Studying Relations between Transformational Leadership and Employees’ Satisfaction and Commitment in Organizations

Research Paper (undergraduate) , 2014 , 8 Pages , Grade: 17.77

Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance

In this study, we have investigated the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ satisfaction and commitment in organization. Its objectives are: 1-Increasing effectiveness of change leadership in organization; 2-Increasing effectiveness of change leadership on leadership effectiveness; 3- Increasing effectiveness and efficiency in organization.

To test the hypotheses of this research, 223 employees of Arak Alomrol Company were chosen using random sampling. They were asked to answer questionnaires. After collecting data, they were analysed using SPSS software. Results showed that in the field of leadership behaviors, such behaviors might lead to the decrease in employees’ satisfaction and commitment and a great deal of quitting in the organization. On the other hand, absolute using of transformational leadership’s behaviors might cause to appear positive effects like high satisfaction and commitment, high productivity and motivation.

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Literature Review
2.1. Leadership
2-2. Leadership effectiveness
2-3. Organizational effectiveness
2-4. Organizational commitment
2-5. Job satisfaction

3. Research Method
3-1. Data collection method
3-2. Statistical population, sample size and sampling method

4. Research’s Theoretical Framework

5. Data Analysis Method

6. Results

7. Conclusions & Suggestions

References

Abstract

In this study, we have investigated the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ satisfaction and commitment in organization. Its objectives are: 1-Increasing effectiveness of change leadership in organization 2-Increasing effectiveness of change leadership on leadership effectiveness 3- Increasing effectiveness and efficiency in organization. To test research’s hypotheses, 223 employees of Arak Alomrol Company were chosen using random sampling. They were asked to answer questionnaires. After collecting data, they were analysed using SPSS software. Results showed that in the field of leadership behaviors, such behaviors might lead to the decrease in employees’ satisfaction and commitment and a great deal of quitting in the organization. On the other hand, absolute using of transformational leadership’s behaviors might cause to appear positive effects like high satisfaction and commitment, high productivity and motivation.

Keywords: Leadership, Leadership Effectiveness, Organizational Effectiveness, Organizational Commitment, Job Satisfaction.

1. Introduction

Efficiency and development in each organization is largely dependent on appropriate application of human force. The bigger the organization is, the more problems these forces have. In the modern world, human resource is considered as a vital and strategic resource for organization. This growing concern has made human force as the first client of the organization who is helping organizations to fulfill their goals (Abtehi, 2004; 4).

Attentiveness and positive attitude toward the job causes further attempt and trying and eventually causes costs reduction (Akhlaghi, 1998; 22).

2. Literature Review

2.1. Leadership

Leadership means having impact and influence on others. This definition is a very simple and apprehensible meaning that makes leadership tangible for everyone. All of us can apply a certain amount of influence or effect on one person in one point and place. Leadership is not a position, but it is an effect of one life on another life.

2-2. Leadership effectiveness

Definition of Leadership effectiveness is quite different. Its underlying difference is the kind of outcome or the selected outcome as an effectiveness criterion (Yukl, 1989). Outcomes include various cases like group performance, achieving group goals, group survival, group growth, group preparedness and group capacity to encounter crisis, employees’ (followers) satisfaction of leader, employees’ commitment to the group goals, mental health and promotion of group members and maintaining leadership position.

2-3. Organizational effectiveness

Organizational effectiveness as a single topic has been applied in management researches and organization designing for about more than one century. Nevertheless, a general theory hasn’t yet proposed (Levine and Mintone, 1986).

Various models have been appeared to study organizational effectiveness. Each of them had an especial stress on the objective model (Price, 1972), the legitimate modelling (Zemoto, 1982), Strategic Analysis Model (Connelly et al, 1980) and the system resources model (Yachmn and Syshaver 1987).An initial impression from organizational effectiveness which has been proposed in 50s and 60s for active organizations was so simple and knew effectiveness as the amount of organization’s deduction from objectives. In this study, organizational effectiveness has been defined as a scale or limit in which organization achieves his goals using especial resources without wasting them and without putting undue pressure in his members or the society. In this study, organizational effectiveness has been examined with measuring employees’ commitment to organization. Support for measuring organizational effectiveness by organizational commitment evaluation is researches conducted by Likert (1961, 1967), Astyrz (1977), Hunt et al (1985), Hersey and Blanchard (1988), Allen and Meyer (1990) and Wilson (1996).

2-4. Organizational commitment

Commitment is as a trend to do continuous activities. According to Salansyk’s idea, commitment is a condition in humans in which the person is believed through his/her actions; perpetuate activities and maintain his effective participation in doing them. Based on Porter et al ‘s idea, organizational commitment has been defined as the rate of individual relationship with organization and his/her participation in it which has three factors: A) believe in organization’s value and goals B) Tend to be further intense efforts in the organization C) deep want to stay in organization (Aschavolfly and Bakker, 2004; 102).

2-5. Job satisfaction

It is a satisfactory or positive feeling which is driven from a job (Connelly and Viscera, 1999; 256).

3. Research Method

Research method of current paper based on research’ objective is an applied one, because with applying theories and some of management and statistic sciences, it comes to the conclusions are used by departments that are in field of statistical population. Findings obtained from applied researches are being used by experimental and applied researchers to resolve human needs. So, these studies are focusing on solving specific issues in life’s situations (Khaki, 2008; 78).

3-1. Data collection method

In this study, to collect data and reach goals, nameless questionnaire has been used. This questionnaire has been designed using 3 references. For variable of change leadership behavior, 36 questions were designed. These questions have been planned using standard questionnaire of Bass and Olive (1995). For variable of organizational commitment also, 9 questions were designed using questionnaire by Porter et al. Variable of job satisfaction with 2 components (satisfaction of work and satisfaction of supervisor) also consists of 21 questions which are in this regard, satisfaction of work has been assigned 17 questions and satisfaction of supervisor has been assigned 6 questions. To design these questions, job satisfaction questionnaire of smith et al has been used. The criterion to scale questionnaire’s answers for all of aforementioned variables is 5-point Likert scale. Also, at the beginning of questionnaire, there are some questions in order to get familiar with demographic features of statistical population. These factors are: gender, marital status, age, education, and job experience.

Table 1: Combination of questions based on research’s variables

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

3-2. Statistical population, sample size and sampling method

Statistical population of this study includes 470 employees working in Arak Alomrol Company. Researcher intends to collect his required data from this population. To determine sample size, Cochran formula has been used which has been described as following:

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

: Statistical sample size

N= Statistical population size

Z= Normal variable corresponding to the desired confidence level of 95% confidence distance which is equal to 96.1.

σ = It is a variance of population and due to this issue that an index as a variance parameter of the population was not available and there wasn’t any history related to the studied issue, its value has been considered 0.5 using Precautionary approach (Hoseini, 2008; 104).

ε = It is allowed error which is equal to 0.05.

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

4. Research’s Theoretical Framework

This study is conducted based on the following variables:

Leadership, leadership effectiveness, organizational effectiveness, organizational commitment and job Satisfaction.

Researches show that the following hypotheses can be investigated:

1. There is a significant relationship between change leadership behaviors and employees’ satisfaction of their supervisor.

2. There is a significant relationship between change leadership behaviors and employees’ satisfaction of their works.

3. There is a significant relationship between change leadership behaviors and employees’ organizational commitment.

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Figure 1: Research’s analytical model (Hakan, 2008; 708-726)

5. Data Analysis Method

Data analysis is a process in which data provided via applying collecting means in statistical sample (population), are summarized; coded; categorized and eventually processed in order to provide a context for establishing different kinds of analyses and relationships between these data to test hypotheses. In this process, data in the conceptual terms and also in the experimental terms are purified and various statistical techniques undertake an underlying role in inferences and generalizations. Analysis of results obtained from this study was done using SPSS software in 2 descriptive and inferential levels. In descriptive level, statistics such as frequency distribution has been used and in inferential level, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient has been used to determine correlation between aforementioned variables in the model.

6. Results

Spearman correlation coefficient was introduced by Spearman in 1940 and it is shown by Rs. Also it is called Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. In some of researches, obtaining distance data is not possible or if so, it lacks required features. In this case, rank can be substituted by raw numbers. Though, ordinal data don’t give us the information of raw data, when data are rankly collected or they are changed to the ranks, Spearman’s rank correlation or Spearman‘s P can be used. The correlation type between variables is important so that one of these 2 variables can be controlled or predicted. To measure this correlation, various coefficients are applied. One of them is Spearman correlation coefficient which is nonparametric methods (Behboodian, 2004; 145). Null hypothesis in this test hypothesizes that there is no correlation. Ranked correlation coefficient is shown by Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten. The way to calculate ranked correlation coefficient for paired dataAbbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten forAbbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten is as following: at first, all of Xs are ranked and the same action is done for Ys. Then, difference between ranks of each pair shown byAbbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthaltenis calculated. In next step, the second powers of ds are calculated and eventually rank correlation coefficient is calculated using the following formula (Azar, 2000; 270).

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

To test the null hypothesis, hypothesis which claims that the variables x and y have no correlation with each other and are randomly matched in pairs, there is no need for an especial hypothesis about sampled population. Due to this issue that Rs is Pearson’s correlation coefficient for ranks Xi and Yi, so it has all of features of Pearson’s correlation coefficient. If n number random sample is obtained from a distribution which its main variables are independent, so Rs is an asymmetric nonparametric random variable and we have:

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

For large values ​​of the sample (10 <n) rs distribution can be approximated by a normal distribution, so in this case the test’s statistic is calculated using the following formula.

(4)

Table 2: Research’s total results

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

7. Conclusions & Suggestions

Managers are using different leadership styles in order to penetrate their employees and perform activities in the organization. Behaving in ways that will motivate and inspire others; paying attention to the individual needs for success and growth which causes to establish a supportive environment in the organization; identifying individual differences in terms of needs and desires; encouraging the exchange of two-way communication and listen kindly to the employees’ concerns and ideas are samples of transformational leadership which is relation-based. On the other hand, punishment and reward are examples of transactional leadership behaviors that are task-oriented. Avoidance or absence of leadership is a way of not intervening. With reliance on both styles of leadership, some negative effects might appear in the organization.

According to the conducted researches in the context of leadership behaviors such as this study, this behavior might lead to the decrease inemployees’ satisfaction and commitment and a great deal of quitting in the organization. On the other hand, absolute using of transformational leadership’s behaviors might cause to emerge positive effects like high satisfaction and commitment, high productivity and incentives.

Managers in these organizations have to try to:

Use transformational leadership behaviors more than transactional leadership behaviors (exchange) and avoid faire style.

Establish a vision for followers (employees) in which employees have sense of identity and meaningfulness in the organization.

Become strong models for their employees with developing a set of moral values and expressing strong desires.

Act based on change factors which create new instructions in organization.

Provide supportive situation in which employees’ individual needs are accurately listened and act as coaches and consultants who are attempting to help others.

Leadership is the heart of effective management. Either intentionally or unintentionally, practices and attitudes of people who are in power have impact on employees’ practices and attitudes. The research has had convincing evidences for the importance of continuing efforts to understand the relationship between nature of leadership and its effective behaviors. Although, we make attempt to establish a sustainable and healthy organization, we have to continue investing in the context of development and promotion of transformational leadership.

As a result, managers in the organization have to be aware of their leadership styles. Furthermore, they have to look for effective leadership behavior which is influenced by organizational leadership and when leadership behavior is not according with organizational necessities, some of modification activities are being done.

References

Azar, A., and M. Momeni, (2001). Statisticsand its applicationin management, Seventh Edition, Tehran, organization of studying and codifying humanities books in Universities (Samt).

Abtahi, S., (2004). Human Resource Management", Institute of Management Education, Third Edition.

Akhlaghi, A, (2008). Investigation of the factors that increase job satisfaction among bank Directors at Gillan province, Civil Administration MS Thesis.

Hosseini, Y, (2003). Nonparametric statistics, research methods and statistical software SPSS 10.0, First Edition, Tehran, AllamehTabatabai University Press.

Khaki, G.R, (2008). Research method with dissertation approach, Tehran: Baztab Press, Fourth Edition.

Willioms L.S and John T.Hazer. (1986). Antecedents and consequences of satisfaction and Commitment in Tumover Models: A Reanalysis using latent variable structural Equation

Methods, “organization commitment, job satisfaction and… “Journal of applied logy Psychology, 59(1974), pp: 603-609.

Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., de Boer, E., &Schaufeli, W. B. (2004). Job demands and job resources as.

Gumusluoglu, L & Ilsev,A ,)2009(. Transformational leadership, creativity, and organizational Innovation, Journal of business Research, 461-473.

Carmeli, Abraham; Gefen, David, (2005). The relationship between work commitment models and employee withdrawal intentions, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol 20, No 2, PP.63-86.

• Grade: 17.77
• Author: Seyed Amidreza Tabaeian (Author)
• Publication Year: 2014
• Pages: 8
• Catalog Number: V371228
• ISBN (eBook): 9783668496538
• ISBN (Book): 9783668496545
• Language: English
• Tags: studying, relations, transformational, leadership, employees’, satisfaction, commitment, organizations