The generalizability of transformational leadership across cultures: a meta-analysis

Abstract

The generalizability of transformational leadership across cultures: a metaanalysis Abstract Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the effectiveness of transformational leadership behaviors are moderated by a country's cultural values and cultural practices.Design/methodology/approach The authors describe a meta-analytic review of the relationship between transformational leadership and employee performance (task performance and OCBs) using data from over 57,000 individuals, 215 samples and 34 countries. The authors examine whether this relationship is moderated by the cultural values and practices of the country in which the study was located -after first controlling for methodological factors.Findings The authors find that cultural values and practices moderate the transformational leadershipemployee performance relationship such that the relationship is much stronger in countries whose culture is incongruent with transformational leadership.Research limitations/implications Data were only available for 34 countries and it is unclear what role industry type and job type play in determining transformational leadership effectiveness or if these situational variables are confounded with culture. The findings call into question the generalizability of transformational leadership across countries and cultures.Practical implications The findings suggest that the value of transformational leadership behaviors may be limited in developed economies such as Western Europe and North America, while transformational leadership is most effective in Africa, the Middle East, South America and parts of Southeast Asia.Originality/value This is the first paper to examine the generalizability of transformational leadership across 34 countries and is by far the largest review ever conducted into the relationship between transformational leadership and subordinate performance.

Transformational Leadership across Cultures: Follower Perception and Satisfaction

“…However, the question arises whether other, more distal responses are also universal. For example, do followers have pan-cultural responses in terms of identification or performance (cf., Crede et al 2019)?…”

“…Transformational leadership involves concrete behaviors that promote cooperation by shaping followers' attitudes and beliefs (Mhatre and Riggio 2014;Podsakoff et al 1990). There are some variations in typologies of transformational leadership behavior, but the dominant models all address the same core construct and have similar relationships with other constructs (Crede et al 2019;Mhatre and Riggio 2014). Transformational leadership behavior can be described as consisting of five practices (Kouzes and Posner 2017).…”

Effectiveness of Transformational Leadership among Different Cultures

“…Consequently, collectivist cultures are more homogeneous and share responsibility in groups, they are tended to follow rules and trust their leader (House et al 1997). Therefore, in these cultures' leaders should define tasks based on the group preferences and use team performance appraisal programs and rewards to increase motivation and performance (Crede et al 2019).…”

Adaptación y validación de la escala de liderazgo MLQ-5X al contexto educativo español

“…This first instrument was modified and reduced after various criticisms (Hunt, 1991;Smith & Peterson, 1988;Yukl, 1994) and subsequent theoretical inputs (Conger & Kanungo, 1987;House et al, 1991). Thus, the initial instrument evolved to the resulting Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire -short form (MLQ-5X; Bass & Avolio, 1997), which has been widely used in multiple studies (Crede et al, 2019). This instrument consists of 45 items, of which 36 are related to leadership, grouped into nine factors: five of transformational leadership (idealized influence behavior, attributed idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration), two of transactional leadership (contingent reward and active exception management), and two factors denoting the absence of leadership or passive leadership (passive exception management and laissez-faire).…”