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The CEO’s Influence on Organizational Outcomes at Microsoft: A Perspective on Transformational Leadership in the Tech Sector
... It also facilitates knowledge sharing and helping behavior amongst team members (Wong, 2024). It drives corporate social responsibility and organizational performance (Thapa et al., 2024), and helps employees achieve organizational goals (Boutamine & Benlaharche, 2024). It positively influences problem solving (Wulandari & Subiyanto, 2024), research and development (Bas & Aksoy, 2024), efficiency and sustainability (Atoki et al., 2024). ...
Artificial intelligence (AI) is crucial for productivity and efficiency. Employees’ deteriorating commitment and resilience add to organizations’ concerns on sustainability. An innovative culture facilitates organizations to benefit from AI, whilst leadership influences innovation, employees’ commitment and resilience. The current study aims to examine the mediating effects of innovative culture on the positive relationships of transformational leadership with employees’ affective organizational commitment and resilience and identify practical recommendations for employers, leaders and HR practitioners to drive innovation and sustainability. Data were collected from a random sample of 430 employees in Hong Kong via an online survey with validated scales. Structured equation modelling through SmartPLS (Version 4.1.0.9) was used to examine the linear relations and the mediating effects. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted to validate how transformational leaders drive AI development and adoption, innovation and workforce sustainability in their organization. Transformational leadership was positively related to innovative culture (p=0.000), employees’ affective organizational commitment (p=0.000) and resilience (p=0.000), whilst innovative culture was positively related to employees’ affective organizational commitment (p=0.000) and resilience (p=0.010). Hence, innovative culture partially mediated the positive relationships between transformational leadership and employees’ affective organizational commitment and resilience. The interviews showed that transformational leaders are role models who create psychological safety for their employees to take risk with accountability to enable experimentation, expose employees to stimulations for innovation and growth, establish trust and transparent communication with everyone to strengthen their affective organizational commitment and resilience to adversity. Leaders should demonstrate transformational leadership to drive employees’ affective commitment and resilience, which are crucial for their organization’s sustainability. Transformational leadership also helps leaders create an innovative culture to facilitate the development and implementation of AI. HR practitioners should implement leadership development programs focused on transformational leadership.
This exploratory study delves into the intricacies of transformational leadership within the technology sector, drawing insights from the leadership styles of Steve Jobs of Apple and Jeff Bezos of Amazon. The research aimed to understand how transformational leadership traits influence organizational outcomes like innovation, employee motivation, engagement, and overall performance. To achieve this, the study employed a mixed-method approach, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques. Primary data was gathered using a structured questionnaire, which was administered to a purposively sampled group of 567 respondents, all holding leadership or managerial roles in various industries. The questionnaire design integrated both closed-ended and open-ended questions to facilitate a comprehensive analysis. The data analysis involved rigorous regression analysis to quantitatively assess the relationships between specific transformational leadership traits and organizational outcomes. Key findings revealed a strong positive correlation between the level of inspirational motivation demonstrated by leaders and the degree of organizational innovation. Additionally, significant relationships were observed between the extent of individualized consideration by leaders and employee motivation and engagement, as well as between strategic vision and risk-taking by leaders and key organizational performance metrics. Drawing from these insights, the study recommends cultivating a leadership style that emphasizes inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and strategic risk-taking. This approach is crucial for fostering innovation, enhancing employee motivation and engagement, and improving overall organizational performance in the rapidly evolving technology sector.
The book "Organizational behavior and transformational leadership" presents the construction of an inductive model, called the employee-directed transformational leadership model (EDTLM), which theoretically implied relationships among transformational leadership, human resource practices, employee commitment, and employee performance. It also introduces the HRM practices, transformational leadership, employee commitment, and employee performance discourse in six chapters covering its definitions, practices, theories, dimensions, importance, analysis, and results. The book could be used to guide the management team of construction companies to focus on the interrelationships among EDTLM constructs, their variables, and values to improve employee performance. The book is suitable for use by students in various fields of study, academics, researchers, managers, and policymakers alike
Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine whether transformational leadership will significantly affect lecturer engagement and whether job resources will mediate the effect of transformational leadership on lecturer engagement. Design/methodology/approach: This study applied non-probability sampling and collected 102 samples from lecturers from urban private universities, especially in Jakarta and other big cities. SEM-PLS is used as a tool to calculate data statistically. Findings: The study's results prove that transformational leadership has a positive and significant effect on engagement, as does job resources. Furthermore, job resources are proven to mediate the effect of transformational leadership on engagement. Research, Practical & Social implications: The results of this research imply that organizations, especially private universities can present and influence transformational leaders to lead organizations and improve job resources that lecturers or employees can access. Originality/value: The value of the study is the first study on transformational leadership in Indonesia urban private universities.
This research aims to understand the contribution of transformational leadership to employee Portuguese startups’ creativity. An empirical study was conducted using a quantitative methodological approach, with the application of an online questionnaire sent to Portuguese startups. 102 employee responses were validated. The results obtained showed the existence of a positive and significant relationship between transformational leadership and creativity in Portuguese startups. Therefore, we conclude that it is recommended that startups use this leadership style so that, as a consequence, they can obtain higher results in terms of organisational creativity.
The need for Transformational Leadership and innovation is increasing in Higher Education with the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020, where educational institutions' emphasis should be on outcome-based education, innovative curriculum and pedagogy with learner and industry engagement, research and development, employability and entrepreneurship with continuous evaluation for the learning outcomes. The researcher through the existing literature tries to find out whether Transformational Leadership has a significant role in innovation in the Higher Education Sector. The existing literature shows that there is a significant relationship between Transformational Leadership and innovation. Transformational leaders promote creative ideas and effectively use idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration which are critical for organizational innovation. The researcher also observed that the development and execution of innovation in higher education has a bearing on all the system elements such as components, relationships, and functions. This study is limited to secondary data from the Review of existing Literature.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The leadership styles in higher education, especially public universities, face enormous challenges in handling global situations, i.e., the Covid-19 pandemic. The current dataset of this study aims to verify how transformational leadership is more effective in influencing organizational citizenship behavior through knowledge-based work passion. Individuals with a high level of knowledge-based work passion are able to feel happiness, pride, and pleasure, and are totally involved and make sense of their work. In addition, they also show highly positive emotions toward the people around them and are happy to assist them. METHODS: Structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS 21.0 software is used to analyze the data collected from 221 professional lecturers utilizing a purposive sampling technique from a total of 1, 242 lecturers in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia public universities. The loading values of the survey instrument, composite reliability, and average variance extracted are tested to justify reliability and convergent validity for the measurement model in this study. FINDINGS: The results show that transformational leadership positively and significantly affects knowledge-based work passion (β = 0.568, C.R. = 6.536; ρ < 0.001) but not organizational citizenship behavior (β = 0.061, C.R. = 0.608; ρ > 0.001). In addition, knowledge-based work passion directly has a positive and significant effect on organizational citizenship behavior (β = 0.696, C.R. = 3.571; ρ > 0.001). Further, the mechanism effect of transformational leadership on organizational citizenship behavior through knowledge-based work passion was tested. The result indicates the mediating role of knowledge-based work passion (β = 0.395, ρ > 0.001) in the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. CONCLUSION: This study contributes significantly to organizational management practices, especially in the field of education, by identifying how transformational leadership improves organizational citizenship behavior through knowledge-based work passion. When individuals recognize their leaders as transformational, they are more likely to behave and engage in volunteering for extra tasks, having a positive work environment, feeling more connected to the organization and being flexible in their duties.
Transformational leadership theory has been widely recognized for its crucial role in effective management. However, its universal applicability across cultures has been questioned by some scholars. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of transformational leadership and analyzes its relevance in the current Chinese context. Furthermore, it examines the limitations of this leadership theory in Chinese business organizations. By exploring these factors, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the potential challenges and opportunities associated with applying transformational leadership in the Chinese business context.
This study explores the relationship between transformational leadership and educational innovation in primary and secondary schools. The study used a qualitative phenomenological research design and conducted in-depth interviews with six school heads in Toledo City Division. The results of the study show that transformational leadership plays a critical role in promoting and supporting educational innovation in schools. Transformational leaders empower teachers and other stakeholders to participate in the implementation of educational innovation initiatives and create a positive and supportive learning environment that fosters growth and development. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for educational leaders, policy makers, and practitioners on the importance of transformational leadership in promoting and supporting educational innovation in schools.
Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the subject of transformational leadership, one of the important modern topics in the management of business organizations, because of its importance in making important decisions related to activities and jobs, and this requires the availability of human resources with high skills and efficiency and has the ability to assume responsibility. Theoretical framework: Recent literature mentioned that there are many leadership styles, the most prominent of which is transformational leadership. The purpose of the theoretical framework is to identify this style with its dimensions and variables, as well as to identify all dimensions and variables of training. Design/methodology/approach: A community and a research sample were selected from (40) individuals in the Department of Special Education, and the questionnaire was used as the main tool to obtain data. Findings: One of the most important conclusions of the research is that there is a strong relationship and influence of transformational leadership in the training process and in all dimensions except for the empowerment of workers and materials. Research, Practical & Social implications: By understanding the dimensions of the research, it is possible to increase confidence between the employees, the management and the trained workers in it, in addition to preparing a catalogue that identifies the materials that will be trained on. Value: The value of the study is concentrated on adding some knowledge to leaders, practitioners and administrators, transformational leadership and the training process.
As one of the largest company in the world, Microsoft is regarded as a monopolist because of its dominant position in operating system and software industry form 1990s till now, and this kind of monopoly is going to be sustained in the future. Under a such background above, it is important for customers to know what impacts do monopolist have on them. Is it benefit or doing more harm to customers when compared to competitive corporations. In this paper, we use Microsoft case analysis to discuss questions like product quality and customers’ economic burden of monopoly. Also, specific data such as customer satisfaction, income and expenditure are used to help solve the problems. We find that what really matters about the quality depends on the attitude and thoughts of customers who purchased and experienced the products since Microsoft’s main products had been recognized by public according to their significant market share. However, monopolist does has negative impact on customers in some way. After analysis, we offer some suggestions on how Microsoft or other monopoly companies can improve their customer satisfaction and what measurement can be used to change the present situation.
ESG is a sustainable development concept that integrates environmental, social, and corporate governance. Most studies on ESG have been conducted based on secondary data from listed companies and have not used questionnaires as a method for analysis. Given this research gap, this paper examines whether transformational leadership influences ESG performance in SMEs, whether organizational innovation mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and ESG performance, and the moderating effect of external social capital on transformational leadership and organizational innovation. Based on higher-order theory, resource-based theory, stakeholder theory, etc., we tested this hypothesis by conducting a regression analysis with a questionnaire collected from SMEs in China. After controlling for firm ownership, firm size, firm industry, and years in business, the results of the study indicate that transformational leadership has a positive effect on ESG performance and that organizational innovation partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and corporate ESG performance. Furthermore, external social capital moderates the direct relationship between transformational leadership and organizational innovation and moderates the role of organizational innovation as a mediator between transformational leadership and ESG performance. This study adds to our further understanding of the relationship between transformational leadership and ESG performance in SMEs, expanding the antecedent research on ESG performance and providing a basis for sustainable SME development.
In order to survive the fiercer competition, more and more service firms emphasize front-line employees’ role of creating excellent customer experience by displaying positive emotions during the service interactions. However, the underlying mechanisms for the relationship between transformational leadership and front-line employees’ emotional labor remain unclear. Drawing upon the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study develops a conceptual model in which transformational leadership influences front-line employees’ emotional labor through the mediator of psychological empowerment. By collecting data from 436 employees in five call centers, we tested our model and hypotheses through PROCESS 3.3 macro for SPSS developed by Hayes. The results show that transformational leadership shows positive and negative effects on deep acting and surface acting, respectively. The positive effect on deep acting is partially mediated by psychological empowerment, while the negative effect on surface acting is fully mediated by psychological empowerment. Specifically, two dimensions of psychological empowerment (impact, self-efficacy) play negative mediating roles between transformational leadership and surface acting, while impact, self-determination, and self-efficacy play positive mediating roles of transformational leadership and deep acting. The findings advance our understanding about how transformational leadership influences front-line employees’ emotional labor by introducing psychological empowerment as a mediator.
Purpose: Using responses from 176 employees working in the top leadership role in the FMCG sector of Pakistan, this study aimed to investigate the effect of transformational and transactional leadership on employee performance.
Design/Methodology/Approach: A quantitative approach was adopted, while a convenience sampling technique was used for data collection. The results were analyzed using the SmartPLS and SPSS, i.e., Partial Least Square, and the Measurement Model included Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Factor Loadings.
Findings: According to the findings of our study, transactional (TRLS) and transformational leadership (TFLS) are positively correlated with employee performance. Thus, transformational and transactional leadership positively affect employee performance in Pakistan’s FMCG sector
Implications/Originality/Value: This study shall help the directors, top management, and executives working in the leadership roles to develop better pathways for achieving high objectives in terms of performance.
Transformational leadership is the leader's ability to communicate and behave in ways that elevate the interests of their followers and stir them to look beyond their self-interest for the benefit of the group. Transformational leaders achieve these results by having four characteristics, i.e., idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. This paper explores the transformational leadership of the UAE founders since 1971, mainly, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum. The UAE leadership is the main success story of the transformation of the seven Arab Emirates from the sporadic emirates into one country from the last 50 years, the most developed and influencing country among Arab and the middle east countries. Also, the country achieved many initiatives at the global level, including becoming a global business hub. The UAE leaders set an efficient Arab leadership model for the Arab lands to rise to the global level. This leadership model is worth purring and evaluating for leadership values, lessons and being global with human concerns.
In today's society, in order to be a successful entrepreneur you must be able to adapt to the ever-changing market conditions. To do this, it is important to be able to utilize your resources to their maximum potential so as to gain the best results possible. As such, it is important for an entrepreneur to have very good leadership skills in order to mobilize his team to achieve the vision of the company. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of leadership for organizational success in nowadays business environment. In particular, the paper focuses on the transformational style of leadership employed by famous entrepreneur Jeff Bezos that has managed to grow Amazon to the point that it is considered the biggest online retailer in the world. The methodology used is qualitative and is based on the research of secondary sources such as articles, books and interviews. The findings show that transformational leadership is a key solution that fits the needs of companies finding themselves having not only to strive to survive, but to flourish in this fast-paced, ever-changing environment of the business world.
A chief executive officer (CEO) acting as the firm's transformational leader is typically viewed as instrumental to corporate entrepreneurship in established firms, but how exactly does a higher level of corporate entrepreneurship come about, given a transformational CEO's actions? We suggest that organizational ambidexterity can function as a core mediating mechanism between transformational CEOs and the observed level of corporate entrepreneurship and that the effectiveness of this mediating process varies as a function of critical contingencies related to characteristics of the top management team (TMT), the environment and the organization's design. Our empirical evidence, based on a sample of 145 Chinese private sector firms, and using three primary sources of data (145 CEOs, 506 TMT members, and 1,981 middle managers), provides support for a moderated mediation process. We find that the mediating pathway from transformational leadership to corporate entrepreneurship through organizational ambidexterity is not significant when boundary conditions are ignored. However, when environmental dynamism, TMT collectivism, and structural differentiation are included as moderators, CEO transformational leadership does affect corporate entrepreneurship via the creation and effective functioning of organizational ambidexterity.
Leading in today's dynamic, global, and multi-generational world provides new challenges and requires innovative new approaches to leadership. At a time of increasing complexity, leaders across sectors and geographies recognize that the work of a leader involves far more than driving results and delivering numbers. People will follow a person who inspires them. A person with vision and passion can achieve great things. The way to get things done is by injecting enthusiasm and energy. Transformational leaders have higher levels of performance and satisfaction than groups led by other types of leaders. Style of leadership can have a positive effect on the group. Transformational Leader seeks overtly to transform the organization, there is also a tacit promise to followers that they also will be transformed in some way, perhaps to be more like this amazing leader. In some respects, then, the followers are the product of the transformation. Transformational Leadership is that passion and confidence can easily be mistaken for truth and reality. Whilst it is true that great things have been achieved through enthusiastic leadership, it is also true that many passionate people have led the charge right over the cliff and into a bottomless chasm. Just because someone believes they are right, it does not mean they are right. This paper will outline various dimensions and attributes of transformational leadership and its impact on business.
Keywords: Transformational Leadership, Inspiration and Motivation, Business Role Model, Organizational Success
Citation:
Pawar, A. (2016). Transformational Leadership: Inspirational, Intellectual and Motivational Stimulation in Business. International Journal of Enhanced Research in Management & Computer Applications, 5(5): 14-21
This research aimed to investigate effect of transformational leadership (TL) in stimulating employee creativity (EC) leading to organizational innovation (OI) and assess the moderating role of Intrinsic Motivation (IM) between TL and EC. The data was collected from 164 supervisor-employee dyads of 31 Pakistani software firms. A three-step approach to SEM was applied to examine mediator and moderator variables. The findings indicate that the Idealized Influence, Intellectual Stimulation, and Inspirational Motivation have a great influence on OI and EC but Individual Consideration was not found to be significantly related to OI and EC. The findings further proved the positive and significant moderating effect of IM for TL and EC. Thus, through TL style, EC can be promoted with the interactive effect of IM by inspiring employees to think out of the box leading to innovation in the organization. This paper attempts to contribute to the current literature by developing moderating role of IM. Furthermore, we have also examined how each dimension of TL is affecting EC, and OI, further some interesting discoveries are also made which other studies have not done before.
Leadership is one of the most fascinating matters of human being at all times throughout the whole world. Transformational leadership theory is a noticeable representative of the new theories that have occupied focus point in leadership study. The transformational theory of leadership developed by Burns (1978) and Bass (1985) and both are explained it with some models. Transformational leaders work to enhance the motivation and commitment of followers by directing their behavior toward a shared vision. The steady progress in today's business is not achievable without adopting the transformational leadership and accomplish the objectives of enterprise smoothly. The determination of this article is to review and analysis the elements of transformational leadership theory and practice based on existing literature review.
After examining the existing studies of administration in higher education, it has been obvious that academic leadership behaviors are significantly determinative in the development of faculty. Considerable debate has emerged over the most suitable model for academic leadership: not surprisingly, one of the conceptual models dominating the literature is transformational leadership. This study proposes to investigate academic leadership behavior from the perspective of transformational leadership. First, this paper reviews transformational leadership as a concept in detail with its four components: Charismatic Leadership, or Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation, and Individualized Consideration. Second, the methodological details and the results of the study are explicitly discussed. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) is used to measure different components of transformational leadership as a research instrument. The total field under survey consists of 100 participants including research assistants, instructors, associate professors and full professors of different state universities in Turkey. The SPSS 15.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) is applied to analyze the data gathered by the research instrument. In order to determine whether or not there has been any difference among the academics’ perceptions of transformational leadership, with its four dimensions, according to gender, age, tenure, and education variables, non-parametric tests are used. As for the results of the study, the level of 5-point Likert scale measuring the administrators’ behavior from the perspective of transformational leadership including all four dimensions is “once a while”. Of the independent variables, only the education variable is specified as a significant factor affecting the academics’ perceptions of transformational leadership. In other words, the level of transformational leadership attitude for the ones having bachelor's degree is indicated to be higher than the others, while the levels are indicated as similar for the ones having B.Ed. and M.A. degrees. In the dimensions of Idealized Influence and Inspirational Motivation, the level of PhD graduates’ perceptions of transformational leadership is higher than that of M.A. graduates. In the dimensions of Intellectual Stimulation and Individualized Consideration, the levels are specified to be similar between the M.A. and PhD graduates.
Purpose
This empirical study aims to examine the influence of transformational leadership (TL) on organizational innovation (OI) and performance (OP) depending on the level of organizational learning in technological firms.
Design/methodology/approach
The research examined a sample of 164 pharmaceutical firms. A global model is formulated and the hypotheses are tested using structural equations.
Findings
First, the study shows a positive relation between TL and OI, between TL and OP and between OI and OP. Second, the study verifies that these relationships are more strongly reinforced in organizations with high‐organizational learning than in organizations with low levels of organizational learning. Third, the study supports the theoretical arguments made but not demonstrated empirically in the prior literature.
Practical implications
Organizational learning takes places in a technological community of interaction in which knowledge is created and expands in a constant dynamic between the tacit and the explicit with cognitive and behavioral change. Organizations with greater organizational learning generate a network of learning that will make it easier for them to learn what they need to know and to innovate, enabling the organization to maintain its competitive position as a technological center. This shows that organizational learning improves relations substantially between TL, OI and OP.
Originality/value
This study serves as a reference for fostering organizational learning in technological firms. Organizational learning improves relations among TL, OI and OP. Previous studies, although contributing to the understanding of the direct and indirect relations among leadership, innovation and performance, have not addressed the different effects depending on the level of organizational learning in these technological firms.
In this article, while it is attempted to describe the problem and its importance, transformational leadership is studied by considering leadership theories. Issues such as the definition of transformational leadership and its aspects are compared on the basis of the ideas of various connoisseurs and then it (transformational leadership) is examined in successful and less successful companies. According to the methodology, the method of research, assumptions, community and statistical sample are investigated and research findings are analyzed by using descriptive and deductive statistical methods in the framework of analytical tables. Finally, our conclusion is provided by considering the results of statistical tests. The final result shows that there is more transformational leadership in successful companies than unsuccessful ones
Apple Inc. is an American technological company that designs, manufactures, and sells various products such as laptops, phones, accessories, streaming services, licensing services, and so much more. The paper explores the corporate responsibility and unethical business practices that arise from the global sourcing of Apple’s products. The company established many relationships with suppliers in East Asia to meet the rigorous demands of consumers, promising high-quality products at the expense of factory workers. However, global sourcing comes with unethical business practices. There have been various cases against Apple’s suppliers. This research highlights unfair working conditions, overworking employees, and environmental pollution that Apple’s suppliers are guilty of.
The success of an organization is heavily reliant on the creativity of its employees. Research has shown that transformational leadership is a critical factor in fostering employee creativity in an organization. Transformational leaders inspire and motivate employees to go beyond their job requirements and think outside the box. This study aims to investigate the effect of transformational leadership on employee creativity in an organization.
Using a quantitative research approach, data was collected from employees of various organizations through a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire contained items on transformational leadership behavior and employee creativity. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS to investigate the relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity. The results showed a significant positive relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity in organizations.
Furthermore, the study found that the effect of transformational leadership on employee creativity was mediated by employee empowerment. Transformational leaders empower employees by providing them with autonomy, resources, and support to carry out their work. Employee empowerment was found to significantly mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity. The findings suggest that organizations should focus on developing transformational leaders who can inspire and empower their employees to be more creative and innovative in their work.
Despite a tremendous amount of research on the topic, we still have little evidence regarding the extent to which transformational leader behaviors (TLBs) cause a number of outcomes. The primary inhibitors include a lack of theoretical precision, the conflation of leader (follower) behaviors with evaluations, as well as measurement and design issues which prevent causal inferences. To address such concerns, we reframe the transformational leadership literature from a signaling theory perspective. Study 1 reviewed existing definitions of transformational leadership. Building on this, we introduce a new definition of TLB: Leader signaling through developmental and prosocial behaviors tailored for each unique stakeholder (e.g., person, dyad, group, organization). Leveraging topic modeling, Study 2 involved the analysis of open-ended survey responses. Using a constant comparative approach, six TLBs were identified: 1. teaching life lessons, 2. introduction to developmental opportunities, 3. providing different perspectives, 4. seeking different perspectives, 5. questioning critical assumptions, and 6. speaking words of affirmation. Studies 3 and 4 were preregistered experiments that showed TLBs cause variation in follower evaluations of the leader as transformational (n = 416; Cohen’s d = .50) and contributions to a public good (n = 320; Cohen’s d = .36), respectively. We conclude with recommendations for theory and practice.
This study uses the full-range leadership model to argue that on days when leaders engage in transformational leadership behaviors, they identify follower strengths and stimulate followers to show personal initiative. We propose that transformational leadership is related to follower work engagement and performance through follower strengths use and personal initiative. Moreover, we hypothesize that followers' personal initiative is most effective when followers use their strengths. A total of 57 Norwegian naval cadets filled out a diary booklet for 30 days (response = 72.6%; n = 1242). Multilevel modeling analyses largely supported our hypotheses. On the days when leaders used transformational leadership behaviors such as intellectual stimulation and individual consideration, followers were more likely to use their strengths and take initiative. These behaviors, in turn, predicted next-day work engagement and next-day job performance. Moreover, followers’ personal initiative was particularly related to work engagement when strengths use was high rather than low. We discuss how these findings contribute to the leadership literature by showing how leaders inspire their followers to lead themselves. In addition, we elaborate on the practical implications for leadership training.
Despite the fact that the reliance on project teams and project-based organizations has significantly increased over the past decades, previous meta-analyses paid no attention to the examination of leadership styles in the context of projects. The purpose of this study was to meta-analytically synthesize and investigate the contradictory evidence on the effects of transformational leadership and transactional leadership on project success. The study also examined several project-level and country-level moderators in such effects. The study used 64 effect sizes from 41 primary studies on projects to examine the proposed relationships. The findings suggested that transformational leadership had a stronger effect on project success than transactional leadership. The results further indicated that project-level factors (i.e., project size and project type) moderated the relationships of leadership styles with project success. Moreover, the country-level factors (i.e., power distance, collectivism, and economic status of the country) also moderated some of the relationships. Theoretical and practical implications are provided in the end.
This study utilized a multilevel sample of 543 employees and 106 managers and structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the proposed hypotheses. The results showed the mediating role of the group-level work environment in the relationships between transformational leadership and individual-level social capital and human capital. Moreover, social capital and knowledge transfer mediate the relationship between human capital and creative behaviour. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
This mixed-method study explores the relationship between CEO transformational leadership and firm performance relying exclusively on secondary data. We used a random sample comprising of 42 CEOs of publicly-listed US and European companies. We evaluated their transformational leadership drawing upon media sources which were content analyzed to create individual CEO profiles. These profiles were then given to a panel of three judges who rated the CEOs on their transformational leadership style. We obtained the firm performance data from Thomson Datastream. Our results showed significant associations between intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation respectively, and different financial performance indicators. We also observed a tendency of positive relationships between individualized consideration and firm performance. These findings remained significant after controlling for company baseline performance, firm size, CEO tenure, and company location. Our findings largely support the positive role of CEO transformational leadership in shaping firm performance.
When Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in February 2014, the company seemed in danger of fading into irrelevance. Now its share price is at an all‐time high. How did he do it? By Herminia Ibarra and Aneeta Rattan
The present study attempts to examine the effect of authentic leadership and its dimensions on academic optimism and its dimensions. It aims to bridge the gap existing in the literature and explores the impact of leadership over stimulating academic optimism. The study also analyzed the mediating role of organizational commitment between the authentic leadership and academic optimism. Data was collected from 34 leaders/heads/seniors and 128 teachers of private educational institutions of Uttar Pradesh, India. The hierarchical regression analysis and confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that authenticity in leaders (seniors/heads) are useful for encouraging optimism in teachers and can induce teachers to trust their students and parents, have a higher degree of collective efficacy and give more emphasis on academic success. Organizational commitment was found to partially mediate the effect of authentic leadership on academic optimism. Principal with better self concepts rated their teachers more optimistic than those who were not. The study extended the ongoing researches and provided a novel approach of stimulating faculty's academic optimism.
Product innovation is an important research topic that has stimulated significant interest among management scholars and practitioners. Leadership has been suggested to be a critical factor affecting product innovation. Numerous studies have documented that transformational leadership positively influences product innovation performance, which is conceptualized as the degree to which a new product and/or service has achieved its market share, sales, rates of asset return, rates of investment return, and profit objectives. However, there is a lack of studies examining the specific means through which transformational leadership influences product innovation performance at the firm level. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the processes through which such effect is achieved and to determine whether corporate entrepreneurship and technology orientation as intervening factors influence this effect. To test the hypotheses, data were collected from 151 matched top management team (TMT) members and chief executive officers (CEOs) from Chinese manufacturing firms. Two separate questionnaires were used to collect the data. TMT members’ questionnaire included measures of CEO's transformational leadership, whereas CEOs’ questionnaire included questions about corporate entrepreneurship, technology orientation, and product innovation performance. Hierarchical linear regression was used to test the hypothesized effects. The results of the analysis provided the support for the fully mediating role of corporate entrepreneurship on the relationship between CEOs' transformational leadership and product innovation performance. In addition, technology orientation was found to significantly moderate the CEOs' transformational leadership–corporate entrepreneurship linkage. Furthermore, the mediated moderation effect of corporate entrepreneurship on the relationships among CEOs’ transformational leadership, technology orientation, and product innovation performance was significantly supported. By studying leadership among CEOs, this study contributes to the research by elucidating the mechanisms through which transformational leadership influences product innovation performance. The mediating role of corporate entrepreneurship encourages managers to improve their leadership style so as to enhance the development of corporate entrepreneurship and innovation practices. The findings also show that technology orientation provides the conditions for the smooth translation of the CEO's transformational leadership into actual entrepreneurial activities. Hence, firms should prioritize technology orientation to optimize the implementation of transformational leadership so as to emphasize innovation and new venture creation.
Starting in 2001 with Microsoft corporate headquarters at Redmond, Washington, corporate executives from Microsoft Corporation identified the need for a global tridimensional reorganization to deal with diverse clients and customer needs, business and product lines, and geographical issues and requirements. This reorganization would result in a corporate organizational transformation that was initially designed and implemented at headquarters during fiscal year (FY) 2002. It was then expanded internationally and introduced for international implementation with targeted completion by the end of FY 2003 (June 30, 2003). This case study reviews the background and competitive, customer, and environmental situations that led to this “crosscompany transformation.” It then analyzes the method of the design and implementation process with a primary focus on the interaction of the Europe, Middle East, and Africa Region (EMEA) with Microsoft headquarters. This case study also examines the process, results, and learning experiences of the transformation for FY 2003 through to FY 2004. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
In the ‘old days’, throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, the adage in the IT industry used to be ‘Nobody ever gets fired for buying IBM’. IBM would sell complete solutions, hardware and software (operating systems and applications) to meet all needs. These days it is more likely to be ‘Nobody ever gets fired for buying Microsoft’. Microsoft do not sell complete solutions. The only hardware they currently sell are ergonomic keyboards, mice and game accessories. Their dominance comes solely from their software.
The software giant Microsoft is a mere corporate stripling. Yet around its formidable success lies an equally indomitable mystique. It is phenomenally successful. Few are bold enough to analyse how and why Bill Gates’ and Paul Allen’s bright idea turned into the corporate titan of our times. Until now.
Using a field survey and company data of 170 firms in Singapore, we tested an integrated theoretical model relating CEO transformational leadership (TL), human–capital-enhancing human resource management (HRM), and organizational outcomes, including subjective assessment of organizational performance, absenteeism, and average sales. We found that human–capital-enhancing HRM fully mediates the relationship between CEO transformational leadership and subjective assessment of organizational outcomes and partially mediates the relationship between CEO transformational leadership and absenteeism. We discuss practical and theoretical implications.
How Microsoft uses a growth mindset to develop leaders
- C Dweck
- K Hogan
Microsoft and the Future of AI
- Joe Lawless
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