An Investigation into the Antecedent Experiences of Transformational Leaders: Research Approach and Initial Findings

Transcription

1 Proceedings of the 2008 Industrial Engineering Research Conference J. Fowler and S. Mason, eds. An Investigation into the Antecedent Experiences of Transformational Leaders: Research Approach and Initial Findings William J. Schell IV Strategy Execution and Organizational Development PrintingForLess.com, Livingston, Montana 59047, USA Alisha D. Youngblood Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Engineering Management The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama 35899, USA Phillip A. Farrington Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Engineering Management The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama 35899, USA Abstract Understanding the impact leadership has on corporate success and business transformation continues to gain the attention of both the business press and management researchers. A key thread of research on leadership focuses on understanding what the leaders of successful companies do to set their companies apart from their peers. In previous studies, transformational leadership has been shown to correlate with business results. However, relatively little is known about the development of transformational leadership. The authors propose a methodology to expand this knowledge by examining the life and career experiences of leaders alongside their tendencies toward the behaviors characteristic of a transformational leader. Through this methodology we expect to identify the experiences which are positively correlated to transformational leadership. Keywords Leadership development, transformational leader, leadership effectiveness 1. Introduction The impact of leadership on company success continues to grow in importance both in the popular media and research areas. One of the primary areas of research in the area of leadership involves examining the leaders of successful companies to determine what sets them apart from their peers, as leadership effectiveness is believed to have a direct relationship to business performance [1] [2] [3]. However, the theories of what constitutes leadership effectiveness are varied, and sometimes conflicting [4]. One theory of leadership effectiveness that has been shown to correlate well with business success results in a variety of environments is transformational leadership (see, for example [5] [6] [7]). In other research, authors have examined what experiences and traits might make an effective leader. One example of this stream is the work of Bennis and Thomas who identified what they have termed the leadership crucible, experiences that leaders had either in business or elsewhere in life that have shaped the way they lead people [8]. These experiences may prove to be antecedents to the exhibition of transformational leadership, which is the focus of the proposed research. By identifying transformational leadership antecedents, engineering managers could leverage study findings for hiring decisions. A secondary benefit could include the development of training programs that lead to improved exhibition of transformational leadership qualities within the leaders of an organization. This research will identify characteristics or experiences that have a correlation to transformational leadership behaviors. 1160

2 2. Review of Related Literature The available literature in the area of leadership, both in the popular press and scholarly work is vast and continues to expand rapidly due to a great interest in the phenomenon of leadership by both academicians and practitioners [9]. However, the body of knowledge presents problems. First not only is the literature vast, it is often disparate and inaccessible. Second, much of the published information in the field regarding what makes a leader effective, has minimal scientific backing, if any at all [9]. In order to clarify the literature and attempt to deal with these shortcomings, this review takes a macro-to-micro approach. The organization of the literature review is as follows: Leadership, Leadership Effectiveness, Transformational Leadership, Methods of Measuring Transformational Leadership, and the Effectiveness of Transformational Leadership. 2.1 Leadership The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary [10] defines leadership simply as the office or position of a leader. Follet holds a different opinion of what defined leadership, noting nothing of the position, but instead stating that it has two key tenets: First a leader does not lead by personality, but by superior knowledge of a situation. Second, leadership is not only an innate quality, but is a skill that can be learned [11]. This conflict and confusion about leadership theory is not new. Almost 50 years ago, Bennis [12] surveyed the leadership literature and concluded always, it seems the concept of leadership eludes us or turns up in another form to taunt us again with its slipperiness and complexity. So we have invented an endless proliferation of terms to deal with it... and still the concept is not sufficiently defined. Nor has this conflict been satisfactorily mediated in the intervening years, as Antonakis, et al. [13] more recently noted, given the complex nature of leadership, a specific and widely accepted definition of leadership does not exist and might never be found. Despite the lack of a general agreement in the way that leadership is defined, in order to continue this discussion into a study of leadership, a broad definition is needed. For this discussion the general definition of leadership, as created by Antonakis, et al. [13] will be used. That definition is: leadership can be defined as the nature of the influencing process and its resultant outcomes that occurs between leader and followers and how the influencing process is explained by the leader s dispositional characteristics and behaviors, follower perceptions and attributions of the leader, and the context in which the influencing process occurs. This influence and perception based definition provides the context for the remainder of this discussion. 2.2 Leadership Effectiveness The apparent holy grail of leadership theory and research is determining what makes a leader effective. While the numerous theories of leadership are disparate in many ways, most share a common goal to identify components of leadership that make an organization effective in achieving its goals and use the identified components to determine a methodology for creating more effective leaders. Perhaps the simplest definition of leadership effectiveness is what Yukl [14] notes as the most common measure, where effectiveness is the extent to which the leader s group [in] an organization performs the task successfully and attains its goals. The problem with this simple definition is that it misses two key components; first, it can only utilize strictly quantifiable aspects of performance, and may miss critical subjective measures; second, it fails to include the perceptions of the leader from subordinates [14]. This research will refrain from delving into measurements of leadership effectiveness, instead focusing on the demonstration of transformational leadership, which has been shown to correlate well to leadership effectiveness in a variety of applications, as discussed in a later section. 2.3 Transformational Leadership According to Barbuto [15] transformational leadership has its foundation in the work completed by Burns in political leadership in the late 1970s. At that time, Burns defined a transformational leader as one who is able to lift a team above the day-to-day preoccupations to rally around a common purpose. This foundation was furthered by the work of many, predominately Bass and co-researchers (notably Avolio) and Kouzes and Posner. Bass [16] was the first to develop a framework of leadership behaviors defined as the full range leadership model, including two primary categories: transactional leadership and transformational leadership. Transactional leadership was defined to include laissez-faire, management-by-exception and contingent reward practices, while transformational 1161

3 leadership was defined to include charisma, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration [16]. Later the concept of charisma was criticized as being incompatible with transformational concepts and was changed to idealized influence [15]. Kouzes and Posner [17] defined their concept of exemplary leadership, sometimes referred to as transformational leadership [18], as characterized by five leadership practices: 1) modeling the way 2) inspiring a shared vision, 3) challenging the process, 4) enabling others to act and 5) encouraging the heart. 2.4 Methods of measuring transformational leadership. In the vast literature surrounding leadership effectiveness, there are a number of instruments developed to measure leadership practices and effectiveness. In their overview of measuring leadership, Kroeck, et al. [4] identify 30 unique survey instruments that have been or are being utilized to measure leadership and leadership effectiveness. Of these instruments, the two that appear to be most commonly utilized for measuring transformational leadership in the literature are Kouzes and Posner s Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) [18] [6] and Bass Multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) [5] [16] [19]. For a variety of reasons, this study will use the MLQ as its measurement tool. The literature supporting the use of the MLQ is substantial and includes two recent dissertations as well as an application by Towler [20] similar to the proposed research. In the first recent dissertation, Murphy [5] utilized the MLQ to study the leadership styles within the Navy and correlate those styles to the effectiveness of Navy reengineering programs. Using a sample of 289 respondents, the study found that transformational leadership behaviors had a significant correlation with respondent perceptions of employee satisfaction, effort and effectiveness as well as organizational effectiveness. However, no significant relationship was found between actual goal attainment and any of the leadership styles measured. The second recent dissertation was completed by Blatt [7] and investigated the correlation between transformational leadership, using the MLQ and the CFK LTD. School Climate Profile. The study requested a sample of 345 teachers from the Ohio vocational school system and obtained 201 responses. Blatt s findings included significant relationships between two leadership styles and school climate. A significant positive relationship was found between directors who utilized transformational leadership and school climate, while a significant negative relationship was found between school climate and lassiez-fare leadership. These relationships were found using the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. Similar to the LPI, the MLQ s use and reliability has been questioned by some in the literature. Specifically, Carless [21] using a large sample (1440) from a single organization used factor analysis to find the MLQ to be a more suitable measure of a single higher order model than the multi-factor model that had been validated previously. This view is also supported by Tejeda, et al. [32], who utilized a total sample of over 1300 participants gathered through four distinct samples from three different organizations. Their study found evidence of an improved model being obtained by simplifying the transactional components of the MLQ to a three-item subscale using factor analysis. In their proposed version of the MLQ, the instrument would have only 27 items. Interestingly for this research, the issues found with the MLQ were isolated to the transactional and laissez-fare components of the MLQ, which is not the focus of the proposed research. These findings are similar to the findings of Den Hartog, et al. [22]. In addition, the questions of the MLQ s validity appear to be refuted by more recent work by Antonakis, et. al [19] who found the full nine factor model valid in homogenous large samples, and by Rowold and Heinitz [23] who found transformational leadership highly convergent with charismatic leadership. 2.5 Effectiveness of Transformational Leadership. Transformational leadership has been shown to be an effective way of improving organizational performance in a wide variety of settings. In addition to the examples listed in the previous section, Ozaralli [24] has utilized the MLQ to show a positive relationship between transformational leadership behaviors and team empowerment. He shows through his literature review and experiment that empowerment has been shown to positively correlate to team effectiveness. Additionally, Jolson, et al. [25], noted through case study analysis how transformational leadership can improve the capability of sales forces. 3. Proposed Research Given the importance of leadership to organizations it is not surprising that the number of leadership theories is abundant and the literature is volumous. One area of leadership that appears to be little understood is the 1162

4 examination of the life and leadership experiences that serve as antecedents to effective leadership. This proposed research will examine this area more fully, specifically looking into the antecedent experiences of transformational leaders. The specific research questions to be investigated are: What are potential transformational leadership antecedents (TLA) experiences? Use available literature and pilot study to identify experiences that have the potential to prove to be antecedents to transformational leadership. How can TLA experiences be effectively measured? Using a combination of previous instruments and additional items, it is expected that a net new instrument will need to be developed and validated through a pilot. What TLA experiences will correlate to a display of transformational leadership? The ultimate question of the research. 3.1 Previous Studies into Leadership Antecedents There have been numerous studies into the experiences and training that effectively develop leaders. Foundational theory is provided by the Handbook of Leadership Development [26] which defines six leadership development experiences, three formal 360-degree format, feedback intensive programs and skill-based training and three informal, sometimes occurring naturally and sometimes by design job assignments, developmental relationships and hardships. In their text Geeks and Geezers, Bennis and Thomas [8] utilized structured interview techniques to understand the leadership behavior of a small group of leaders. One of the key findings of their study was the identification of what they termed leadership crucible experiences. These leadership crucibles appeared to be a leading indicator of leadership success in the study group. These crucible included experiences at war, imprisonment, challenges in a wilderness setting and overcoming major business challenges. Detailed longitudinal studies include military college cadets [27], development of military leaders in Iraq [28], and developing managers at Bell Labs [29]. In the two most closely related studies to the proposed research, Towler [20] utilized the MLQ to understand the parental attachment of emerging college age leaders and Avolio [30] utilized a Life History Survey to investigate potential antecedents to transformational leadership as measured by the MLQ. Towler s [20] study utilized the Parental Attachment Questionnaire and Parental Psychological Control instruments and found parental attachment style to be positively correlated and father s parental control to be negatively correlated to transformational leadership. Avolio [30] investigated 182 community leaders development along seven dimensions: parental interest, parental educational background, parent characteristics, extra curricular activities and life satisfaction. The study found life satisfaction, school experience and positive work experience to have a significant relationship to self reported transformational leadership behaviors, while parental interest and parental moral standards had a significant relationship to follower perceptions of transformational leadership. Overall, the relationships were weaker than anticipated, which Avolio expects may be largely due to the marginal reliability of the life experiences instrument. 3.2 Development of an Instrument to Understand Antecedent Experiences This study attempts to leverage the foundations provided by both the investigations into early development experiences on leadership [20] [29] [30] and the investigations and theories about leadership experiences that lead to transformation [8] [28]. In order to accomplish that investigation, a new instrument is being developed, leveraging some of the material from instruments employed in the investigations discussed above. The new instrument attempts to investigate the following factors: Early development experiences, including experiences in school, and extracurricular activities and roles. Nature of key relationships: parental behaviors and traits, mentors and spouse (if applicable). Nature of exploratory experiences: travel locations, unique challenges and learning experiences and impressions of those experiences. Nature of previous work experiences: understanding previous leadership roles, previous leaders, and previous challenges. Formal development experiences: understanding courses, assignments and feedback given to improve leadership performance. By investigating a number of factors, both previously examined and new, the results of this study can be compared with previous work while increasing the body of knowledge. 1163

5 4. Research Approach Given the lack of an existing instrument to test the desired potential antecedents, the research will be done in multiple phases, including a pilot. These phases will include: 1. Study Development Development of a second instrument to understand the experiences of leaders, as discussed in section 3.2 and obtaining access to needed organizations. 2. Pilot and Finalize Study, Data Collection and Analysis Plan - Conduct pilot study, finalize instruments and design final study. 3. Perform Study Data collection and initial analysis. 4. Document Contribution- Compile and analyze complete results, determine and publish results. 5. Importance of Research Numerous studies indicate a positive correlation between the use of transformational style leadership and business results [16] [19] [31]. Because of this correlation between business results and leadership, business should be very interested in hiring leaders who exhibit transformational leadership behaviors. The apparent problem is a limited understanding of the factors and experiences that enable a leader to develop and apply transformational behaviors. Despite some studies in the area [20] [30] the understanding is not robust. A study to identify the roots of transformational leadership would be useful on many levels. The primary benefit to engineering managers would be to leverage study findings for hiring decisions. A secondary benefit could include the development of training programs that lead to improved exhibition of transformational leadership qualities within the leaders of an organization. This research will identify characteristics or experiences that have a correlation to transformational leadership behaviors. 6. Conclusion This paper has outlined the current state of leadership related research in the literature, focusing on transformational leadership and proposed a study into the antecedents of transformational leadership to further the current body of knowledge. The study will sample from a variety of leader populations to gather data on their early development experiences. These experiences will then be compared to the leaders ratings on transformational behaviors, looking for correlation. If correlations are found, this information can be applied by businesses in the areas of hiring and manager development. References 1. Collins, Jim, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap, and Others Don t, Collins, George, Bill, Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value, Jossey-Bass, Bossidy, Larry and Ram Charan, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Crown Business, Kroeck, K. Galen, Kevin B. Lowe and Kevin W. Brown, The Assessment of Leadership, in The Nature of Leadership, Antonakis, Cianciolo and Sternberg editors, Sage, 2004, pp Murphy, Andre D., Perception and reality: an empirical assessment of navy leadership styles and business process reengineering outcomes, Dissertation for the Doctor of Education degree at the University of San Diego, Day, Stacey, Leadership Practices of Scientists at the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, dissertation from the Fielding Graduate Institute, Blatt, Dennis A., A Study to Determine the Relationship Between the Leadership Styles of Career Technical Directors and School Climate as Perceived by Teachers, dissertation in Education Leadership from West Virginia University, Bennis, Warren G. and Robert J. Thomas, Geeks and Geezers: How Era, Values and Defining Moments Shape Leaders, Harvard Business School Press, Antonakis, John, Anna T. Cianciolo and Robert J. Sternberg, Preface Why The Nature of Leadership?, in The Nature of Leadership, Antonakis, Cianciolo and Sternberg editors, Sage, 2004, pp. vii - viii. 10. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, primary definition of leadership, available at Follett, Mary Parker, Article in The Great Writings in Management and Organizational Behavior,

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