie in the difficulties associated with studying ethical leadership in a field setting. This study, therefore, uses an experimental design to explore the impact of ethical leadership on subordinates' outcomes (behaviours and perceptions). This concept of ethical leadership is juxtaposed with exchange-based relationship between the leader and the member (leader-member-exchange or LMX). LMX focuses on one-to-one exchange-based relationship between a leader and a subordinate. However, ethical leadership based on Brown et.al's (2005) work is conceptualized as the leader's ethical-moral behaviour in general. This study explores the relative impact of ethical leader behaviour and LMX on subordinate outcomes which are distinguished in terms of ethics-related (leaders honesty, willingness to report problems, affective trust, and cognitive trust) and work-related (leaders effectiveness, satisfaction with the leader, and extra effort) outcomes. The study makes several contributions to the existing leadership literature. To begin with, and to the best of our knowledge, no research has explored the relative impact of one-on-one relationship with the leader (LMX) and ethical leaders' behaviour on subordinate outcomes. Second, subordinate outcomes have been conceptualized as belonging to either of the two categories — pragmatic⁄generic jobrelated behaviours (outcomes), (e.g., extra effort of the subordinate, effectiveness of the subordinate, and satisfaction with the leader) or idealistic ethics-related outcomes like (leader's honesty, willingness to report problems, affective trust, idealized behaviour, and idealized attribute). It is argued that theoretically, though LMX is a strong determinant of pragmatic job-related behaviour (outcomes), ethical leadership is more likely to predict idealistic ethicsrelated outcomes. The hypotheses are tested through an experimental study. The overall design of the experiment was a 2 (Ethical Leadership: Ethical, Unethical) X 2 (LMX: Low; High) between-participants factorial, employing four versions of scenarios. All the dependent variables were measured through standard scales and they showed high reliability coefficients. ANOVA tests indicated that not only ethics-related behaviours but work-related behaviours of the subordinates too were predicted by ethical leader behaviour which shows the functional significance of ethical leader behaviour. The results are discussed for their theoretical and practical implications while mentioning the limitations of the study.