Transformational leaders and work performance: the mediating roles of identification and self-efficacy.
| Autor | Cavazotte, Flavia |
| Cargo | Report |
Introduction
Given that influence in organizations is considered a fundamental route to promote alignment of corporate strategic goals and the actions of those striving to achieve them, the talent to convert employees into engaged agents has long been viewed as one of the skills essential to highly effective organizational leaders (e.g. Teal, 1998). Transformational Leadership Theory has been proposed with this focus (Lowe & Gardner, 2000) and has undergirded a number of scientific studies, becoming a leading stream of inquiry in the international literature (Antonakis, 2012; Gardner, Lowe, Moss, Mahoney, & Cogliser, 2010). Several investigations in the US-EU contexts have ratified the ability of transformational leaders to influence employees' attitudes and behaviors (e.g. Gardner et al., 2010; Judge & Piccolo, 2004; Lowe, Kreocke, & Sivasubramaniam, 1996). Nevertheless, the mechanisms by which these leaders exert their influence have yet to be fully understood (Kark, Shamir, & Chen, 2003; Piccolo & Colquitt, 2006).
In this research, we contribute to the literature on transformational leadership by examining how transformational leaders boost their followers' performance. In our model, we consider two different performance outcomes: formal and contextual performance. We propose that transformational behaviors can elicit both cognitive and emotional processes that are associated with performance through two psychosocial mechanisms: follower-leader identification and the promotion of self-efficacy. To our knowledge, no previous research has simultaneously evaluated these two routes in regards to both objective measures of formal performance and contextual performance.
This investigation also aims to contribute to knowledge in the filed by verifying if transformational leadership is indeed effective in the Brazilian work context. Although a preference for transformational leaders has been observed in different countries (e.g. Walumbwa, Lawler, Avolio, Wang, & Shi, 2005), the North American bias of the approach (Den Hartog & Dickson, 2012) suggests that its generalizability should not be taken for granted. Differently from the US, management in Brazil is mostly exercised in state enterprises and family owned businesses, collectivistic values appear to predominate (Triandis, 1995) and informal social networks seem to be particularly valued (Prado, 1995). Although some research on transformational leadership can be found in the local management literature (e.g. Carvalho, Tanure, Santos, & Lima, 2012; Marchiori, Vilaca, Simoes, Pinto, & Fonseca, 2010), quantitative field studies inspecting the connections between transformational leadership behaviors and follower performance are still scarce.
In this study, our proposed model is tested with data from a sample of Brazilian managers from a regional subsidiary of a multinational bank. Information was gathered from multiple sources, and corporate indicators were used as measures of formal performance. In addition, we controlled for the effects of gender, age, education and experience when analyzing the association between leadership and performance. Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used to assess the psychometric properties of the constructs involved and the connections between latent variables.
Theoretical Background and Hypotheses
Transformational leadership and follower performance
The charismatic-transformational approach to leadership has developed based on two seminal perspectives, Max Weber's Theory of Charisma (1947) and Burns' (1978) Transforming Leadership Theory. Bass (1985) coined the term transformational leadership, describing such leaders as change agents that elicit and transform followers' beliefs, attitudes and motivations. These leaders provide a vision and develop an emotional relationship with their followers, increasing the latter's consciousness and belief in higher goals, above their own interests. The specific behaviors of these leaders are classified into four dimensions: (a) idealized influence, (b) inspirational motivation, (c) intellectual stimulus, and (d) individualized consideration.
According to Bass (1985) idealized influence, or charisma, refers to the attributes ascribed by followers to their leader, according to their perceptions of the leader's power, confidence and transcendent ideals. These perceptions are driven by specific behaviors of the leader that reflect his/her values and beliefs. It is this emotional component of leadership that drives followers to forgo their own comfort in favor of the collective interest, that is, in the search for a greater good. Inspirational motivation refers to leader's behaviors aimed at inspiring and motivating followers to attain ambitious and challenging goals, or even apparently unattainable ones. Intellectual stimulation refers to the way a leader questions the status quo and appeals to the intelligence of followers to prompt them to question their own ideas, thus motivating innovative and creative decision- making. Individual consideration refers to the socio-emotional support given by a leader to his/her followers, in response to their specific needs, which promotes their development and empowerment.
Literature reviews and studies accumulated in recent years on transformational leadership show its positive association with performance outcomes (Avolio, 1999; Avolio, Bass, & Jung, 1995; Lowe et al. , 1996), particularly in private companies (Dumdum, Lowe, & Avolio, 2002). Similarly, metaanalyses covering empirical studies indicate that there is a strong connection between transformational leadership and subordinates' formal task performance and contextual performance; i.e., undertaking actions that go beyond formal roles, but that also contribute to the good functioning of the company (Judge & Piccolo, 2004).
In the last decade, researchers have made efforts to better understand the processes that explain why transformational leadership behaviors would promote subordinate performance (e.g. Bono & Judge, 2003; Kark et al., 2003; Piccolo & Colquitt, 2006; Walumbwa, Avolio, & Zhu, 2008), highlighting some psychosocial phenomena that seem to be implicated. However, given the number of questions still unanswered, knowledge about the relationships that operate within leadership processes continued to be called for in recent reviews of scholarly studies (Gardner et al., 2010). Our main goal is to further investigate the mechanisms fostered by transformational leadership that promote follower performance, as well as the specific effects of these influence processes on different performance criteria. In the next sections, we discuss transformational leadership and performance in Brazil and further argue the theoretical groundings of our proposed model.
Transformational leadership and performance in Brazil
Although national culture often instills idiosyncrasies in the organizational environment, which at times may render management practices recommended in the US-EU contexts less effective or not viable elsewhere (e.g. Nicholls, Lane, & Brechu, 1999), researchers have also observed some universal managerial values or principles (e.g. House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004; P. B. Smith, Dugan, & Trompenaars, 1996). The ever expanding worldwide media exchanges, the increasing level of development in business internationalization, the dissemination of business standards imposed by venture capital investors from developed countries, as well as the prevalence of US-EU business schools as the general choice for executive education are some of the factors in our contemporary world that foster the diffusion of such managerial trends and leadership approaches. The scholarly literature has suggested that the transformational paradigm should be extendable to nations other than the Anglo-Saxon countries (Bass, 1997). Indeed, findings from the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) study (House et al., 2004) corroborate the idea that some leadership attributes are universally perceived as essential facilitators or barriers to positive influence in the organizational context.
Brazil is an important developing nation, regionally and globally. Although the business environment in the country had mostly encompassed state owned organizations and family businesses, it has lately become an attractive nation for multinational companies and received significant direct foreign investments of US$ 660.5 billion in 2011- the equivalent to 30.8% of its gross domestic product (GDP) (Banco Central do Brasil [BACEN], n.d.). Privatizations and the arrival of a number of global companies have changed the Brazilian management context, particularly in urban areas, and further fostered the trend to adopt international managerial models in the country (Carvalho, 2010).
One goal of this research is to examine transformational leadership processes and their outcomes in the Brazilian work context. In particular, we focus on the connections between transformational leadership and two performance dimensions: formal performance and contextual performance. While formal performance is defined as proficiency to carry out activities that are formally recognized as part of one's jobs, contextual performance refers to the contributions made to the work environment that are supportive of formal performance; i.e., organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) (Brief, 1998). Although OCBs are not necessarily incorporated into job descriptions, nor acknowledged by the formal reward system (Organ, 1988), they seem to contribute to organizational outcomes (Podsakoff, Whiting, Podsakoff, & Blume, 2009).
Formal performance
Since socio-historical threads have knit the Brazilian culture as largely hierarchical (Freitas, 1997), paternalistic and autocratic managerial styles seem to have predominated in the country. This may explain why Brazilians in leading roles are not likely to display transformational...
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