THE VALUE OF OPPOSITE LEADERSHIP FORMS IN
CREATING COMMITMENT TO CHANGE:
THE INFLUENCE OF TRANSACTIONAL AND
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP ON INTRINSIC
MOTIVATION, PSYCOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT AND
COMMITMENT TO CHANGE AT AVEBE
Master thesis, MscBA, specialization Change management University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and Business.
August 26, 2011
BEREND H. HARDENBERG
Student number: 1838059 Van Heemskerckstraat 39b, 9726 GD Groningen, The Netherlands
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ABSTRACT
Transformational leadership, in contrast to transactional leadership, has been widely regarded as a form of leadership that stimulates commitment to change. However the mechanisms by which this occurs have gotten far less attention in research. The purpose of this study is to identify how and to which extend transformational leadership influences the attitude of followers in such a way that it raises commitment to change. Moreover, this paper provides a deeper understanding of how psychological empowerment and intrinsic motivation mediate between transformational leadership and commitment to change. In a field study, relationships between the factors mentioned above, were tested by conducting interviews and a questionnaire. The results of both were combined by means of triangulation. The findings indicated that transformational leadership is only positive related to commitment to change when intrinsic motivation mediates, psychological empowerment did not mediate between the two. Rather unexpectedly a positive direct relation between transactional leadership and commitment to change was established. This study shows that both leadership forms can help in creating commitment to change. It is suggested that the success of a certain style partially depends on specific group characteristics like, age, employment years and the levels of education and emotional labour. The research found place at one of Europe’s largest potato starch producers, Avebe.
Key words: Transactional/Transformational Leadership, Intrinsic motivation Psychological
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Acknowledgements:
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION 5
1.1 Research Context: Avebe 6
1.2 Management Question and Problem Statement 8
1.3 Objective Statement and Research Question 9
2. THEORATICAL FRAMEWORK 11
2.1 Introduction 11
2.2 Identification of Mediating Factors 12
2.3 Psychological Empowerment 14 2.4 Intrinsic Motivation 15 2.5 Commitment to Change 16 2.6 Conceptual Model 17 3. METHODOLOGY 19 3.1 Data Collection 19 3.2 Measures 20 3.3 Data Analysis 22 3.4 Interviews 23 3.5 Interview Method 24 4. RESULTS 26 4.1 Descriptive Statistics 26
4.2 Results of Correlation Analysis 27
4.3 Results of Regression Analysis 28
4.4 Interview Outcomes 32
5.
DISCUSSION
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5.1 Triangulation Results for the Hypotheses 38
5.2 Limitations and Future Research 42
5.3 Implications for Management 44
5.4 Recommendations for Avebe 44
6. OVERALL CONCLUSION 46
REFERENC LIST 47
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1. INTRODUCTION
‘’The only constant in live is change’’ These are the famous words of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, (Haxton, 2001). Change is all around us and, not surprisingly, it is therefore also present at organizations and their environment. Environmental pressures are one focus for explaining change (Palmer et al., 2009). If change were not to be in any given organization it will, sooner or later, lose its competiveness and is doomed to breakdown. Beer and Nohria, (2000) state that organizations of all sorts are complex and evolving and cannot be reduced to a single, linear objective of maximizing shareholder value. Instead organizations should increase their adaptive capacity, since the way in which organizations achieve shareholder value and the knowledge needed for achieving this, are likely to change over time.
Change is necessarily for an organisation to survive and is arguably the only constant factor in an organization, just like Heraclitus proclaimed. Despite the importance of change most change projects fail. Failure has been estimated to be between 50 and 60 percent. (Waterson et al., 1999; Scott-Morgan, 1994). One of the commonly cited causes for the failure of change projects is the lack of commitment to change amongst followers (Palmer et al., 2009). When the commitment to change is not sufficient resistance to change may occur, whether this is intentional or not. Resistance kills change and there is not a more potent opportunity killer for progress and good intentions (Maurer, 1996; Foote, 2001). Kotter, (1996) endorses the importance of commitment to change whilst the first step in his famous change model is the creation of a sense of urgency. In this phase techniques are used to focus people’s attention on the importance of change in order to meet the challenges ahead.
6 change (Pfeffer, 1994). Leaders have the power to influence followers in such a way that their perceptions about the changes become more positive (Yukl, 2001). In a situation in which larch scale changes are being made employees should all support the common cause, neglect their self-interests and be empowered in order to accomplish the preset goals. The theories concerning transformational leadership describe these important aspects. Micheaelis et al., (2009) suggest that change can be operationalized by transformational leadership. Transformational leadership involves the creation of an emotional attachment between leaders and their followers which helps to shape the values, aspirations, and priorities of followers (Antonakis & House, 2002). It is no surprise that over the past two decades, this form of leadership has emerged as one of the most popular approaches among managers (Piccolo & Colquitt, 2006).
In this study, research is done on the extend to which transformational leadership influences the change attitude of employees in a formal organization. The company in which this research is performed is called Avebe. This organization will now be discussed in more detail.
1.1 Research Context: Avebe
7 produces manly starch that is applied in the food industry. In total the derivate group consists out of seven production lines.
The withdraw of European grants in 2013 was a direct occasion to start an organisation wide business redesign project. This management practice aims to improve the efficiency of the business process by radically restructuring the entire organisation (Jones, 2005). The business redesign project started in 2006 and is bound to end somewhere in 2013. Not surprisingly, this project also affected the derivate group. The main goal for this group is the extensive atomisation and mechanisation of the production lines.
The current production process and its procedures are outdated. There have not been major enhancements in the production process for over decades. The board argues that more mechanised and automated production lines are necessarily in order to stay competitive in the future. The way in which the current processes are being managed is out of date as well. Production processes are geographically organized, which means that per story or building a small part of one of the production lines is being managed/ controlled. This results in a fragmented, decentralised operational process which is aimed at one fixed workplace. A direct consequence of this approach is that operators who work in these stations are specialists and not multi applicable.
8 and make to make the process more efficient. This should eventually lead to an increase in productivity and a decrease in downtime.
The changes made in these seven lines are not all of a physical nature. Operators and their shift supervisors have to make a change as well. Roughly these changes can be divided into two sections. First, there is an urge to increase their technical knowledge. Operators should learn how to work with the new systems and have to increase their overall knowledge of the production lines. Second, the urge for a pro-active, independent and collaborative attitude of operators will significantly increase. In order to be able to work in their new highly atomized environment, with less colleagues, a change in these behavioural attitudes is required.
1.2 Management Question and Problem Statement
The research context learns us that, due to the automation and mechanisation, operators and shift supervisors of the derivate group need to change their way of working. The hard side to this change is the technical knowledge of the lines which should be increased. On the softer side exists the need for team members display more initiative and independency. This last item is a point of concern. The plant- as well as the production manager fear that the attitude of the operators is not going to change enough to ensure the desired interaction.
9 Next to these negative change characteristics of the organization and its members there is another point that is troubling. About two years ago a CCK was implemented at another Avebe site in Foxhol. The operators had and still have a lot of trouble to adapt to the new situation. Interviews at Foxhol show that there is a strong belief that shift supervisors can positively influence the way in which operators behave. In fact they have been called the linking pin between operators and management. Shift supervisors are the hierarchical and natural leaders of a team of operators.
The management of the derivate group at TAK acknowledges this. They find it important to stimulate operators such a way that they embrace the change and work as effective as possible in the new situation. The attitude of employees toward their work needs to change. Therefore the management question is formulated as follow:
How can a certain style of leadership, used by shift supervisors, influence the attitude of
employees in order to realize a successful organizational change?
The management question provides the scope for this research. Only operators and shift supervisors at the VMF factory at TAK are included in this research.
1.3 Objective Statement and Research Question
10 collaborative. In the following chapter the definition of ‘attitude’ will be broken down into measurable factors.
Based on the findings Avebe should be able identify if, and to which extend, transformational leadership is required. In order to reach this objective, the following research question will be answered:
To which extend and how will the use of transformational leadership by shift supervisors at
the VMF, influence the attitude of operators, enabling a successful organizational change?
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2. THEORATICAL FRAMEWORK
The previous chapter clarified the research outline. It learns us that this research is aimed at investigating to which extend and how the use of transformational leadership by shift supervisors at the VMF, will influence the attitude of operators in such a way that it raises commitment for the planned changes. First a brief definition of the factors commitment to change and transactional leadership will be presented. Also the relationship between the two will be further revealed. Thereafter, the mediating factors will be introduced.
2.1 Introduction
As shown in the previous chapter commitment to change among employees is, regardless the type of change process, necessarily in order to be successful. In this study commitment to change is defined as ’’a mind-set that binds an individual to a course of action which is necessary for the successful implementation of a change initiative’’ (Herscovitch & Mayer, 2002). In the context of change, commitment goes beyond having a positive attitude towards change. It also includes the intention to support it as well as the willingness to work on behalf of its successful implementation (Herold et al., 2008). So commitment to change is not just having a positive attitude towards the change. It is bigger than that. It is a psychological attachment towards the change.
12 make them aware of the importance of task outcomes, neglect their self-interest for the sake of the organization and activate their higher needs.
The theory of transformational leadership can not be seen without distinguishing another, opposite leadership form, namely transactional leadership. This form of leadership motivates followers by appealing to their self-interest (Yukl, 2001). It is based on an exchange relationship in which the leader makes clear what is expected of followers (Bass, 1999). Though both approaches have been called contrasting, transformational leadership is seen as a positive addition to transactional leadership (Bass,1999; Yukl, 2001). The two types of leadership create a whole different attitude among employees. Transformational leadership has been argued to be effective on the process of transformation, change and innovation (Bass & Riggio, 2006; Pieterse et al., 2010). If monitoring of performance and taking corrective actions when problems arise is important on the process, a transactional leadership style would be effective (Yukl, 1999).
2.2 Identification of Mediating Factors
13 Research done in the field of transformational leadership and employee attitude is vast. A wide variety of different research methods have been employed in the research on transformational leadership, most of them are focused on leader behavior and how it is related to follower motivation and performance (Yukl, 2005). There are many positive associations between transformational leadership and follower behavior and these are well documented (Fuller et al., 1996; Judge & Piccolo, 2004; Lowe, Kroeck, & Sivasubramaniam, 1996). Since there are so many factors involving employee attitude and transformational leadership examined, certain criteria must be formed in order to select specific factors. The first and most import criteria is the usefulness for the company. The principal and problem owner should find the selected factors relevant and important. By means of interviews, their opinion regarding the usefulness of certain factors for this study was obtained. Secondly, the suggested factors must have a strong empirical background in order to give this research validity. The interviews brought two factors forward that play an important role in change and have empirical background. The first factor to be mentioned is psychological empowerment. It is suggested that employees who have a positive perception of their job are likely to embrace the change. Intrinsic motivation was the second factor which was indicated. It is thought that a highly motivated employee is interested in improving existing processes; therefore it will support changes at hand.
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2.3 Psychological Empowerment
Psychological empowerment is a psychological state residing within individuals, reflecting an active orientation towards their work role (Thomas & Velthouse, 1990). This theory suggests that affecting ones cognition regarding their work leads to an increase in motivation. The difference between psychological empowerment and regular empowerment is that the latter one focuses on the delegation of responsibilities (Leach, Wall & Jackson, 2003). Psychological empowerment tries to change the way one feels and thinks about their job without actually increasing, responsibilities or authorization of employees. It is a motivational construct which focuses on an employees perception of having choice in initiating and regulating actions, having the ability to perform the job well and being able to have impact on the environment (Spreitzer, 1995). In other words, it gives meaningfulness to the job (Thomas and Velthouse, 1990).
It is no surprise that considering its ascribed potency, psychological empowerment has received much attention. The effects of transformational leadership on psychological empowerment have been examined by numerous authors (Pieterse et al, 2010; Castrio, Perinan & Bueno 2008, Dvir et al., 2002) For example, Bass(1999) argues that psychological empowerment is a potential mediator of transformational leadership effects, whilst transformational leadership acts through empowerment in influencing work outcomes. Psychological empowerment is not only a factor which is often described to transformational leadership, it is also an important factor. In fact, Behling & McFillen (1996) positioned empowerment, together with awe and inspiration as key beliefs among followers. They state that these factors are crucial to the ability of transformational leadership to have a positive influence on the responses of followers.
15 makes it very applicable for Avebe, since the attitude of operators needs to change given their new working situation. Given the fact that numerous authors have established a positive relationship between transformational leadership and philological empowerment as described in the previous paragraphs, the following hypothesis is presented:
Hypothesis 1. An increase in the use of transformational leadership will lead to an increase of
physiological empowerment amongst operators.
2.4 Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is an ongoing process of seeking and conquering challenges (Deci, 1975). In other words is it the extent to which an individual is interested in and engages it for the sake of the task itself (Utman, 1997). The motivation to perform a task can be created through intrinsic or extrinsic factors. Intrinsic motivation refers to the motivational state in which employees are attracted to and energized by a task (Deci & Ryan, 1985). With extrinsic motivation on the other hand, the yields and the external outcomes are the motivational factors. In compression with extrinsically motivated employees, intrinsically motivated employees are more cognitively flexible and persistent to accomplish a task (McGraw & Fiala, 1982).
16 transformational leadership on the intrinsic motivation of employees. Oldham & Cummings (1996) state that according to the intrinsic motivation theory, situational factors, such as transformational leadership influence intrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation makes the difference between what an individual can do and what an individual will do (Amabile, 1988). In a change process it is important to establish driving forces that embrace and push the change process (Palmer et al., 2009). Taking these two findings into account, one can conclude that Avebe may benefit from an increase in intrinsic motivation among operators. Combing this with the suggestions that there is a strong relationship between transformational leadership and intrinsic motivation or, like Shin & Zhou (2003) state, transformational leadership can boost intrinsic motivation, the following hypothesis is suggested:
Hypothesis 2. An increase in the use of transformational leadership will lead to an increase of
intrinsic motivation amongst operators.
2.5 Commitment to Change
17 significant change processes such as the implementation of new technologies or practices. Michaelis, Stegmaier, & Sonntag (2009) and Herold et al., (2008).
This research proposes that psychological empowerment and intrinsic motivation are mediators in creating commitment change through transformational leadership. When summarizing the similarities of various concepts of transformational leadership, all of them share the common perspective that leaders should transform values, beliefs and attitudes of followers to be more receptive to change (Bommer et al., 2005). It is believed that psychological empowerment and intrinsic motivation are part of the denominators values, beliefs and attitudes. Thus, the third hypothesis is formulated as follow:
Hypothesis 3a.Psycological empowerment mediates positively between transformational
leadership and follower commitment to change.
Hypothesis 3b.Intrinsic motivation mediates positively between transformational leadership
and follower commitment to change.
2.6 Conceptual Model
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3. METHODOLOGY 3.1 Data Collection
Data was collected by conducting a structured questionnaire of 44 questions, which took place in May 2011. The operators working at the VMF factory were used as a sample for this study. The questionnaire required participants to rate the mount of displayed transformational and transactional leadership, psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation and commitment to change.
The questionnaire was personally handed out to the operators and clarification was given on why the questionnaire was held. Most of the times a direct supervisor was present which displayed upper-level commitment. In total 86 operators were approached to fill in the questionnaire, no more than 82 persons complied. This results in response rate of 95,35 %, which is extremely high. In total 114 operators are employed to the VMF. Not everyone could be consulted due to vacations and long term absenteeism. Despite the high response rate not all questionnaires were filled in correctly. Some questions were overlooked and four people refused to fill in the transformational/actional items. This resulted in different sample sizes per variable. Appendix A displays the questionnaire.
Respondents were also asked to give their age and the amount of years they have been working at the VMF. The minimum age of operators was 26 year while the maximum age was 63 year. As for the number of years operators have been working at the VMF, it varies from half a year to 48 years. It is noteworthy that the means of these variables lie high. In general, an operator is 52 years old and has worked for 18,5 years at the VMF. An explanation for these figures, which lie well above the national average, is the type of region were Avebe is located and the social values of the company.
20 A till E. The information which is obtained is very personal therefore the questionnaire was filled in anonymously.
3.2 Measures
Measures of the variables presented in the conceptual model were all acquired from previous studies. All items were measured on a 5-point Likert response scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The respondents were all Dutch and so the items needed to be translated from English to Dutch. The measures of transactional and transformational leadership were translated by Stuart (2005), the other items were translated by the researcher himself. Next to the translation some items called for adaption to individual level and context. Before setting out the questionnaire a small test panel consisting out of former operators gave their criticism on clarity and context.
The Cronbach Alpha test was used to calculate the reliability scores of the variables. The cut-off score was set at the .70 value as proposed by Nunally, (1978). A variable is therefore considered to be sufficient when the Alpha is higher than .70. A lower reliability score indicates a low inter-correlation and increases the chance of type II errors (Willem et al., 2006). The Alpha scores are shown in table 1.
TABLE 1 Reliability Scores of Variables and Constructs
Variables and constructs Items α
21 Transformational leadership To measure the construct of transformational leadership a 12-item Dutch version (Stuart, 2005) of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass & Avolio, 1990) was used. The scale was divided into four dimensions of transformational leadership, namely intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, idealised influence and individual consideration. A sample item is ‘‘my supervisor stimulates me to solve my own problems’’. Operators filled out the scale having in mind their own shift supervisor. In total five teams gave their opinion on the degree of transformational leadership displayed by five different shift supervisors. In the analysis an overall transformational leadership style score will be used, as proposed by various researchers like, Bono et al., 2007; Bycio, Hackett, & Allen, 1995). The reliability score of this scale was sufficient with a Cronbach Alpha of .93
Transactional leadership The Dutch version of the Multifactor leadership questionnaire translated by Stuart (2005) was used to measure the construct of transactional leadership. The same version of the Multifactor leadership test was used to measure transformational leadership. The questionnaire consists out of 9 items. One example of the items is ‘‘my supervisor points out the faults I make after I committed them’’. This scale has a Cronbach Alpha of .80 which makes it sufficient.
Psychological empowerment Spreitzer’s model (1995) was used to measure the psychological empowerment of operators. Originally the model consists out of twelve items. For this research however the amount of items was brought back to eight. These items can be dived into four dimensions, knowing meaning, competence, self-determination and impact. Two items per dimension were measured. The items include ‘‘the work I do is meaningful to me’’. The scale of psychological empowerment is with .79 reliable.
22 very much focussed the link between intrinsic motivation and creativity, the urge existed to combine this frequently used model with another one. The second model which is used to measure intrinsic motivation is adopted from Amabile (1985). Because the statements on Amabile’s scale are specifically applied for writers, the items needed some adaption towards Avebe’s processes. A sample item form this model is ‘‘You derive satisfaction from executing your job in a good way’’. From both questionnaires three items were selected thus this study used a six item scale for intrinsic motivation. The Cronbach Alpha is .70, which is again reliable.
Commitment to change Operators commitment to change was assessed with an adapted nine-item scale, developed by Herscovitch & Meyer (2002). This model focuses on followers felt obligation to support a change initiative (Michaelis, Stegmaier & Sonntag 2009). The scale was divided into three dimensions of commitment to change, namely affective, continuance and normative commitment. One sample item is ‘‘This change serves an important purpose’’. The scale did not meet the .70 value with a reliability score of .67. Since this score lies very close to an acceptable value, it will be seen a reliable.
Control Variables For this study the age and employment time were used as control variables. These variables reduce the potential confounding effects and maximize statistical power, since they have potential effects on commitment to change as main characteristics of operators. For example, older employees are more likely to resist against change (Van Dalen et al., 2009 and Maurer, Weiss & Barbeite 2004).
3.3 Data Analysis
23 questionnaire measure the same underlying construct. Unfortunately the factor analyses could not completely confirm the theoretical constructs, so the validity of the questionnaire is not optimal (see appendix B). Despite these implications the findings in this study will be based on the original variables and constructs, since the alpha’s of the variables were sufficient.
Since the hypothesis in this study concern the association between variables, the assumptions for correlation and regression analyses are checked. To do so, the mean of the items of each variable needs to be calculated first. Now a bivariate correlation test can be executed. In order to perform a linear regression analyses more data is needed. The independent variables need standardization to z-scores. The z-scores will be used for the independent variables and the test variable and the normal scores are used for the dependent variables. Now each hypothesis can be tested. This will be done by using the three-step procedure for testing mediation models by Baron and Kenny (1986). First, the regression of the mediators on the independent variables needs to be estimated. Then the regression of dependent variable on the independent variable will be estimated. To conclude the steps, the dependent variable is regressed to both the independent variable and the mediator. To reduce confounding effects, the control variables age and average working years at the VMF are included in all tests.
3.4 Interviews
24 approaches helps address limitations of each by providing both statistical objectivity and a deeper understanding of contexts (Lee 1991; Lee and Xia, 2010).
This research is focused on investigation to what extend the operators of the VMF are committed towards the proclaimed changes, and which factors influence their commitment. In order to gain a qualitative view on these questions, interviews were held with relevant persons at Avebe who have a basis knowledge of these subjects. Their knowledge is build up and consists out of experience, truth, judgements and rules of thumb (Davenport and Prusak, 1998). The basic thought behind this is that persons who worked with operators for years and manage their activities on a daily basis, give relevant answers concerning the perversely stated hypotheses.
3.5 Interview Method
Data collection. An interview is a method of collecting data in which questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee. It this case participants were asked to give their opinion on subjects concerning the redesign project at the VMF. Data was gathered by means of semi-structured interviews, since more open ended questions allows the researcher to ask more complex and follow up questions (Collis & Hussey, 2003).
25 interviews had a duration of half an hour, running up to one hour. The start up questions that were asked in the interviews are displayed in appendix C.
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4. RESULTS 4.1 Descriptive Statistics
Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics that were derived from the data. Intrinsic motivation, psychological empowerment and commitment to change show more or less the same figures. All three of the variables have a mean around the 3.75 whilst high scores start at 3.25 or 3.50. Moreover the distributions of these variables are almost alike. It is remarkable that the dependent variable in this research, commitment to change, has such a high score. Transformational leadership has a normal mean of 3.06 but is displaying a higher distribution score. Finally transactional leadership shows a low mean of 2.07. The deviation on the other hand is with 0.49 comparable with other variables, transactional leadership excluded.
TABLE 2
Descriptive Statistics, Frequencies, and Correlations
Descriptive Variables N Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6
1.Age 81 51.9 6.89 - 2.Employment years 73 18.4 13.5 .56** - 3.Transactional leadership 74 2.07 .49 -.02 .16 - 4. Transformational leadership 79 3.06 .79 -.18 -.03 .40** - 5. Intrinsic Motivation 82 3.83 .44 -.03 -.05 .06 .37** - 6. Psychological empowerment 82 3.70 .46 .10 .21 .10 .38** .39** - 7.Commitment to change 81 3.72 .44 .10 -.04 .28* .09 .32** .26*
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4.2 Results of Correlation Analysis
The correlation scores between the variables of this research are displayed in table 2. A Pearson Correlation test was used to calculate the figures. The results of this test show that all hypotheses are supported. In the following section each hypotheses is separately analysed.
Hypothesis 1, suggesting a positive relationship between transformational leadership and physiological empowerment, correlates moderately high (.38). The same goes for the second hypothesis which suggests a positive relationship between transformational leadership and intrinsic motivation. In this case the correlation among the variables is moderately high with (.37). In both cases the correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. Moving on to the last hypotheses 3a and 3b there is a strong indication that they should not be rejected as well. The correlation between psychological empowerment and commitment to change is with a score of (.26) lightly supported. The significance is in this case at the 0.05 level. Hypothesis 3b, suggesting a direct relation between intrinsic motivation and commitment to change is again moderately supported. With a significance at the level of 0.01 there is a moderately high correlation of (.32). As far as the correlation analyses goes all results provide preliminary evidence that support the proposed hypotheses.
28 While exploring the results of the correlation test, one striking issue springs in eye. When the direct correlation between commitment to change and the two leadership styles is being examined a correlation between transactional leadership and commitment to change seems to exist (.28). Oddly enough no significant relation between transformational leadership and commitment to change was found. This is remarkable because transformational leadership has a much stronger correlation on the mediators.
4.3 Results of Regression Analysis
Tables 3-6 show the regression coefficients for all relationships that were analysed by regression. Not only the variables presented in the conceptual model are included, the relationships between transactional leadership are analyzed as well.
As one can recall, hypothesis 1 proposed that transformational leadership is positively related to psychological empowerment. The results in table 3 show that transformational leadership indeed has a significant linear relationship (B = 0.26, p < 0.001) with psychological empowerment. The same table shows that transactional leadership does not have a significant linear relationship with psychological empowerment (B = -0.07, p > 0.05). These results provide firm evidence in support of hypothesis 1.
Hypothesis 2 proposed that transformational leadership is positively related to intrinsic motivation. Table 3 shows that transformational leadership has a significant linear relationship with intrinsic motivation (B = 0.21, p < 0.001). On the other hand no significant relation was found between transactional leadership and intrinsic motivation (B = -0.01, p > 0.05). These results are in favour of hypothesis 2.
29 positive linear relationship between intrinsic motivation and commitment to change (B = 0.13, p < 0.05). This cannot be said of the relationship between psychological empowerment and commitment to change (see table 4), whilst the level of significance that is out of range (B = 0.01, p > 0.05). However the relationship is marginally significant. In this case hypothesis 3a is rejected and 3b is not.
TABLE 3
Regression Analysis of Transactional leadership and Transformational leadership on Psychological empowerment and Intrinsic motivation
Dependent Variable Psychological empowerment
Intrinsic Motivation Independent Variable Step 1 Step 1
1.Age .01 .07 2. Employment years .12~ -.05 3. Transactional leadership -.07 -.01 4. Transformational leadership .26** .21** R² .28** .21**
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
~ Correlation is marginally significant at the 0.10 level (2-tailed).
TABLE 4
Regression Analysis of Psychological Empowerment and Intrinsic motivation on Commitment to change
Dependent Variable Commitment
to Change Independent Variable Step 2
1.Age .07
30 3. Psychological empowerment .10~
4. Intrinsic motivation .13*
R² .13
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
~ Correlation is marginally significant at the 0.10 level (2-tailed).
TABLE 5
Regression Analysis of Transactional leadership and Transformational leadership on Commitment to change
Dependent Variable Commitment to Change Independent Variable Step 2
1.Age .10 2. Employment years 3. Transactional leadership -.09 .10 4. Transformational leadership .05 R² .11
31 is surprising since table 5 did not even show a marginally significant relationship. Having that said, the correlation analysis did confirm a positive relation between the two factors as well. Transformational leadership and psychological empowerment do not show any kind of relationship with commitment to change. And so hypothesis 3a is rejected and 3b is confirmed.
TABLE 6
Regression Analysis of Transactional leadership, Transformational leadership, Intrinsic Motivation and Psychological Empowerment on Commitment to change
Dependent Variable Commitment to Change Independent Variable Step 3
1.Age .08 2. Employment years 3. Transactional leadership -.10 .12* 4. Transformational leadership -.08 5. Intrinsic motivation 6. Psychological empowerment .15* .10 R² .25
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
32 change was established. The statistical results confirmed hypotheses1, 2 and 3b. Hypothesis 3a was rejected since psychological empowerment did not mediate between transformational leadership and commitment to change.
4.4 Interview Outcomes
Now that the results of the qualitative research are presented it is time to focus on the results found during the interviews. The extra value of the interviews for this research is that they might explain why some statistical findings deviate from the former expectations. The factors that were distinguished in the interviews are categorized as transactional leadership, transformational leadership, psychological empowerment and intrinsic motivation. These are all factors that contribute to or disable commitment to change. They are elaborated in the sections below.
Psychological empowerment. All interviewees mentioned the relevance of psychological empowerment in relation to commitment on change. Operators who find their task is important and feel responsibility are most likely to understand the urge to change. Having this said one remark to this note has to be made. Without the proper explanation of how the new situation is going to be, operators might feel threatened by changes. There can be fear of losing empowerment.
33 created means to let the voice of the operators be heard. This includes daily morning meetings, line sessions, Keizen sessions, lean sessions, project groups and user groups. It is free for operators to attend these events. Though the interest to actively cooperate in the these groups is low, the fact that there are opportunities for involvement seems to satisfy operators in general. Another point that was mentioned with regards to psychological empowerment is the freedom that operators have when technical problems arise. In most cases the operators make a diagnose and decides which actions need to be taken. This advise is than passed on to the shift supervisor who has to arrange the follow up.
The common opinion of interviewees is that transformational leadership, displayed by the shift supervisors, enhances psychological empowerment. One interviewee explained it as follow. ‘‘It makes a world of difference which type of behaviour a shift supervisor displays when an operators informs him of a problem and the actions that need to be taken. Does he trust the employees analyses or is he going to check for himself? In the first case the trust in ones capacities will increase the psychological empowerment were the latter one reduces it.’’ Of course whether or not to double check the situation depends on the problem and significance of it. But still it illustrates the importance of trust.
Intrinsic motivation. The majority of interviewees mention that motivation might be the crucial key in creating commitment to change. The reasoning behind this is simple; A motivated employee is interested in the way a company is performing. Whether this is in the sense of product quantity and quality or the financial results. Change in companies is aimed at increasing these factors, and therefore the employee shows commitment to change. In this, intrinsic motivation is preferred above extrinsic motivation.
34 reasons creating low motivation. The former operator acknowledges this but does not completely share this view. Some people just like to do simple work at which the are good. Next to that intrinsic motivation is created by working in teams. Working intensive with other colleagues boosts motivation. Working in shifts is also good for the morale and motivation. The evening and night shifts are especially experienced as pleasant. ‘’At night your all alone and free, nobody is disturbing you in your work.‘’ There was also a less flattering factor indicated that boosts motivation. Operators are, in a sense, always motivated to let the machines operate as good as possible. The logic behind this was presented as follow: When the required tonnage is produced this means that there were not any problems during the shift. This automatically means that operators had a smooth and relaxed working day. This is naturally preferred above a hectic and stressful working day. Thus making sure that machines operate as they should gives satisfaction.
The reasons given for the high intrinsic motivation among operators is seem to have no relation with the displayed type of leadership. Strikingly, one commented that ‘‘Intrinsic, for me, means that external factors like a leadership style have no influence on the state of mind of an employee’’.
Transformational leadership. During the interviews a lot remarks were made regarding the importance of shift supervisors displaying transformational leadership. An approach focused on the wellbeing of subordinates was said to be increasingly significant for Avebe in the future. The reasoning behind this is that higher educated and younger employees have a higher need for a more personal approach. It is thought that the emotional attachment between shift supervisors and operators will help the process of creating commitment to change.
35 depends on the type of person. Shift supervisors are not purposely trained to delegate work tasks in a certain way. The wide variety of displayed transactional and transformational leadership between shift supervisors is remarkable. All interviewees stated that out of the five shift supervisors, one preferred extremely transactional leadership whereas another one displayed extreme transformational leadership. Two shift supervisors were more centered, while the fifth shift supervisor was capable of moving from one end to the other. In order to get a better grasp of the situation, figure 2 displays the leadership styles of each shift leader. All forms of leadership are present, but to increase its effectiveness supervisors should learn from each other so that they can switch easier form one form to the other.
Transactional leadership. There is a general agreement among the interviewees that transformational leadership is important, especially towards the future. However it was also thought that this should not rule out transactional leadership. Transactional leadership is especially useful to get things done. If serious problems occur there is need for a leader who sets out the direction and decides what needs to be done. ‘’With transactional leadership you know what is expected of you. This gives clarity.’’ For this reason transactional leadership might work to establish commitment for change. If your supervisor tells you that the change is necessarily and inevitable, one would not doubt that. Furthermore the tradeoff between work and payment will continue to exist.
36 expect to be told what to do, otherwise it will not be done. Follow up orders is easier and cost less energy than thinking for you own.
FIGURE 2
Distribution preferred leadership style shift supervisors
37
5. DISCUSSION
The objective of this research was aimed at gaining insight to which extend the use of transformational leadership contributes to the commitment to change among operators. The need for this arose out of a business redesign project. Despite the fact that several actions were taken to create driving forces among the operators, there was still uncertainty about the current level of commitment. It was found that the ‘change’ status of the operators was hard to estimate due to the high overall age and employment time. Also the low level of education played a role since management doubted if operators could comprehend the need to change. This research reveals to which extend operators are committed to change. Furthermore it identified if, and to which extend, transformational leadership is required. Hereby, the answer to the following research question will be provided:
To which extend and how will the use of transformational leadership by shift supervisors at
the VMF, influence the attitude of operators, enabling a successful organizational change?
38
5.1 Triangulation Results for the Hypotheses
Triangulation is used in order to come to conclusions on the various hypotheses. In other words, answers are provided by combining the results of the interviews and the statistical findings. Conclusions will be drawn per factor since they were deemed relevant in theory for explaining commitment to change. These factors, as presented in the conceptual model, are transformational leadership, psychological empowerment and intrinsic motivation. Next to these three a fourth factor is included namely transactional leadership. As the research progressed it became clear that transactional leadership is an indispensable variable for this paper.
Transformational leadership. The present study tested a total of three relationships in which the factor transformational leadership was involved. Beginning with the first hypothesis, suggesting that transformational leadership is positively related to physiological empowerment, strong evidence is found in favour for this assumption. First the statistical finding show a positive linear relationship, secondly the interviews confirmed the importance of transactional leadership on psychological empowerment, whilst transactional elements were mentioned as empowerment increasing. Not surprising these results are consistent with previous studies highlighting the positive relation amongst transformational leadership and psychological empowerment (Sigler, 1997; Bishop, 2000; Castro et al., 2008; Pieterse et al., 2010). Another intriguing result found is that the contrasting leadership form, transactional leadership (Yukl, 1995) was not found to have any significant relation with psychological empowerment.
39 (Piccolo & Colquitt,2006; Shin & Zhou, 2003) found similar results and established a relationship between these variables as well. The possibility of a relationship between the other form of leadership, transactional leadership, and intrinsic motivation is ruled out. Statistical findings did not establish any relationship just like the interviews.
The last assertion, although not formulated as a hypothesis, which includes transformational leadership, measured the direct relation between commitment to change. Opposed to the first two hypotheses, the results of the interviews and the statistical results do not stroke with each other. The regression analyses did not confirm a positive relationship between transformational leadership and commitment to change. However the interviews gave the impression that the relationship between the two is very strong. The common opinion was that transformational leadership creates an emotional attachment between shift supervisors and operators. Following this line of thought the willingness to change should increase when a leader supports the change. Previous research underlines this reasoning stating that transformational leadership is significantly and positively correlated with commitment to change (Michaelis, 2008; Herold et al.; 2008). One explanation for the absenteeism of a statistical relationship can be the found in the fact that both transformational leadership and commitment to change are already present in a high degree. It might be that the commitment to change is already utilized till the maximum by shift supervisors, since the descriptive statistics show a high score of commitment to change. Another plausible explanation for the deviating statistical findings can be made when is being looked at the relationship between transactional leadership and commitment to change.
40 commitment to change. Mccarthy et al., (2008) for example concludes that ‘A contrasting leadership style, transformational leadership, could enable Russian leaders to facilitate the changes required to build competitive organizations in the longer run’. The study advises the use of transactional techniques for change in all of Russia.
However this study is not committed in Russia but in a modern western country. Perhaps the positive relation can be explained by the specific characters of the operators at Avebe. The interviews brought forward that the overall education level of the operators is low. In combination with the high overall age and years of employment, it might be that the test group deviates much from an average group of Dutch/western operators. The unique characteristics of this group ultimately result in a low initiative level and a preference for working in patterns. The following paragraphs will address each of these possibilities separately.
Bono and Judge (2003) suggest that transformational leaders help followers view work as goals who are affined with their own values. The complication of this method is that not every follower is able to turn personal values into working goals. The same goes for the operators at Avebe. If a supervisor is not clear about the goals and stimulates the operator to find answers to why the change is needed himself, satisfying answers will not be found. Operators do not have the capacity to do so. The work environment at Avebe calls for supervisors that are clear about what work needs to be done and why. The statistical findings of this research support this possibility, as it found a positive linear relation between transactional leadership and commitment to change.
41 age and the longer an employee is attached to a firm the higher the resistance is likely to be. But one must note that literature is inconsistent. Kunze, Boehm & Bruch, (2009) contradict these findings while Williams et al., (2006) state that older employees might be more
emotionally stable and better capable of coping with their negative emotional reactions related to change.
Moving on to the suggested point that a lower educated employee benefits from transactional leadership, hardly any research has been done. However the possibility that the low level of education amongst operators contributed to the positive relationship between transactional leadership and commitment to change cannot be ruled out. For example, Liu et al., (2011) found that a transactional leadership style increases team innovativeness when emotional labor is low and vice versa. Hochschild (1979, 1983) referred to emotional labor as self-managing and so it is a save assumption to link emotional labor to higher educated employees. If transactional leadership in fact can create innovativeness in certain situations, why could it not increase commitment to change?
Thus we can conclude that transformational leadership is not appropriate in all situations. The success of it depends partly on the specific characteristics of a group. It is proposed that further research has to be conducted on group characteristics and type of leadership which is most appropriate. For example; what is the relation between the level of education and type of leadership?
42 feel unsecure and fear a loss in their current empowerment. The work of Gupta and Kurian (2006) treats this subject thoroughly. They state that, even positive change can weaken trust. The crux in this all is that trust in change is needed yet change reduces trust. The statistical findings can eventually be explained by Gupta and Kurian (2006) who state that a low empowerment (centralized control) can be appropriate when a fast change in overall strategic direction is required. So though the psychological empowerment at Avebe is high it will not contribute to change because the two seem to pull in opposite directions.
Intrinsic motivation. Moving on to the last hypothesis, which suggests a positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and commitment to change, statistical findings strongly affirm this relation. The outcome of the interviews is completely in line with these findings indicating that intrinsic motivation is the key to commitment to change. A highly motivated employee has the best intentions towards the company. If change is in the best interest of the organization it should be supported. These findings echo past work of Broedling (1977). She states that ‘The intrinsic-extrinsic distinction can be used to describe
states of the individual- a person's motivation or satisfaction at a given time, subject to change depending on circumstances. Meaning that motivation, whether it is intrinsic or extrinsic, helps to increase ones commitment to change. Based on the findings of this research we can conclude that intrinsic motivation is positively related to commitment to change.
5.2 Limitations and Future Research
43 The issue of social desirable responses in the questionnaire might be another limitation. This is a common problem in social research, especially concerning factors like motivation and empowerment. This study tried to minimize this by personally handing out the questionnaires on a one-on-one basis. When the questionnaire was completed it was directly processed, guaranteeing hundred percent anonymity. Face-to face interviews will lead to more social desirable answers and can be taken in account for further research (Heerwegh, 2009). However this will be very time consuming considering the size of the researched population. Then there is the fact that operators rated several factors as displayed in the conceptual model. This can possibly lead to ‘common source bias’. Furthermore the data derived from the questionnaires is perceptual due to the fact that leadership behaviors depend eventually on what followers perceive their leader to have done or been like (Bandura, 1989). In order to prevent common source bias and perceptual data, multiple sources need to be addressed, with variables collected at different times (Podsakoff et al., 2003).
The data for this current study was collected from just one company in the Netherlands. Given the specific characteristics of the population, meaning the high average age and employment years in combination with low standard of education, it is not likely that the results are generalizable to other types of organizations. It would be helpful for future studies to replicate these findings in other companies in order to generalize the findings. The findings that both transactional and transformational leadership are very important in this particular change process are so innovative, that more research has to be conducted in order to test whether this way of combining two types of leadership is generalizable.
44 relation due to the fact that the opposite leadership form, transformational leadership, is often related to commitment to change (Michaelis et al., 2009; Fedor et al., 2008). But it might be that a combined approach is more effective in certain situations and gives a better result. There is still a lot of room for improvement in the way in which change processes are being executed. As mentioned in the introduction, more than fifty percent of change projects fail. Hopefully this research can contribute to increasing the number successful projects.
5.3 Implications for Management
The results of this study have implications for company management. The study emphasizes the importance of displaying both transactional as transformational leadership in an organization that is subjected to change. Depending on the specific characteristics of the followers, transactional leadership seems to have a positive influence on commitment to change whereas transformational leadership does not. Having that said, transformational leadership is found to have a positive influence on intrinsic motivation and psychological empowerment. Indeed intrinsic motivation seems to be a pre-condition for creating commitment to change. Managers must therefore recognize that diversity in leadership styles has its benefits, because each leadership style stimulates several important factors. It is very important for companies to be aware of their entity and adjust their leadership style to that entity instead of going with the latest management fad.
5.4 Recommendations for Avebe
45 to influence the attitude of operators in such a way that they become committed to the planned changes in order to guarantee a successful implementation of the organizational changes.
46
6. OVERALL CONCLUSION
This research demonstrated that transactional leadership can have a positive influence on commitment to change. A direct relation between both factors was found. This is rather surprising since the opposite leadership form, transformational leadership, is widely regarded to have a positive effect on the process of change. This research revealed that the specific characteristics of the followers can determine which kind of leadership style is likely to be more effective. The average age of the followers, the years of employment in one function, the level of education and the level of emotional labor are factors that could have influenced the results. Thus, these factors might mediate or moderate in whether transactional leadership or transformational leadership is preferred for creating commitment to change.
47
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