The Comparative Influences of Transformational Leadership and Leader–Member Exchange on Follower Engagement

Abstract

Scholars of transformational leadership and leader–member exchange (LMX) have argued that leaders are able to positively influence the job attitudes and behaviors of followers by different means. Whereas transformational leadership focuses on the leaders’ ability to transform followers through a global inspiring vision that encourages positive change among all employees, LMX highlights the importance of the leaders’ unique relationships with followers as the driver of positive attitudes and behaviors. Using field data gathered from 280 full‐time employees, the current research compared the influence of these two leadership styles on follower engagement. The results suggested that rather than the influence derived from inspirational leadership behaviors, it is employees’ unique relationship with their leader that creates follower engagement. Additionally, the results indicated that follower engagement mediates the relationship between leadership and key employee outcomes (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior [OCB] and employee turnover intentions). Implications to theory and practice are discussed.

Influence of school leadership style on effective teaching and teacher-student interaction

“…The value of correlation between effective teaching and participative, transformational, and managerial leadership styles, for experimental and control group, indicates that increasing of school leadership style values would result in an increase of effective teaching, although there are differences. The result was consistent with previously reported works, which argued that school leadership is in a significant and positive relationship with effective teaching (Lamm et al, 2016;Gregersen et al, 2014;Brown & Corkill, 2004;Saarivirta & Kumpulainen, 2016;Quinlan, 2014;Duttweiler, 1988;Burch & Guarana, 2014;Mustafa & Lines, 2014;Christensen, 2012;Sun, 2011;Fletcher et al, 2012;Price, 2015). In conclusion hypothesis # 1: There is a positive linear correlation between school leadership style and effective teaching, is well supported.…”

“…School leadership and context influence teaching and learning (Brown & Corkill, 2004;Saarivirta & Kumpulainen, 2016;Quinlan, 2014). Effective principals create and maintain a suitable learning environment (Duttweiler, 1988;Burch & Guarana, 2014). Formal leaders convey normative influence on general teaching practices such as setting standards, selecting materials, and assessing students (Mustafa & Lines, 2014;Christensen, 2012;Sun, 2011).…”

The Relationship Between Transformational Leadership and Engagement: Self‐Efficacy as a Mediator

“…Since 2009, the relationship between transformational leadership and engagement has been detected in several studies (e.g., Burch & Guarana, ; Hayati, Charkhabi, & Naami, ; Zhu, Avolio, & Walumbwa, ). The relationship seems to be at least partially indirect.…”

Human Resource Development Climate and Employee Engagement in Developing Countries

“…In spite of the widely known importance of EE, gaps still exist in the literature in the Ghanaian context. A review of the literature shows that studies on EE have extensively been carried out in developed countries (Aryee et al, 2012;Burch & Guarana, 2014;Nazir & Islam, 2017) with minimal research on developing countries like Ghana thus the non-availability of EE statistics in Ghana (Puni, 2017). Since the characteristics and culture of a nation has an impact on the employees perception of the climate and therefore engagement (Mercer, 2007), the antecedents of EE identified in developed countries may be different from that in a developing country like Ghana; where there is wide spread of informality in the public sector, and therefore the need to conduct this study.…”