Investigating the effect of leadership style and demographic variables on employee motivation

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1 Extensive Journal of Applied Sciences Available online at EJAS Journal , 1-5 Investigating the effect of leadership style and demographic variables on employee motivation Sami Setayesh*, Javad Nargesian 1. M.A in MBA,Tehran University 2. PhD Student in Higher Education Management, Allameh Tabataba'i University Corresponding author: Sami Setayesh ABSTRACT: This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the effect of leadership style and demographic variables on job motivation of employees of Oil Products Distribution National Company of Urmia. The research methodology is correlational descriptive and is applicable in terms of objectives. In this study, data were collected using a standard questionnaire. The questionnaires used in this study were the leadership style questionnaire of (Jeffrey and et al.,2002) and the job motivation questionnaire of (Rezaei,2003). The statistical population of the study consisted of 350 employees of Oil Products Distribution National Company of Urmia and the statistical population of the present sample is 180 people who have been calculated using Cochran test. Statistical methods used in this study were the Kolmogorov - Smirnov test and regression analysis. The findings suggest that all three enabling, structure-oriented and self-management approaches of leadership have significant effect on employees motivation and none of the demographic variables have significant effect on employee motivation. Keywords: leadership style, job motivation, demographic variables INTRODUCTION In fact, management is the coordination of human and financial resources to attain organizational objectives in that being acceptable to the society (Lambert and Nagent, 1999). Organizations need managers and employees who work efficiently and effectively in order to achieve their goals in terms of improvement and comprehensive development. Manager is at the top to coordinate and increase the efficiency of the organization as the official representative of the organization. Organization success in achieving the goals depends on how effective management and leadership styles of manager are. Manager in a leading role of the organization can choose different methods in guiding human resources. Appropriate behavior patterns of manager in any organization leads to a strong spirit and motivation in employees and increases their job satisfaction. Managers using the correct style of leadership may lead to job satisfaction; and leadership commitment as one of the main tasks of managers is the ability to have influence on individuals in order to achieve objectives. Leadership style is the culture and strategies of the organization. Leadership style is set of attitudes, traits and skills of managers which are shaped based on four factors of value system, trust in staff, leadership tendencies and a sense of security in ambiguous situations (Mosadegh rad, 2002). Leadership styles of managers, shows how managers interact with the staff that are under their supervision (Perra, 2000). Leadership concept has been considered by many researchers. The results of these research lead to the provision and improvement of different theories in the context of leadership styles of management. Evaluating these theories shows a range of leadership styles, authoritarian and autocratic to participative and reformist styles. Different leadership styles include: imperative styles, anarchist, bureaucratic, democratic, advisory, partnership, reformist activist and so on (Mosadegh rad, 2002). It should be noted that a specific leadership style is not appropriate for all situations. Therefore, a manager can choose different leadership styles in different situations according to the culture of the organization and organizational maturity of staff. Evaluating the effect of leadership styles on motivating the contracting work force of National distribution Company of oil products in western Azerbaijan is what we are seeking in this study. Research Literature Leadership is the influence on people in order to bring them along to achieve common objectives (Koontz O Donnell, 1959). Leadership is influencing people to make them favorably endeavor toward group goals (Terry,

2 1960). Motivation refers to internal modes of living that cause incidence, guidance or continuation of his behavior toward the goal. In other words, motivation can be defined as the human activities stimulator and its director factor (Redman, 1997). Emotional, cognitive or both factors play a role in motivation. Thus, motivation refers to a state of feeling or thinking that the person is prepared to do or participate in a particular behavior. This description emphasize on motivation as an emotional or cognitive state that is independent of action. For some individuals, emotional aspect of motivation and for the others its cognitive aspect is outstanding (Saif, 2003). Management Style: leadership (management) style can be defined as the power to influence others (Robbins, 2000). Leadership Style of Self-Management: Such leaders help their followers to expand their performance standards and gain the required information for their own management (Politis, 2001). Transactional Leadership Style: This style is based on a series of interactions between leaders and subordinates. Such leader clears the role of followers in order to achieve goals and by giving rewards, affect the attitudes and behaviors of followers (Politis, 2001). Structural Leadership Style (order): It refers to the extent in which leaders deal to define and organize his role and his subordinates role in pursuit of organizational goals and try to organize work, relations and goals (Politis, 2001). In a research that was conducted by (Feizi,2009), the relation between management styles (traditional, balanced and participatory) and the creativity of public high school teachers in the city Sanandaj was investigated. By random sampling based on Cochran formula, 275 teachers were selected as the sample of the present study and after collection and analysis of data it became clear that there is a significant positive correlation between management styles (traditional, balanced and participatory) and creativity of teachers; And as the amount of cooperative behavior increases, this relation increases too. The obtained beta value between the management dimensions (decision-making, communication, leadership, structure and control) and creativity of teachers indicates that if monitoring is done by the teachers, and if managers use mutual, open and friendly communication and empowering relationship, the amount of creativity would increase though. The results also showed that there is a significant difference between male and female managers in the management style in that female teachers use more of participatory management style than male teachers. Hosseini and colleagues (2010) examined the relationship between organizational culture and leadership style in an article. Organizational culture, of important factors affecting the performance of the organization and leadership, is of key components in the success of the organization. Three organizational cultures group and developmental and hierarchical and two leadership styles of transformational and the exchange of Leader- Follower have been studied. The research methodology was correlation survey; and it was specifically based on structural equations. The results of the current study showed that group culture has positive and significant effect on leader-follower exchange and development culture have positive and significant effect both on transformational leadership style and Leader- Follower exchange; but hierarchical culture has negative effect on both leadership styles. Finally, in regard to the objectives of the study, a conceptual model has provided and practical suggestions and recommendations for future researches have been provided in alignment with the model. Sanjaghi and et al., (2011) investigated the effects of transformational leadership and the culture of adaptability on organizational innovation in selected companies at supply chain of defense technology. The results of structural equation modeling gathered based on 217 questionnaires, suggesting2 that in addition to the direct effect of transformational leadership, it has also indirect effect on organizational innovation through the adaptability culture and also the intensity of indirect effect is much more than the direct effect. Finally, results of the study will be considered and recommendations will be provided in order to promote innovation ability in companies that were being studied. Almasian and Rahim Kia,(2001) conducted a study to examine the relationship between leadership style and staff burnout of Lorestan University of Medical Sciences. Sampling method was random stratified sampling in this study; and sample size was determined according to the Morgan table that included 182 employees and 45 managers. The results showed that there was a significant inverse relationship between the leadership style and burnout with a confidence of 99%. In another word, burnout chooses most of its victims out of the organizations and institutions that their managers show less warm, emotional and conservative behavior. The relationship between leadership style and burnout needs managers to pay more attention to their personnel and needs the use of scientific methods of management. Research Hypotheses Leadership styles have effect on job motivation in organizations. Demographic variables have impact on staff motivation. 2

3 Research Methodology In this study, the statistical population included 350 people of all contracting force of Urmia National Company of Oil Products Distribution. The number of sample was considered 180 people in this study using a simple random sampling method and the Cochran formula. Tools used in this study were the leadership style questionnaire of (Jeffrey and et al., 2002), and as well the scale factors affecting job motivation questionnaire of (Rezaei,2003). In order to evaluate the impact of leadership style on employee motivation, descriptive statistics methods such as frequency, mean and so on were used to gather descriptive information. And as well, to test the hypotheses, regression analysis was used. To assess questions of the questionnaire, the Likert scale which is one of the most useful scales in researches, particularly in behavioral science researches, was used. Five - fold range was used in which number 4 indicated much, number 5 indicates too much, number 1 indicates very low, number 2 indicates low and number 3 indicates the average. To determine the reliability of the questionnaire Cronbach's alpha method is used in this study. This method was use for calculating internal measurement tool that features different measures. The below Cronbach's alpha coefficient table shows the components of the study. Table 1. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of research components Components The number of questions Cronbach's alpha coefficients leadership style of self-management Leadership style of Enabling Structure-oriented leadership style Work Motivation Findings At first, One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test was used to verify data normality; and results showed the normality of data distribution. Table 2. One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test N Job. Motivation Leadership style Normal Parameters a, b Mean Std. Deviation Most Extreme Differences Absolute Positive Negative Test Statistic Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed).000 C.001 C A. Test distribution is Normal. B. Calculated from data. C. Lilliefors Significance Correction. First hypothesis: Leadership styles have effect on job motivation in organizations. In order to evaluate the impact of leadership styles on staff motivation, regression analysis was used and the results of analysis are shown in Table 3. Table 3. Investigating the effect of leadership styles on staff motivation Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig. 1 (Constant) Employee empowerment Self-management Structuralist a. Dependent Variable: Job. Motivation 3

4 As shown in Table 3, all leadership styles have a significant impact on employee motivation. Employee empowerment leadership style has the greatest impact with a beta equal to and as well, structuralist leadership style with the beta equal to 0.167, and self-management leadership style with the beta equal to were in the second and third place respectively with the least effect on the motivation of employees. Second hypothesis: Demographic variables have impact on staff motivation. To test this hypothesis, the regression analysis was used. The results are listed in Table 4. Table 4. evaluating the effect of demographic variables on employee motivation Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig. 1 (Constant) age schooling Years of service a. Dependent Variable: Job motivation As shown in Table 4, none of the demographic variables of age, education and work experience have a significant effect on employee motivation. CONCLUSION Participatory or enabling leadership has the most significant effect on the motivation of employees in this study. This style of management is strongly in favor of employees and is unconcerned about the work. In this style, leader extensively receives opinions and suggestions from staff thus for making final decision there will be no delegation of authority. This view will not deny responsibilities arising from the decision making and leader s exercising power to subordinates as well. Therefore, considering the above features, it can be understood what the reason of having the greatest impact on employee motivation was. As mentioned, leader in this style asks his employees opinions but there is no delegation of authority which ultimately does not lead to consequences such as questioning staff for decisions. In such circumstances, employees participate with more confidence in the decision making. On the other hand, in structuralist leadership style, leader is strongly in favor of work and is very little concerned about employees; Employees exactly know what the organization expected them to do and clear instructions will be given to them in this regard from the leader. In this approach, all authorities and decisions-making are centered in leadership. According to this view, the manager is free to determine policies and the structure of organization according to his own taste and desire and to apply reforms to them. This is an optional process in self-management leadership style not a compulsory process. In another word, individuals tend to get along with it based on their willing not based on others force, thus, its enforcing and effectiveness is not unexpected, improbable and it is possible to happen. Therefore, considering that working hours is at very low level in Iran in terms of the useful average daily working hours in corporations, there will be less components of self-management. Even if it has significant effect, in comparison to structuralist leadership style, it has less impact. If we demonstrate the motivation process steps as the sequence that has been shown as follows: Need, motivation, behavior, satisfaction or dissatisfaction We can consider these findings consistent with the results of (Banihashemian and et al., 2011). In a study with the aim of evaluating the relation between the general health and the leadership style of managers of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and its effect on job satisfaction of that university s staff, they had concluded that there is a positive relationship between the general health of managers and their leadership style and between their leadership style and staff s job satisfaction as well. These findings were consistent with the findings of( Iranzadeh and et al., 2007). In a study titled as determining leadership styles and its effect on job motivation of Pump Iran Company s staff, they had concluded that there is a positive correlation between participative leadership style and job motivation of staff; but this result was inconsistent with their findings in this regard that there is an inverse correlation between autocratic leadership style and work motivation. And it is somehow inconsistent with the findings of (Poorkarami,2010) who has stated that as the leadership style turns to task oriented and structuralist style, foresight and responsibility of employees will be reduced. The findings of this study were consistent with the findings of (Hazavehei and Samadi,2005) in terms of the impact of demographic variables. In a study titled as evaluating the effective factors on motivation of executive staff of Hamedan province, they had concluded that age and education does not have any impact on staff motivation. Resources 4

5 REFERENCES Banihashemian, K. Golestan jahromy, F. Ghanbari pir kashani, N. and Sharafi, M. (2011), Evaluating the relationship between general health and managers leadership style and its effect on job satisfaction of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences staff, Journal of Paramedical Faculty of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Volume 5, Number 4, December, pp Blankenship S. (2010). The consequences of transformational leadership and / or transactional leadership in relationship to job satisfaction and organizational commitment for active duty women serving in the Air Force Medical Service, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Nova Southeastern United States- Florida. Hazavehei, M.M. Samadi, A. (2005), Evaluation of the effective factors on the motivation of executive staff of Hamedan province, Journal of Mental Health, the seventh year, No. twenty-six and twenty-seven. Koontz, Harold and O'Donnell, Cyril, (1959), "Principles of Management", 2nd Ed. New York: McGraw Hill, p Lambert V. A, Nugent KE (1999). Leadership style for facilitating the integration of culturally appropriate health care, Semin Nurse Manag, 7 (4): Mosadegh rad, A. (2002), General management of health services, Debugger publications, Tehran. Perra, BM (2000). Leadership: the key to quality outcomes. NursAdm Q, 24 (2): Politis, J D. Crawford, J (2001). The Relationship of Various Leadership Styles to Knowledge Management, Leadership and Organization Journal, 22.8, Poorkarami, J. (2010), the relationship between achievement motivation and leadership style of managers of primary schools in Tehran, Journal of Modern Educational Thought, Vol. 6, No. 3, autumn, P Redman, BK (1997). The Practice of Patient Education, 8th edition, USA: Mosby Saif, A.A. (2003). Psychology Training, new version, the eighth edition, Aagah publication, Tehran. Terry, R. George, (1960), "Principles of Management", 3rd ed. Homewood, III: Irwin, p