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Article Excerpt
This study sheds light on the mediating processes by which transformational leadership influences follower performance and innovation, respectively. We hypothesize that transformational leaders boost follower performance by stimulating organizational citizenship behavior, whereas they enhance follower innovation by triggering controversial discussion of task related issues (debate). On the contrary, we do not expect these mediating effects to hold for the relationship between transactional leadership and follower performance and innovation, respectively. Our hypotheses were confirmed in an empirical study of N = 91 leaders from 91 German companies. Conclusions for leadership research are drawn. Key words: debate, innovation, organizational citizenship behavior, transactional leadership, transformational leadership
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For a long time, the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational performance has been analysed in literature (e.g., Bass, Avolio, Jung, & Berson, 2003; Howell & Avolio, 1993). Meta-analyses show a positive relation between transformational leadership and organizational performance (DeGroot, Kiker & Cross, 2000; Lowe, Kroeck, & Sivasubramaniam, 1996; Patterson, Fuller, Hester & Stringer, 1995). This result holds for different organizational contexts and different success criteria, e.g., (group) performance (Dvir, Eden, Avolio, & Shamir, 2002; Pillai & Williams, 2004), project success in R&D departments (Keller, 1992), and innovation (Howell & Higgins, 1990; Shin & Zhou, 2003).
However, little is still known about the mediating processes between transformational leadership and organizational success (Kark, Chen, & Shamir, 2003; Yukl, 1999). While several authors have repeatedly emphasized to address this research issue (Avolio & Yammarino, 2002; Gordon & Yukl, 2004), only few studies actually did. By means of a sample of 170 companies in Singapore, Zhu, Chew, and Spangler (2005) found HRM practices (staffing, training, performance appraisal, and compensation systems) mediating the relationship between transformational leadership and performance and absenteeism, respectively. In a study in the US army, the relationship between transformational leadership and performance was partially mediated by the level of potency and the cohesion of the analyzed unit (Bass et al., 2003). Tsai, Chen, and Cheng (2005) identified employees' positive moods to mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership success whereas the leader-follower-relationship was confirmed to be a mediator by Wang, Law, Hackett, Wang, & Chen (2005). Additionally, previous research also found followers' self-efficacy beliefs (Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1996; Walumba et al., 2004), intrinsic motivation (Charbonneau, Barling, & Kelloway, 2001), agreement on values (Jung & Avolio, 2000), as well as trust and satisfaction (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman, & Fetter, 1990; Pillai, Schriesheim & Williams, 1999) mediating the relationship between transformational leadership and performance.
In summary, empirical studies on the mediating processes in the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational performance focus primarily on constructs like followers' trust, agreement on values, group cohesion, satisfaction, self efficacy beliefs and followers' intrinsic motivation. As far as we know, there is only one study (Kearney, 2005) investigating follower behavior to mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership success. This is surprising since transformational leaders are expected to particularly impact followers' behavior by "lift[ing] ordinary people to extraordinary heights" (Boal & Bryson, 1988, p. 11) and causing followers to do "more than they are expected to do" (Yukl, 1989, p. 272).
The goal of our study is to help fill this gap by analyzing the mediating role of follower behavior. We argue that transformational leadership abets different follower behaviors that lead to follower performance and follower innovation, respectively. More precisely, we examine the mediating effects of two different follower behaviors: organizational citizenship behavior (Podsakoff, Ahearne, & MacKenzie, 1997) and controversial discussion (debate; in the sense of Simons, Pelled, & Smith, 1999).
Organizational citizenship behavior is explicitly defined as "extra-role behavior" and has been shown to have a positive impact on follower performance (MacKenzie, Podsakoff, & Ahearne, 1998; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000), while debate is assumed to enhance follower innovation in particular (Gebert, Boerner, & Kearney, 2006). Debate means engaging in heated discussions and controversies about task-related issues. Thus, it transcends average job requirements by including the risk of pursuing views and ideas that deviate from the shared conceptions of the group. Moreover, debate exceeds in-role behavior since it requires reciprocal questioning of controversial positions, including the risk of turning latent conflicts into manifest conflicts and thus raising the level of conflict in the group. Hence, both OCB and debate can be classified as follower behaviors "beyond expectations" (Bass, 1985) or followers' extra-role behaviors. That is why we assume transformational leadership to trigger these two types of follower behavior. Whereas OCB can be interpreted as the "quantitative" aspect of follower extra-effort, debate specifies the quality of this extra-effort, that is, controversial discussion of task related issues.
By surveying 91 leaders from German companies, the following hypotheses are tested: First, we expect followers' organizational citizenship behavior (OCB in terms of Podsakoff et al., 1997) to mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and follower performance (hypothesis 1a). Second, we suggest controversial discussion among followers (debate as meant by Simons et al., 1999) to be a mediator between transformational leadership and follower innovation (hypothesis 2a). Whereas OCB has yet been examined in connection with transformational leadership (Bettencourt, 2004; Kent & Chelladurai, 2001; Podsakoff, MacKenzie & Bommer, 1996; Podsakoff et al., 1990), debate has not. In contrast to transformational leadership, transactional leadership may trigger rather followers' in-role than extra-role behavior (Avolio & Bass, 1988). Thus, we do not expect OCB and debate, respectively, mediating the transactional-outcome-relationship (hypothesis 1b and 2b).
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Transformational Leadership, Transactional Leadership, and Performance: Organizational Citizenship Behavior as Mediator
Transformational leaders inspire followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes by providing both meaning and understanding. They align the objectives and goals of individual followers and the larger organization (Bass & Riggio, 2006, p. 3) and provide the follower with support, mentoring and coaching. Bass (1985) identified four components of transformational leadership:
Idealized Influence
Leaders are admired, respected, and trusted. Followers identify with and want to emulate their leaders. Among the things the leader does...
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