Why leadership of public leadership research matters: and what to do about it

The tough-talking, take-charge, individualistic view of public leadership is alive and well throughout the world, despite the enthusiasm of leadership scholars for more shared, relational, and collectivist views. The times therefore seem especially appropriate for assessing the state of public leadership theory and research and charting a path forward to enhance understanding of the continued appeal of Great Person leadership and the promise of collective leadership. This essay considers the current public leadership context, highlights distinctive characteristics of public leadership, and provides an overview of recent public leadership research through a collective lens. We call for more attention to leadership theory from within public management and the broader leadership fields and to public value and public values in leadership theorizing and research. We suggest public leadership scholars roam more freely through the disciplines and experiment with a variety of methods beyond the traditional case study.     

Implementing Change in Public Organizations: The relationship between leadership and affective commitment to change in a public sector context

We propose and test a theoretical framework concerning the relationship between transformational leadership behaviour and affective commitment to change in a public sector context. We apply change management theory to explain how direct supervisors contribute to processes of organizational change, thereby increasing affective commitment to change among employees. While the change leadership literature emphasizes the role of executive managers during change, we conclude that the transformational leadership behaviour of direct supervisors is an important contribution to the successful implementation of change. Furthermore, the results show how the specific context of public organizations determines the transformational leadership behaviour of direct supervisors.     

Exploring the linkages of green transformational leadership,organizational green learning,and radical green innovation

Radical green innovation is the necessary way for countries and firms to achieve sustainable development. Although the influencing factors of green innovation have attracted extensive attention, there is little research on the antecedents of radical green innovation. Drawing on organizational learning theory and attention-based view, this study proposes R-I ratio to measure the configuration of exploratory green learning and exploitative green learning, then analyzes the relationships among green transformational leadership, R-I ratio and radical green innovation, and examines the moderating effects of green R&D investment and environmental regulatory pressure. Based on a sample of 243 manufacturing firms in China's strategic emerging industries, the empirical results reveal that green transformational leadership promotes R-I ratio, and R-I ratio has inverted U-shaped relationship with radical green innovation. The results also find that green R&D investment plays U-shaped moderating role in the relationship between green transformational leadership and R-I ratio, and environmental regulatory pressure positively moderates the relationship between green transformational leadership and R-I ratio. The study not only reveals the relationships of green transformational leadership, organizational green learning and radical green innovation, but also provides theoretical guidance and management practice for manufacturing firms and government to promote radical green innovation.     

Transformational leadership,trusting climate,and knowledge-exchange behaviors in Taiwan

This study follows the leadership literature in proposing that leadership behaviors can affect followers' attitudes and actions. Specifically, we propose that transformational leaders may nurture a trusting climate among organizational members and, in turn, promote employee knowledge-exchange behaviors. Surveying data from multiple respondents, we find that a trusting climate mediates the positive relationship between transformational leadership and employee knowledge-exchange behaviors among R&D workers in 122 Taiwanese enterprises. We then discuss the significance of our findings and the possible contribution to the literature of leadership and organizational climate.     

Subordinates' perception of managers' transformational leadership style and satisfaction: a comparison of electronic manufacturing companies in Mainland China and Taiwan

Rapid economic growth has made leadership studies a significant subject in Asia. The present research compared subordinates' different perceptions of managers' transformational leadership style in Mainland China and Taiwan. Quantitative methodology was used in collecting 250 random samples from Shanghai and Taipei. Subordinates in Taiwan perceived that more managers had a transformational leadership style and also employees had higher satisfaction with managers' leadership style than those in Mainland China. The results of the present research would provide suggestions and directions for industrial managers seeking to display appropriate management behavior for an effective business environment.     

Collaborative innovation in the public sector: the argument

There has been a growing interest in the question of how to spur innovation in the public sector, and recent research points to multi-actor collaboration as a superior innovation driver. This article explains why and how multi-actor collaboration may spur public innovation. It also discusses why we should expect different public and private actors to engage in demanding processes of collaborative interaction in order to produce risk-filled public innovations. Finally, it reflects on how it is possible to overcome the barriers to collaborative innovation through a combination of institutional design and the exercise of leadership and management.     

At the Expense of others: Altruistic helping behaviour,performance management and transformational leadership

This article explores the influence of performance management (PM) and transformational leadership (TL) on altruistic helping behaviour (AHB). We argue that PM and TL provide alternative value frameworks against which employees will evaluate costs associated with AHB, and that consequently their influence may be interdependent. The results of regression analysis suggest that TL exerts a stronger influence on AHB in organizations that also have strong PM-based human resource systems, and that PM’s negative effects are stronger when leadership is weak. We conclude that leadership may be an important factor in determining whether public organizations can reap the benefits of PM.     

Designing institutional platforms and arenas for interactive political leadership

ABSTRACT

In response to the urgent need for elected politicians to lead processes of collaborative policy innovation, this paper brings together political leadership theory and theories of collaborative and participatory governance in order to make way for the concept of interactive political leadership. The theoretical framework shows how interactive political leadership relies on platforms and arenas that bring politicians and citizens together in informed dialogues that may contribute to collaborative policy innovation. An empirical case study of institutional reforms in a Danish municipality adds flesh and blood to the theoretical argument about how to enhance interactive political leadership.     

Examining transformational leadership,job satisfaction,organizational commitment and organizational trust in Turkish hospitals: public servants versus private sector employees

Leadership, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and trust have become important processes for healthcare management in recent years. One of the contemporary human resource management functions in the organizations involves engaging in leadership development, improving organizational trust and organizational commitment and increasing job satisfaction. Considering the rapidly changing healthcare technology and higher levels of occupational complexity, healthcare organizations are increasingly in need of engaging in leadership development in any given area of expertise to address ever-changing nature of the industry and the delivery of quality of care while remaining cost-effective and competitive. This paper investigates the perceptions of both public servants and private sector employees (outsourcing) on transformational leadership, organizational commitment, organizational trust and job satisfaction in Turkish healthcare industry. Additionally, the paper analyzes the predictability of organizational commitment based on employee – both public servants (physicians, nurses, administrative personnel and other healthcare professionals) and private sector employees (outsourcing) (auxiliary services such as administrative assistants, security personnel, kitchen, laundry and housekeeping employees) – perceptions of transformational leadership, job satisfaction and organizational trust. Using a survey instrument with items adopted from the transformational leadership inventory (TLI) [Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Moorman, R. H., & Fetter, R. (1990). Transformational leader behaviors and their effects on followers' trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Leadership Quarterly, 1, 107–142], the organizational commitment questionnaire [Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1997). Commitment in the workplace: Theory, research, and application. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage], the organizational trust inventory (OTI) [Cummings, L. L., & Bromiley, P. (1996). The occupational trust inventory (OTI): Development and validation. In R. Kramer & T. Tyler (Eds.), Trust in organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research (pp. 302–330). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage] and job satisfaction survey (JSS) [Spector, P. E. (1985). Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the job satisfaction survey. American Journal of Community Psychology, 13, 693–731], this quantitative study was conducted among 2108 healthcare employees (public servants and private employees) in two large government hospitals in Turkey. The study findings indicate a significant difference between the public servants and private sector employees in terms of their perceptions on two dimensions of transformational leadership (being an appropriate model, providing individualized support), overall transformational leadership and one dimension of job satisfaction (communication). The two dimensions of job satisfaction – operating procedures and communication – as well as organizational trust were the significant predictors of organizational commitment of public servants, whereas the two dimensions of leadership – individualized support and fostering the acceptance – as well as the two dimensions of job satisfaction – promotion and contingent rewards – and organizational trust were the significant regressors of organizational commitment of private sector employees. In addition, there is a significant difference between the predictors of the dimensions of organizational commitment (transformational leadership, job satisfaction and organizational trust) in terms of public servants versus private sector employees. Finally, organizational trust has a significant effect on overall organizational commitment as well as its three dimensions for public servants and private employees.     

Management Innovation and Leadership: The Moderating Role of Organizational Size

Recent research on management innovation, i.e. new managerial processes, practices, or structures that change the nature of managerial work, suggests it can be an important source of competitive advantage. In this study, we focus on management innovation at the organization level and investigate the role of leadership behaviour as a key antecedent. Due to its prominent role within organizations, top management has the ability to greatly influence management innovation. In particular, we focus on leadership behaviour and examine transformational and transactional leadership. Additionally, as contextual variables like organizational size may influence the impact of leadership, we investigate its moderating role. Findings show that both leadership behaviours contribute to management innovation. Interestingly, our study indicates that smaller, less complex, organizations benefit more from transactional leadership in realizing management innovation. On the other hand, larger organizations need to draw on transformational leaders to compensate for their complexity and allow management innovation to flourish.     

Transformational leadership and followers' attitudes: the mediating role of psychological empowerment

There is now strong evidence that transformational leadership substantially influences the work attitudes and behaviours of followers. However, the mechanisms by which transformational leaders influence their followers have not been studied in a systematic fashion. The purpose of the present study is, therefore, to analyse how transformational leadership promotes: i) job satisfaction among employees; and ii) affective commitment to the organization. In particular, the possible mediating role of psychological empowerment in these two relationships is conceptually hypothesised and empirically tested. The results demonstrate that psychological empowerment mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and employee attitudes.     

The moderating effect of leadership on perceived organizational justice and affective commitment: a study in China

While western literature proves the importance of procedural justice, interactional justice is found to have a greater impact on employees in China. This study investigates the effect of employees’ perceptions of organizational justice on affective commitment, and the moderating effect of leadership style in the relationship. The authors proposed that the positive association of interactional justice with affective commitment is stronger than the positive association of procedural and distributive justices with affective commitment. In addition, the authors hypothesized that leadership style in teams moderates the relationship between interactional justice and affective commitment. Data were collected from 10 companies in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, Wenzhou, Wuhan, and Qingdao, China. The results support the hypotheses stating that interactional justice has a robust impact on affective commitment and that leadership in teams moderates the relationship. These findings have important implications for human resource management. When setting up HR policy in China, putting the right HR procedures in place is essential. Employees’ affective commitment relies heavily on interactional justice and whether or not employees perceive that they are being treated fairly by their managers. We discuss the implications of these findings.     

Work stress and leadership development: The role of self-leadership, shared leadership, physical fitness and flow in managing demands and increasing job control

Leaders work in highly stressful environments, yet few leadership development efforts have focused on managing work stress. We posit that self- and shared leadership practices can help leaders manage high job demands and increase long-term job control. We examine the effects of high-strain jobs; identify the outcomes of active jobs, and highlight physical fitness as a key strategy of, and flow as a natural outcome of self- and shared leadership. We argue that self- and shared leadership, and the consequent and entailed fitness and flow benefits, support healthful regeneration and increased engagement and are thus vital to the leader's ability to manage work stress and create an active work environment. Our multi-disciplinary model offers a proactive way for leaders to manage the stressful demands of today's work environments.     

Investigating the link between managers' green knowledge and leadership style,and their firms' environmental performance: The mediation role of green creativity

Despite extensive literature on green hotel management and sustainability, scant attention has been given on the role of managers to solve environmental related issues. This study's aim is to assess the effects of managers' green knowledge and green transformational leadership on firms' environmental performance with the mediating effect of green creativity. The study analyzes the perceptions of 363 employees in different managerial positions of the hotel industry employing Partial Last Square Structural Equation Modeling. The findings of the study show a positive effect of green knowledge and green transformational leadership on green creativity and green transformational leadership on environmental performance. Furthermore, green creativity is also found to have significant mediating effect between green knowledge and environmental performance, and green transformational leadership and environmental performance relations. The main implication of the current research is that managers' green concerns might help the stakeholders in the hotel industry to respond through appropriate green initiatives for their organizations. Further suggestions for literature and practice are discussed.     

Predicting excellent management performance in an intercultural context: a study of the influence of multicultural personality on transformational leadership and performance

What makes a manager in an intercultural context an excellent performer? This question is the subject of the present study. The study examines the influence of the five dimensions of multicultural personality via transformational leadership on excellent performance in a sample of managers (N = 138) working in an expatriate assignment or in a job dealing with subordinates of different cultural backgrounds. As expected, cultural empathy, open-mindedness and social initiative were found to have a positive effect on transformational leadership. However, no significant effects were found from emotional stability and flexibility on transformational leadership. Furthermore, a more transformational leadership style led to higher performance in an intercultural context, which was measured using management performance appraisals. Since an indirect effect of cultural empathy, open mindedness and social initiative on performance via transformational leadership has been found in this study, it seems that both these dimensions of multicultural personality and transformational leadership are needed for excellent managerial performance in an international environment.     

Learning capabilities,human resource management innovation and competitive advantage

The growing literature on innovation pays limited attention to the role of human resource management (HRM) innovation in creating competitive advantage. This paper adopts a knowledge-based approach to examine how firms design and implement HRM innovations (HRMIs) and how such innovations support competitive advantage. Drawing from multiple streams of literature and qualitative evidence from Australian manufacturing and service firms, our findings reveal that human resource (HR) functional-level learning capabilities, through which HR professionals build and nurture new knowledge configurations, facilitate the design and implementation of HRMIs. The findings also reveal that HRMIs, when coupled with top management support, can play a vital role in firm competitive advantage. Addressing the limitations of the term radical innovations to fully capture HRMIs and based on our findings and extant literature we propose a new classification that will capture the unique nature of HRMIs. In addition to contributing to theory, our paper provides valuable insights to practitioners for building and nurturing learning capabilities for HRMI-related competitive advantage.     

The reception of Anglo leadership styles in a transforming society: the case of American companies in Vietnam

This article examines the transfer of Anglo leadership styles in a transforming society. It aims to investigate the transferability of two American leadership styles, namely performance-oriented and participative styles, to Vietnamese subsidiaries. Utilising an exploratory case study approach, this article presents evidence of a strong acceptance of these leadership styles, and tries to ascertain whether the adoption of a humane style of leadership in line with Vietnamese traditions is a means of leaders reconciling the cultural gap. Several complexities arise from the transforming nature of the Vietnamese socio-political and economic context. Specifically, the importance of subcultures – particularly those relating to generation – is highlighted. Situational contingencies, such as the skills set of the recipient group, also emerge as important considerations. Finally, the authors call for leadership dynamism as a means of facilitating congruence and adaptability between the leadership styles used and the various contextual complexities encountered in the transfer and reception process.     

变革型领导风格、组织即兴与组织创新的关系研究

在当前日益激烈的竞争环境下,创新是一个企业获取核心竞争力的关键因素,而变革型领导风格和组织即兴对组织创新成果产出有着重要的影响。本文在梳理国内外相关文献的基础上探讨了变革型领导风格和组织即兴对组织创新的作用机理与机制。本文采用问卷调查法,选取了我国长三角和珠三角150家科技型中小企业作为实证研究对象,共发放问卷260份,收到有效问卷198份,并采用多元回归分析的方法来分析和定量探讨变革型领导风格和组织即兴对组织创新的影响关系。研究结果表明:总体而言,变革型领导和组织即兴对组织创新具有正向的影响,同时组织即兴在变革型领导与组织创新之间起着部分中介作用。     

Employee positive moods as a mediator linking transformational leadership and employee work outcomes

Past leadership research has demonstrated that transformational leadership has a positive effect on employee task performance and helping coworker behavior. However, among the research on the mediating mechanisms linking transformational leadership and employee work outcomes, little has been done empirically to examine the mediating effect of employee positive moods. This study extends previous research by examining the mediating role played by employee positive moods. Data were collected longitudinally from 282 employees and their immediate supervisors in 10 insurance companies in Taiwan. Results showed that transformational leadership both directly influenced employee task performance and helping coworker behavior and had an indirect effect through employee positive moods.     

Inspirational leadership,positive mood,and team innovation: A moderated mediation investigation into the pivotal role of professional salience

Multidisciplinary teams are increasingly advocated for in healthcare policy consequent to their capacity to develop innovative solutions to seemingly intractable service and care challenges. Recent arguments that inspirational leadership styles may foster innovation in multidisciplinary teams point to their potential value in this effort. However, inconsistency in the capacity of such leaders to engender innovation highlights the need to understand the mechanisms and boundary conditions that determine when such leadership generates positive effects. We argue that follower positive mood acts to mediate the path between inspirational leadership and innovation and may account for its variable effects. By increasing positive team mood, inspirational leaders can potentially bring about more flexible thinking and enhance innovation but can also increase reliance on less effortful information processing, undermining innovative potential. In an effort to address the dilemma posed by these contrasting effects, we propose that professional salience acts as an important boundary condition of this relationship such that only when profession is salient do inspirational leaders enhance multidisciplinary team innovation through positive mood. An analysis of survey data from 60 UK‐based multidisciplinary healthcare teams, investigating the inspirational leadership of practice‐based innovation, supports our moderated mediation model. Finally, the implications for HRM are considered, specifically for leader development and work team design.