...orchestra's artistic quality if there is cooperative climate in the orchestra. An empirical study of 208 musicians from 22 professional German symphony orchestras confirms the assumed interaction effect of the conductor's transformational leadership style and the cooperative climate among the musicians on the orchestra's artistic quality. Conclusions for the effectiveness of transformational leadership in organizations are drawn.

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Literature gives us several indications on how transformational leadership increases success in groups and organizations (Avolio et al., 1999; Bass, 1998; De Dreu & Weingart, 2003; Fuller et al., 1996; Lowe, Kroeck, & Sivasubramaniam, 1996). However, this positive impact of transformational leadership can not be generalized. Instead, the positive effects of transformational leadership in organizations seem to depend largely not only on the specific performance criteria, but on particular situational conditions (Gebert, 2002; Ehrhart & Klein, 2001). Since transformational leadership in organizations typically includes the leadership of groups of followers, it might not be sufficient to consider only characteristics of the individual follower. In order to identify additional conditions for the effectiveness of transformational leadership it seems rather beneficial to consider characteristics of the work group.

This paper investigates the question whether the climate in a group of followers is a prerequisite for the success of transformational leadership. According to the construct organizational climate (Schneider, 1988), here, group climate is defined as the group's collective climate "based upon the perceptions of individuals who share common [...] descriptions of their work environment" (Joyce & Slocum, 1990, p. 133). Literature reveals that group climate is a multidimensional construct and that group climate contributes to work effectiveness (Koys & DeCotiis, 1991; Kopelman et al., p. 282).

The question of whether a cooperative group climate among the followers is a prerequisite for the success of transformational leadership is investigated in the context of symphony orchestras. We assume the conductor's transformational leadership promotes the artistic quality of a symphony orchestra only if there is a highly cooperative climate in the orchestra. Although rarely analyzed in leadership research (Hunt et al., 2004), leadership in the symphony orchestra seems particularly fruitful for the study of the above question. Existing literature allows us to make the assumption that transformational leadership is especially relevant in the context of symphony orchestras (Atik, 1994; Faulkner, 1973; Boerner, 2002; Boerner et al., 2004). Moreover, a cooperative climate in the orchestra seems to be of outstanding relevance for a symphony orchestra's artistic quality. First, due to the extraordinary high level of coordination demanded from the group members (Young & Colman, 1979), the interdependence of the musicians' tasks is very high. Therefore, intense cooperation is needed to attain a good performance. Second, the fluctuation of the members of professional orchestras tends to be low (Boerner, 2002), so symphony orchestras can be regarded as groups with a high degree of stability over time. Since group climate is attained through the socialization process and through symbolic interaction among group members (Reichers & Schneider, 1990, p. 29), it is to be expected that a symphony orchestra, as do other organizational groups, develops a specific group climate.

In the remainder of the paper, we will initially explain in which way a transformationally leading conductor will positively influence the artistic quality of an orchestra. Subsequently, we will explain to what extent a cooperative group climate in the orchestra will be the determining condition for bringing in effect the transformational leadership of the conductor. Finally, we test this hypothesis in an empirical inquiry with N = 208 musicians from 22 professional German symphony orchestras.

The Conductor's Transformational Leadership and the Orchestra's Artistic Quality

According to literature, there is no doubt that a symphony orchestra's artistic quality largely depends on the interaction between the musicians and the conductor (Kamerman, 1983; Lebrecht, 2001). However, so far little is known about the particularities of leadership in the context of orchestras (Hunt et al., 2004). The conductor' s competence, credibility, and charisma have been identified as influencing musicians" attitudes and performance (Atik, 1994; Faulkner, 1973). In a recent paper, Hunt et al. (2004) integrated the work on leadership of creative people with the Competing Values Framework (CVF) developed by Quinn (1988) in order to draw a more realistic picture of leadership in orchestras. Empirical data show that a conductor's non-participative, directive leadership can foster an orchestra's artistic quality particularly if the musicians also perceive the conductor as an indisputable authority in the field (Boerner et al., 2004). Moreover, it is empirically shown that the rating of an orchestra's artistic quality rises with the degree of expertise and power of identification the musicians attribute to the conductor (Krause, Boerner, Lanwehr, & Nachtigall, 2002). However, until now no investigation on the effectiveness of transformational leadership in orchestras has been conducted.

The content and the empirical factor structure of the construct transformational leadership, which is to be distinguished from the idea of transactional leadership, are controversial in literature (Den Hartog et al., 1997; Gebert, 2002). This study draws on the concept introduced by Avolio et al. (1999), according to which transformational leadership consists of three facets: charisma, inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation. The charismatic leader provides vision and a sense of mission, instills pride, gains respect and trust, and increases optimism (Den Hartog et al., 1997, p. 21). Inspirational motivation is concerned "with the capacity of the leader to act as a model for subordinates, the communication of a vision and the use of symbols to focus efforts" (Den Hartog et al., 1997, p. 22). An intellectually stimulating leader provides subordinates with a flow of challenging new ideas that are supposed...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.




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