Under which conditions do middle managers exhibit transformational leadership behaviors? — An experience sampling method study on the predictors of transformational leadership behaviors

Abstract

Transformational leadership has been widely researched and associated with followers' performance, attitudes, health and well-being. However, less research has focused on the antecedents of transformational leadership behaviors. A few studies have examined the characteristics of followers and the attitudes of transformational leaders themselves. There is, however, a lack of knowledge on how the context may encourage transformational leadership behaviors. A study of 58 middle managers from two companies in Denmark; a private accountancy firm and a public elderly care explored this. Using the Experience Sampling Method and questionnaires it was found that both situational factors and working conditions were associated with transformational leadership behaviors at work. The results suggest that research strategies using multiple levels and methods can provide additional information on the antecedents of transformational leadership behaviors in middle managers.

Introduction

Transformational leadership has been identified as an effective strategy to manage the changing environment faced by modern organizations (Bass, 1990, Bass, 1999, Turner et al., 2002). Transformational leadership has been promoted as a desirable set of behaviors bringing about challenges for followers, but at the same time it is recognized that this type of leadership also puts increased demands on the skills of managers (Bass, 1985, Bass, 1990). The four main characteristics of transformational leadership behaviors are: 1) idealized influence/charisma — the leader acts as a role model and takes the lead in displaying desirable behavior, 2) inspirational motivation — the leader outlines a clear vision and the way forward, 3) intellectual stimulation — the leader encourages followers to make use of their skills and coaches them in making their own decisions and 4) individualized consideration — the leader acknowledges individual differences and adjusts behavior according to the individual's needs and capabilities (Bass, 1985).

Transformational leaders exert behaviors that increase followers' awareness of the mission or vision toward which they are working, thereby creating a situation where followers engage and involve themselves over and above what can be expected of them. Transformational leadership behaviors have been associated with both high levels of performance and follower health and well-being (Bass, 1985, Lowe et al., 1996, Skakon et al., 2010). Such kinds of leadership behavior require leaders to exercise their discretion, balancing the level of delegation and communication according to the developmental level of followers. However, there is less research that has focused on the antecedents of transformational leadership behaviors. The aim of this study is to examine the contexts in which transformational leadership behaviors are embedded. The central research question is: which situations and stable working conditions facilitate the exertion of transformational leadership behaviors? To get a broad view of transformational leadership behaviors in middle managers, we included data from two very different organizations: elderly care in the public sector and a private accountancy firm. We used a multi-level, multi-method approach asking middle managers to rate both situations (using the Experience Sampling Method) and stable working conditions (rated in a survey) linking these to middle managers' own ratings of their transformational leadership behaviors.

Although there is extensive research focused on the effects of transformational leadership, less attention has been directed toward the antecedents of transformational leadership (Avolio & Bass, 1995). Such research has, moreover, tended to have a relatively restricted focus, for instance the extent to which followers' impact on leaders' ability to perform transformational leadership behaviors. Previous studies have found that followers' level of well-being (Nielsen, Randall, Yarker, & Brenner, 2008), personality (Hetland, Sandal, & Johnsen, 2008) and self-developmental needs (Dvir & Shamir, 2003) predict transformational leadership behaviors in their managers.

Other studies have examined the predictive value of leaders' personal characteristics in relation to transformational leadership behavior. Sosik, Avolio, and Jung (2002) found impression management to be related to transformational leadership. Howell and Avolio (1993) found leaders' internal locus of control to be related to intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration and Bommer, Rubin, and Baldwin (2004) found that leaders who were cynical toward organizational change were less likely to engage in transformational leadership behaviors, though this effect was buffered by peers who engaged in transformational leadership behaviors. All these studies have, however, focused on individual characteristics – traits or attitudes – be it those of followers or leaders themselves and as such address factors that may be difficult to change. Although previous studies have emphasized the importance of context in leadership development (Day, 2001, Shamir and Howell, 1999), there has to our knowledge been very few studies examining how the leader's own working conditions and the situations s/he engage in enable the exhibition of transformational leadership behaviors.

Avolio and Bass (1995) emphasized the need to systemically examine and understand how leadership is embedded in contexts and/or situations, since these may hinder or facilitate the degree to which transformational leadership behaviors may be exerted. Kandalla and Krishnan (2004) examined the role of control in predicting transformational leadership, but failed to find such a relationship. There is a long tradition for improving working conditions in order to change employees and managers' behaviors and subsequently health and well-being (Semmer, 2003, Semmer, 2006). This study focuses on how middle managers' working environment and the situations they face may predict self-reported transformational leadership behaviors in two samples of middle managers. Previous studies have confirmed the importance of the middle manager in ensuring health and well-being of followers through transformational leadership behaviors (Arnold et al., 2007, Nielsen, Randall, et al., 2008, Nielsen, Yarker, et al., 2008). Twenty-eight managers from public sector elderly care and 30 managers from a private accountancy firm were included in the study.

Transformational leadership has been predominantly measured at the individual level through followers' evaluations via questionnaires. However, in order to promote transformational leadership behaviors it may be useful to explore the situations in which middle managers report exerting transformational leadership behaviors. This may provide valuable insight as to how such behaviors may be encouraged. To this end, the possibilities inherent in experience sampling method (ESM) study designs are potentially well suited, since participants in ESM studies report their momentary experiences or subjective feelings, and/or record momentary measures of psychological variables. Participating subjects are beeped at random or fixed intervals over a number of days and requested to complete a short questionnaire (Schimmack, 2003, Scollon et al., 2003).

ESM strives to eliminate the threat of recall bias, which can be problematic due to selective memory processes, thereby allowing researchers access to psychological variables at the time level in which they emerge. The method is, moreover, able to generate data which enables the investigation of the dynamic processes of events (Alliger and Williams, 1993, Scollon et al., 2003). ESM allows the study of interactions between situational variables, cognitive and affective states, and, in combination with questionnaire data, stable perceptions of overall working conditions (Alliger and Williams, 1993, Csikszentmihalyi and Larson, 1992, Hektner and Csikszentmihalyi, 2002, Kubey et al., 1996). The objective is to identify and analyze how patterns in people's subjective experience relate to the wider conditions of their lives (Alliger and Williams, 1993, Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

In organizational research, ESM has been used to investigate job satisfaction (Ilies and Judge, 2002, Ilies and Judge, 2004, Weiss et al., 1999), mood and emotions (Fisher, 2000), task enjoyment and mood (Alliger & Williams, 1993), task-relevant cognitions and emotions (Fisher & Noble, 2004), work stressors and negative and positive affect (Daniels, Hartley, & Travers, 2006), engagement (Sonnentag et al., 2008, Xanthopoulou et al., 2009), and the relationship between time pressure, negative mood and emotional exhaustion (Teuchmann, Totterdell, & Parker, 1999). Using ESM to measure transformational leadership allows us to identify in which situations leaders report that they exert transformational leadership behaviors, and, in combination with more general perceptions of the working environment, offer an understanding of the conditions under which transformational leadership behaviors are reported.

In this study we combined ESM data with questionnaire data to achieve a more complete picture of the predictors of transformational leadership. We did this by using ESM to study actual self-reported transformational leadership behaviors and the situation in which they may occur and combined these with middle managers' overall self-reported ratings of their general working environment using questionnaire data. Thus we measured the antecedents of middle managers' self-reported transformational leadership behaviors at two levels: The situation and the appraisals of stable working conditions.

Using a multi-method approach it is possible to identify working conditions and situations that may be related to transformational leadership behaviors.

In order to identify the antecedents of self-reported transformational leadership behaviors, a first step is to identify in which situations middle managers are likely to report exerting such behaviors. To this end the characteristics of the situation must be identified. What kinds of activities may bring about transformational leadership behaviors? Two types of situational factors were investigated:

• Activities: Based on the problem solving cycle (Scott & Bruce, 1994), six activities were explored: Information sharing, brainstorming, planning, problem solving, discussion, and evaluation. For middle managers to report exerting transformational leadership behaviors, one would expect that they involve situations where the situation allows the leader to encourage employees to engage in cognitively challenging activities, e.g. problem solving (Bass, 1999). It is not, of course, only the leader him- or herself that creates such situations, since there must be activities undertaken by followers and leaders that actually offer cognitive challenges. One would, moreover, expect more cognitively demanding activities, such as problem solving, brainstorming and evaluation, to be more strongly related to transformational leadership behaviors than situations where the leader engages in information sharing and planning that may offer fewer opportunities to develop and motivate followers.

• Control: An important predictor of situations where the leader can exert transformational leadership behaviors may be the degree to which the leader feels in control of the situation. If the leader does not feel in control of the situation s/he may not be able to decide which kind of behavior to engage in, e.g. encourage problem solving and/or communicate a clear vision.

It is, therefore, hypothesized that situations with high levels of control are likely to be associated with transformational leadership behaviors. Based on these two factors our first hypothesis can be formulated.

Hypothesis 1

Situation-specific characteristics predict transformational leadership behaviors. Specifically cognitively demanding situations and situations where the leader feels in control will be positively associated with transformational leadership behaviors.

Equally important in identifying what may be related to self-reported transformational leadership behaviors is the consideration of the wider work context.

• Cognitive demands. An important aspect of transformational leadership is the motivation of followers to think independently and engage in problem solving (Bass, 1999). It is likely that for the leader to encourage such behaviors s/he must also feel that the environment challenges his/her own cognitive abilities. Generally an environment that is continually stimulating may also provide situations in which the leader can encourage followers to engage in cognitively challenging behaviors. Recently, the contagion effect (Westman, 2001) has received increased attention: Middle managers' moods and emotions influence the moods and emotions of their middle managers (Glasø and Einarsen, 2006, Sy et al., 2005). A similar mechanism may take place with regards to the working conditions that can spur transformational leadership behaviors. If a middle manager experiences a job as cognitively challenging this may raise his or her awareness of the benefits of feeling challenged at work and thus influence his or her behaviors in a way which include attempts to challenge followers. A job that requires the middle manager to come up with new ideas may result in the middle manager encouraging his or her followers to engage in similar activities thereby stimulating them intellectually. Feeling challenged at work may also lead middle managers to feel innovative at work and show individual consideration to the needs of the individual follower and focus on how s/he could be challenged.

• Meaningful work. An important part of transformational leadership is to present followers with a vision and help them see the ‘bigger picture’ (Nielsen, Randall, et al., 2008). Studies have found that transformational leadership may be related to followers' actual experience of meaningful work, both cross-sectionally (Arnold et al., 2007, Nielsen, Yarker, et al., 2008) and over time (Nielsen, Randall, et al., 2008). Further, Sparks and Schenk (2001) found that transformational leaders inspire a ‘higher purpose’ in followers' work. However, this may only be possible if the manager perceives her/his job to be meaningful and is able to see where s/he belongs in the wider organization. It is possible that for the middle managers to act as role models, they must themselves be able to see the bigger picture and understand where they and their values fit in. It is possible that in order for middle managers to intellectually stimulate their followers and encourage them to explore new perspectives of problems, middle managers themselves must feel they make a significant contribution to their work and engage in the challenges their organization face. If middle managers see the bigger picture this may encourage them to engage in coaching and mentoring behaviors helping followers to develop in their job.

Hypothesis 2

Managers' perceptions of the work environment will be related to their self-reported transformational leadership behaviors. Specifically, high cognitive demands and having a meaningful work will be positively related to transformational leadership behaviors.