Literature Review: Transformational Leadership and its influence on Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Literature Review: Transformational Leadership and its influence on Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Abstract

Transformational leadership denotes a style where leaders work together with their followers to better their situation and move away from the status quo. The theory also includes having a leader that is more concerned about the welfare of their people. Such leaders are visionary and work towards ensuring that their people buy in the dream and trust in the process bringing change and bettering their lives. In a work situation, the concept of transformational leadership should work hand in hand with organizational citizenship behavior. It should encourage the workforce to commit voluntarily to the organization beyond their contractual terms and conditions. Such employees became attached and made more discretionary efforts in their performance at work. Employees and followers who extend their required duties at work and perform more discretionary choices always do so because of a motivating factor that they experience. One of the tenets of transformational leadership is the focus on motivating and inspiring followers to do more and achieve better results and outcomes.

Introduction

Transformational leadership

James V. Downton started the theory of transformational leadership in 1973, and James McGregor Burns expanded the theory in 1978. Burns defined it in his 1978 book as a process where the leaders and their followers work together to elevate each other to higher levels of morality and motivation. The theory shows the focus of the leader on their follower’s wellbeing and progress more than the outcome. Such leaders also inspire and motivate their people because they recognize their vital contribution to all that they intend to achieve. Transformational leaders consider each of their people individually and work on stimulating them intellectually. They are highly driven and lead to positive changes in their followers.

Organizational citizenship behavior

            Organizational citizenship behavior refers to instances where a person voluntarily goes beyond what their company expects of them. It represents an employee’s discretionary decision to do more to the benefit of their organization. It also signifies one’s commitment and efforts at expanding what they contribute to the company. An employee who has such behavior is an asset to a business. They recognize the current competitive world and act in ways that meet the demands of a given situation. They do not just abide by the limits of their contractual assignments. Such employees are loyal and patriotic to their organizations. They, therefore, command respect, trust, and encourage other employees to also do better.

The outreach of the literature review

This literature review shall look into the theme of transformational leaders and their ability to bring about, enhance, and promote organizational citizenship behavior. It shall focus on several peer-reviewed articles that journals published in the past five years. It shall look at the research questions, the methodology of each study, and analyze their results and findings. It shall make some comparisons of the different articles and also offer an overview of how the same is relevant in supporting the primary thematic area of this review.

The Literature Review

1. Organizational citizenship behavior as a mediating factor in promoting transformational leadership
2. Emotional intelligence as a medium between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior

Majeed, Ramayah, Mustamil, Nazri & Jamshed (2017) highlight the crucial relation between transformational leadership style and enhancing organizational citizenship behavior in educational facilities in Pakistan. Their study also links the mediating factor through direct and indirect means of emotional intelligence. The research questions included how the relationship between the two constructs, that is, transformational leadership and emotional intelligence, impact on organizational citizenship behavior. The authors used a quantitative approach and well-structured questionnaires for the study. They distributed questionnaires totaling 255 to four different universities. The responses were positive, with a total rate of eighty-six percent. The results of the study showed that they supported all the hypotheses set before. The work positively proved a relationship between transformational leadership and the organizational citizenship behavior of teachers. It also proved that emotional intelligence had a positive correlation with organizational citizenship behavior. The article is proficient and does an in-depth analysis of the thematic area of the review. It shows a link between transformational leadership and its tendency to increase motivation and uplift the spirit of employees at work, thus enabling them to want to do more for the business.

1. Transformational leadership promotes organizational justice and turnover intention.

Metwally, Ata, & Ahmed (2018) highlight transformational leadership as a mediator in ensuring organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior. The work bases their study on the aim of establishing the relationship among the factors, including organizational justice, organizational citizenship behavior, transformational leadership, and turnover intention. The research questions revolved around the nurses’ perception of the concepts, their relations, and how they mediate each other. The study sample comprised of 2446 nurses in the Zagazig University Hospitals and covering a period of one year. The research used a descriptive correlational design and the instrument of the questionnaire sheet. The results of the exercise showed that there was a positive perception of organizational justice among the respondents. They also showed that this case enhanced their organizational citizenship behavior. The resultant outcome was greater work satisfaction and reduced turnover intention. The study was successful in proving its hypotheses and showed how crucial transformational leadership is to organizational citizenship behavior. The work also looked at the perception of transformational leadership based on its four primary principles. The results showed the highest perceptions regarding inspirational motivation and lowest in idealized attributes. The study excellently probes into the tenets of transformational leadership and the effects on organizational citizenship behavior enhancing work ethics, commitment, and loyalty.

• The impact of trust and employee job satisfaction through the lenses of transformational leadership.

Kim & Park (2019) carried out a study to uncover the influence that transformational leadership can have on organizational learning, transformational learning, organizational citizenship behaviour, and interpersonal trust. The focus of the study was on the manufacturing sector and industries in South Korea. They also used a structural equation modeling method to analyze the data responses that 208 participants gave. The results and findings of the study showed that transformational leadership style positively affected organizational and transformational learning and enhanced interpersonal trust. These, in turn, improved the organizational citizenship behavior of the people. It also highlighted that transformational leadership could work in all industries and sectors. This case is primarily because of its inherent ability to influence and encourage going all out to make the outcomes of activities better and more productive. The research and study give similar results to the ones that this paper has analyzed before. These include Majeed et al. and Matwelly et al. They all shed light on the significance of transformational leadership and tie them to various constructs such as emotional intelligence and turnover intention. However, they all bring out one typical result, that is, the positive nature and influence that enforcing transformational leadership have on a company.

1. Transformational leaders promote empathy in the workplace.

Rahman (2017) studied the impact of transformational leadership and empathy in a hospital setting. The work focused on how the same would improve the quality of service that nurses gave to their patients at the Universiti Sains Malaysia Hospital in Malaysia. The study utilized two types of questionnaires, that is Leadership Inventory Index and the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) and also a five-point Likert scale. The later focused on the employees and the former the quality of service that they gave. The researchers analyzed the data from the 805 respondents using SPSS 22 and found several results. One, the patients showed that they were satisfied by the level of service that they got in the case of healthcare providers that had empathy. The nurses’ results also indicated more compassion in the case of transformational leaders. The research is elaborate as it covers the topic from the viewpoint of service providers (employees) and the receivers (patients) at the hospital. It shows the relationship among the concepts of transformational leaders, the empathy of the employees, and how they treated the patients. The study also indicates that transformational leaders make the work environment conducive and friendly. It, therefore, encourages and inspires the workforce to love their job and do the same productively. Patients gave such explanations as ease in communication and illustration of treatments and also the employees following up and ensuring that they understood everything. This case, therefore, shows how critical transformational leadership is to such sectors as healthcare provision.

1. Transformational leaders are icons and motivation factors in the workplace
2. Transformational leadership influence all aspects of a workplace

Butar, Sendjava & Pekerti (2019) bring out an intriguing viewpoint to the discussion on transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. They also analyze the aspect of paternalism in the workplace for the good of the employees. Their study sample included 246 persons; half of them were in managerial and supervisory positions while the rest were subordinates. They also focused on the top 145 companies and firms in the Indonesian Stock Exchange. Some of their hypotheses included, transformational leadership being positively related to follower citizenship behavior and that individual-level institutional collectivism orientation moderated the relationship between transformational leadership and paternalism culture. They collected data using surveys, and the results showed that paternalism mediated the indirect influence of transformational leadership on follower citizenship behavior. There was also evidence that institutional collectivism positively moderated the link between transformational leadership and follower citizenship behavior. The research is excellent. It uses the sample from top leading organizations because of their tendency to focus on team-performance. Such organizations also have strong financial performance hence have to be agile and attentive to their operations. Transformational leaders are ideal in such cases because they are visionary, inspirational, and a motivating factor for the workforce. This study also assists the thematic area of the review because it shows how transformational leadership works for top companies in paternalistic organizations.

1. The role of effective communication in transformational leadership styles and the resulting outcomes in a work environment

Cohrs et al. (2019) carry out a leadership intervention program over two days to test how transformational leadership interacts with communication. The study also set to examine pre- and post-training differences among the leaders who participated in the program. The sample size included a total of 38 leaders, although the control test had 59. They collected the data through forms that provided information on each of the respondents’ answers. There was a difference in the results of the experimental and control group. Among the experimental group, there was an improvement in transformational leadership behavior post-training and fewer changes in the control group. The formers’ communication skills (attention and impression leaving improved while there were little to no changes in the control group. Among the experimental group, there were also better results among the ones who had average scores. The study shows how communication skills interplay with transformational leadership. Such leaders need excellent listening and communication skills to reach and encourage their followers. This study proves that even in two days, a lot can change when it comes to transformational leadership. It is proof that communication skills are one of the critical requirements for transformational leadership cases.

• The connection between transformational leadership and interpersonal citizenship behavior.

Nuryan, Hidayat & Suharyati (2019) analyze the way transformational leadership and interpersonal communication can improve teacher’s organizational citizenship behavior. Another research into the behavior of teachers in the Cijeruk sub-district in Indonesia influenced the study. The previous study concluded that teachers faced challenges such as lack of support and sympathy from fellow teachers who had less enthusiasm in their work. They also had no motivation to respond to situations beyond their work requirements as they appeared as a burden. The work also revealed a discouraging feeling towards working beyond the set hours. The current study identified the significant place that education occupies in society. It states that research shows how optimal development of innovative and creative thinking abilities emerge from teaching. As a result, the authors carried out a study into the ways transformational leadership could improve organizational citizenship behavior and interpersonal communication among teachers in Indonesia. The research included a survey with a correlational method. The sample size was 104 people using a proportional random sampling technique. The results of the study showed a positive relationship between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. The work identified transformational leadership as the style that changes employee attitudes so that they commit to the organization’s mission and vision. It also includes leaders who are role models, creators of a clear picture, and stimulators of innovation.

1. The role of transformational leadership in enhancing organizational citizenship behavior in various industries and field
2. How the teaching profession needs organizational citizenship behavior for improved commitment.

Nasra & Heilbrunn (2016) offer a different insight into transformational leadership through their focus on the educational sector in Israel. Their study seeks to establish the impact that trust in one’s supervisor and job satisfaction has on transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. This case also links to previous research on the same. The primary aim of the study was to show that transformational leadership impacts on organizational citizenship behavior directly and indirectly through the trust that employees may have in their supervisors and job satisfaction. The study had a sample size of 211 Arab men and women in the Israeli educational system. They utilized the methodology of structural equation modeling. The results and findings proved their hypothesis that there was a direct link between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. It also showed an indirect linkage between the impact of job satisfaction on the association between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. The study also showed that the trust of an employee on their supervisor did not help to facilitate transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. This literature is critical because it is an illustration of an instance of where transformational leadership comes to play, that is, in the educational sector in Israel. It goes hand in hand with the research of Majeed et al. (2017) that looked at education in Pakistan and Nuryan, Hidayat & Suharyati (2019) that focused on Indonesia.

1. How the nursing profession can integrate transformational leadership to improve their organizational citizenship behavior.

Jun (2017) looks at transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior through the lenses of social capital and the mediating capacity of the latter. The study design included a cross-sectional descriptive survey. The sample size was a total of 250 participants, although only a total of 219 made it to the final analysis. The research respondents comprised of nurses from two university teaching hospitals from a metropolitan area in South Korea. The researchers also used questionnaires and scored the responses on a five-point Likert scale. They analyzed all the resultant data using SPSS and WIN 21.0. The results from the study showed, concerning transformational leadership, that the subscale score for motivational skills was higher than sharing vision. The authors also compared their experiment to another that carried out in Australia. The results were similar in terms of the levels of organizational citizenship behavior. The organizational citizenship behavior subscale for conscience was at the highest while praising the institution was the lowest. The research also states that collectively, nurses tend to have higher social capital than persons in other professions. Social capital also scored highest in the internal trust and solidarity subscale and lowest in the social cohesion with co-workers. There was also a positive correlation between transformational leadership, social capital, and organizational citizenship behavior. The general findings, therefore, prove that there is a need for the inclusion of social capital in the training of nurses to improve their organizational citizenship behavior. The study is an excellent show of the use of transformational leadership in the healthcare setting. It is also similar to another previous research in this review that also focused on the hospital set-up, that is, the work of Rahman (2017) considering hospitals in Malaysia.

• The inclusion of transformational leadership in the service sectors including the hotel industry

Vailagos, Polychroniou & Maroudas (2017) shed light on the hotel industry by looking at the interaction between managers and subordinates. The primary aim of the research was to show how managers’ emotional intelligence competency relates to their transformational leadership style, particularly regarding their association with aides. The study highlights the significance of excellent relations between the two parties and how it reflects in their service to clients. The study also acknowledges that hotel managers that have and practice emotional intelligence know the essential nature of a healthy work environment. They, therefore, work towards ensuring they recognize the needs and feelings of their subordinates. By doing so, such managers encourage collective work and an environment where people can easily express their views. The authors’ research comprised a sample size of 149 participants who were employees of 117 Greek and Cypriot hotel organizations. The study hypotheses included; self-regulation, self-awareness, empathy, social skills and motivation being positively with a hotel supervisor’s transformational leadership. The researchers collected data using structured questionnaires. The results proved all the stated hypotheses. It showed that managers who have emotional intelligence realize their role in the life and performance of their subordinates. They can motivate, inspire, and encourage collective work in the business. Apart from the healthcare and teaching sectors, this study shows the application of transformational leadership in the hotel industry. It provides crucial information on the relationship between managers and their subordinates. Its highlights on emotional intelligence support the works of Majeed et al. (2017). It is, therefore, commendable research.

Conclusion

The several kinds of research that this paper cover have one thing in common. They all acknowledge the significant contribution of transformational leadership. They also highlight the principles of motivation, empathy, and communication that form the backbone of transformational leadership. They also show its association with emotional intelligence and employee turnover. Transformational leadership is crucial because it enables leaders to relate to their followers on a personal level. They encourage and inspire hard work for the good of all. In the hospital setting, transformational leadership enhances nurses’ apprehension of the nature of their work. They are, therefore, more careful while dealing with patients. They develop good listening and communication skills, thus ensuring the promotion of excellent service delivery. For teachers, their profession commands the need for emotional intelligence and the extension of empathy and motivation to the learners. The work, therefore, sheds light on how transformational leadership occupies almost all aspects of our lives.

References

Butar, I. D. B., Sendjaya, S., & Pekerti, A. A. (2019). Transformational Leadership and Follower Citizenship Behavior: The. Leading for High Performance in Asia: Contemporary Research and Evidence-Based Practices, 19.

Cohrs, C., Bormann, K. C., Diebig, M., Millhoff, C., Pachocki, K., & Rowold, J. (2019). Transformational leadership and communication. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.

Jun, S. Y. (2017). Mediating effect of social capital between transformational leadership behavior and organizational citizenship behavior in hospital nurses. Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration, 23(5), 558-566.

Kim, E. J., & Park, S. (2019). The role of transformational leadership in citizenship behavior: Organizational learning and interpersonal trust as mediators. International Journal of Manpower, 40(7), 1347-1360.

Majeed, N., Ramayah, T., Mustamil, N., Nazri, M., & Jamshed, S. (2017). Transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: Modeling emotional intelligence as mediator. Management & Marketing, 12(4), 571-590.

Metwally, F. G., Ata, A. A., & Ahmed, A. K. (2018). Organizational Justice, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and Turnover Intention among Nurses: The Mediating Effect of Transformational Leadership. American Journal of Nursing, 6(6), 576-585.

Nasra, M. A., & Heilbrunn, S. (2016). Transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior in the Arab educational system in Israel: The impact of trust and job satisfaction. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 44(3), 380-396.

Nuryani, N., Hidayat, N., & Suharyati, H. (2019). Improvement of teacher’s organizational citizenship behavior through transformational leadership development and interpersonal communications. JHSS (Journal of humanities and social studies), 3(2), 76-80.

Rahman, W. A. W. A. (2017). Transformational Leadership and Empathy: The Impact of Quality in the Health Care Services in Kelantan, Malaysia. International Journal of Economics, Business and Management Studies, 4(1), 50-56.

Vasilagos, T., Polychroniou, P., & Maroudas, L. (2017). Relationship between supervisor’s emotional intelligence and transformational leadership in hotel organizations. In Strategic innovative marketing (pp. 91-95). Springer, Cham.