Transformational Leadership, Organisational Change, and Job Satisfaction - Annotated Bibliography Example

Leadership is the foundational aspect in any organizational change. For any successful change in an organization, leaders should be in the fore front to organize and prepare their followers for the change process. The leadership style that one uses determines his effectiveness in bringing change in an organization. Various researchers have discussed different issues on the broad topic of leadership and how effective one can lead an organizational change for increased performance. This annotated bibliography presents the discussions by some of the researchers who have focused on the impact of organizational culture, validity of transformational and transactional leadership as well as the essential competencies required for effective leadership. Albion, Majella J. and Gagliardi, Ruth E. (2007) A study of transformational leadership, organisational change and job satisfaction. In 7th Industrial & Organisational Psychology Conference and 1st Asia Pacific Congress on Work and Organisational Psychology. Australia: Adelaide. This collaboration by two well-known researchers discusses how transformational leadership is positively related to job satisfaction during a change process within an organization, and examines the mediating role of collective efficacy in this relationship. This research article analyse how aspects of transformational leadership- intellectual stimulation, articulating vision, role modelling, encouraging group identity, individual consideration and collaboration- significantly contribute to employee satisfaction as well as organizational effectiveness. Their research method involved completing of either online or paper based questionnaires by 2549 individuals (998 males, 1549 females and 2 did not indicate) from different government departments that were undergoing major procedural and structural changes. The instruments used in the study include Queensland Public Agency Staff Survey and other items about staff self evaluation on their willingness for and performance during the change as well as leadership within the organization. The Factor and Parallel analyses revealed two factors that represent the leadership items: leadership involvement (interpersonal aspects) and leadership quality (strategic aspects). The regression analysis revealed that the two factors were positively correlated to job satisfaction during the change process, and that collective efficacy of the staff mediated these relationships. This article is worth reading because it clearly illustrates how transformational leadership behaviours determine the level of job satisfaction among the employees during organizational change. Besides, the analysis was based on empirical results obtained from individuals working in organizations faced with upheaval and uncertainties of change. However, it has only focused on transformational leadership and yet other leadership styles such as transactional leadership can predict change success and job satisfaction. Also, the article has failed to explain how factors such as personality, monetary rewards morale, workplace bullying and so forth may effect job satisfaction. Gail, F. L. (2009). A Process Model of Organizational Change in Cultural Context (OC3 Model): The Impact of Organizational Culture on Leading Change. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies August 16, 19-37. Leaders are the agents of change in organizations. Since organizational culture influences the success of leaders in implementing change initiatives, Gail conducted an ethnographic analysis and came up with a conceptual model of an organizational change in cultural context that helps leaders to identify the differential effect of organizational culture in each step of implementing change in the organization. This conceptual work identifies eight stages of cultural influence: determining readiness, shaping vision, informing initiatives, reflecting strategies, impact embodiment, mediating implementation, moderating outcomes and demonstrating collateral effects. Gail explores the theoretical and practical implications for leadership and proposes that it is the role of leaders to exert the dominant influence on the direction and emergence of cultural norms and values in the organizations. The OC3 Model provides a road map for implementing change and advances the theoretical perspectives on the influence of organizational culture on the implementation process. This article is essential for leaders because it guides them on how to implement changes for effectiveness in an organization. It raises self reflective awareness on the unconscious cultural dimensions of the organization and forestalls the perception that the organizational change requires. However, the article does not specify the cultural embedded processes which determine the success of leading an organizational change. It mainly focuses on the influence of culture on leadership in positioning the organization for change. Jokinen, T. (2005). Global leadership competencies: A review and discussion. Journal of European Industrial Training 29 (3), 199-216 Jokinen offers a comprehensive review and discussion on the existing global leadership literature and integrates the information and suggestions made from previous research into a framework of global leadership competencies. The combination of the outcomes into a more comprehensive framework of global leadership qualities identifies deficiencies in the research methods and terminology used in previous studies and thus giving a suggestion for further research. The review of existing literature and frameworks identifies three main types of global leadership competencies: self awareness, engagement in personal transformation and inquisitiveness, and in this article they form the core global competencies. The author illustrates other characteristics that may influence the way a leader approaches different issues which include self-regulation, empathy, social judgmental skills, cognitive skills, motivation to work in international environment, optimism and acceptance of complexity and its contradictions. These characteristics constitute to what he refers to as “desired mental characteristics of global leaders” p. 206. Besides the mental and core level global leadership competencies, Jokinen also discusses the behavioural level global competencies that include social skills, knowledge and networking skills. These behavioural leadership competencies relate to an individual’s ability to make concrete decisions that will drive production. The article is well written and has drawn information from numerous studies even though few of these sources have been based on empirical research. The framework provided in this article incorporates an overview of previous research on global leadership competencies and thus serves as a context for starting academic research on leadership. However, the author has failed to test the reliability of different items and the validity of various measures. Judge, T. A. & Piccolo, R. F. (2004).Transformational and Transactional Leadership: A Meta-Analytic Test of Their Relative Validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 755-768. In this very useful article Judge and Piccolo give an overview of leadership theories in regard to transformational and transactional leadership. The study comprehensively examines a full range of transactional, transformational and laissez-faire leadership. The authors have considered a number of previous studies to reveal the validity of results obtained by previous researchers. The article is a meta-analysis covering the basic explanations of leadership theories and how they correlate with various criteria for leadership effectiveness and performance. The authors searched for studies that discussed on transformational and transactional leadership as well as various dimensions of transactional leadership and conducted meta-analyses to estimate the correlations between transformational and transactional leadership and their validity to organizational performance. The results obtained supported the validity of transformational leadership that in turn generalized the multisource and longitudinal designs. The results also supported contingent reward and laissez-faire, to some extent. Management by exception was, however, inconsistent to the selected criteria. The article analyses how transformational and transactional leadership are related in terms of their unique effects. However, the article does not give the differences between these types of leadership and have not explored, in detail, the relationship of transformational leadership to laissez-faire and contingent reward leadership. Conclusion In the discussion of the topic leadership and change, Albion & Gagliardi (2222) have focused on the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ job satisfaction f during a change process. Unlike Jokinen (2005) who has only focused on the core competencies of global leaders, Albion & Gagliardi (2222) explains how the aspects of transformational leadership- intellectual stimulation, articulating vision, role modelling, encouraging group identity, individual consideration and collaboration- significantly contribute to employee satisfaction as well as organizational effectiveness. Judge & Piccolo (2004) supports the importance that transformational and transactional leadership has for the organization. On the other hand, Gail (2009) notes that leadership qualities alone cannot determine the effectiveness of an organization in a change process but also the organizational culture. Leaders should therefore be aware of the cultural norms and values of the organization while implementing changes. Read More