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KentRobertAubreyWilliam1999 kc.pdf (2.4 MB)

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Cascading Transformational Leadership and the Impact of Multiple Leadership Influences on Employee Attitudes and Behavior

Kent, Robert Aubrey William
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392815421

Abstract Details

1999, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, EDU Policy and Leadership.
Within a traditional organizational hierarchy, a subordinate employee will likely receive leadership influences from a number of different sources. The purpose of the present research was to test the proposition that within a Department of Parks and Recreation, subordinate employees were affected both by top-level leadership and by middle level management. Transformational leadership at the executive level and leader-member exchange quality at the middle manager level were hypothesized to have unique and conjoint effects on the following variables: member commitment to the organization and member organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Two main ideas were being investigated in this study. The first suggested that executive level leadership would impact the way that middle-managers behaved in their respective leadership roles. This idea was rooted in the 'cascading effect' of transformational leadership (Bass, Avolio, Waldman, & Bebb, 1987). The second idea was that leader-member exchange quality at the middle manger level would be acting as either a mediator or a moderator of the effects of executive level transformational leadership on the outcome variables. In this exploratory investigation of the relationships described above, a 46 - item instrument was utilized to measure transformational leadership (9 items), leader-member exchange quality (7 items), organizational commitment (12 items) and OCB (18 items). The questionnaire was distributed to all full-time members (managers and subordinates) within the Parks and Recreation Department of a large mid-western state (n = 529). Results of the correlation analysis substantiated the cascading effect of transformational leadership in that a positive and significant correlation was evident between the two concepts. However, further analysis of T-tests for dichotomized groups based upon manager assessments of either 'high' or 'low' transformational leadership indicated that no difference exists between the two groups for assessed leader-member exchange quality. Results of the multiple regression analyses suggested that the two sources of leadership impacted each outcome differently. For organizational commitment, executive level transformational leadership and manager level LMX interacted in a fashion that suggested a moderated relationship with the outcome. For OCB, executive level transformational leadership produced the only significant main effect. In general, the results suggested that while both the leadership from the executive level and the leader-member relationships at the mid-level had effects on the subordinate- level outcome variables; the combination of both of these influences explained the largest proportion of variance. The discussion of results includes a breakdown of the unique effects accounted for by each of the leadership sub-scales on each of the sub-scales of the outcome variables.
Packianathan Chelladurai (Advisor)
Donna L. Pastore (Committee Member)
David B. Greenberger (Committee Member)
276 p.
Education

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kent, R. A. W. (1999). Cascading Transformational Leadership and the Impact of Multiple Leadership Influences on Employee Attitudes and Behavior [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392815421

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kent, Robert. Cascading Transformational Leadership and the Impact of Multiple Leadership Influences on Employee Attitudes and Behavior. 1999. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392815421.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kent, Robert. "Cascading Transformational Leadership and the Impact of Multiple Leadership Influences on Employee Attitudes and Behavior." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 1999. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392815421

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1392815421
285
© 1999, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.