CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.2 Addressing research objectives
Although the study focused on three units there was consistency in the findings from all three, therefore the findings are generalisable to the rest of the units at eThekwini Municipality. This indicates the consistency of the findings from the triangulation applied in the study. The Cronbach’s Alpha for all sections of the questionnaire revealed that the quantitative research instrument measured what it was intended to. The findings addressed each of the research objectives and were concluded as follows:
6.2.1 Research objective one
The first research objective was to determine the extent of transformational leadership in eThekwini Municipality. The findings revealed that the leaders in the municipality do not set targets for every task and therefore do not display contingent reward behaviours. The leaders preferred to give their employees space to carry out their tasks because the employees are good at what they do. Dictating and policing employees are practises that are not in the eThekwini municipal leaders’ styles. The leaders also extendfreedom to employees to think and make their own decisions while providing them with the necessary support. The theoretical framework highlighted that contingent reward is characterised by outlining tasks and providing rewards contingent to the fulfilment of the tasks (Pieterse et al., 2010). The findings pertaining to the rewarding aspect of the contingent reward dimension are concluded below.
The findings indicated that the leaders do not mention the rewards for accomplishing the tasks to their employees. They rather mention the development objectives of the IDP and constantly remind the employees that they are helping the citizens of eThekwini and making
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the city a better place. The leaders prefer to instil a sense of ambition and progress in the employees, and as a result most of the municipal employees have a higher sense of why they are working for the municipality. The findings showed that the leaders do not display contingent reward in that they do not offer employees rewards for the completion of tasks, as described by Ruggieri (2009).
The findings made known that the leaders do not closely monitor employees and control outcomes. As an alternative they use annual performance reviews, quarterly reports and monthly meetings as monitoring and evaluation techniques. The leaders do not directly monitor employees’ performances as both active and passive management by exception leaders do. The leaders also refrain from tracking employees’ mistakes but rather suggest ways of improving their performance. The leaders strongly believed that when errors occur employees are aware of what they have done wrong and are capable of resolving errors on their own. The findings show that the leaders do not exhibit management by exception as articulated by Geyrser and Steyrer (2008) and Salman et al. (2011).
The research findings addressing the first research objective, which sought to determine the extent of transactional leadership in the eThekwini Municipality, indicated that the leaders at eThekwini municipality are transactional to lesser extent. These findings corresponded with the unit heads and their employees. The next section discusses transformational leadership in the second objective and how it was addressed.
6.2.2 Research objective two
The second research objective was to ascertain the extent of transformational leadership in eThekwini Municipality. The findings revealed that the employees respect their leaders, who communicate the shared organisational vision with their employees. As a result the majority of employees are aware of, and believe in, the eThekwini 2013 vision. Communicating the vision with employees and involving them in planning process gives them a sense of belonging (Barroso et al., 2008), and also makes them committed to the purpose of the organisation. The compelling vision of the future motivates followers to transcend their individual interests and do more than they think they are capable of. The organisational vision is discussed weekly and monthly at staff meetings and the leaders constantly remind their employees that the municipality is a public service institution, not a profit making one, and that their jobs are to serve the people. The findings confirmed that the municipal leaders
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display idealised influence because they are respected by their employees and they also emphasise the shared organisational vision.
The findings further highlighted that the leaders inspire and motivate their employees.
According to Chung-Kai and Chia-Hung (2009), people are not willing to recognise someone as their leader unless they trust them. In order to inspire the trust of their followers, a leader should show similar interests to them (Ruggieri, 2009). Inspiration also concerns motivating followers to do more than they think they are able to do (Gandolfi, 2012). Employees are recognised and acknowledged when they work hard and produce pleasing results; they feel proud of their work and are motivated by the leaders. It can be noted that extra money is not the only source of motivating employees. All the interviewed leaders stressed that they do not believe that employees should be working hard for some extra reward as that is not the ideal way of motivating staff. The leaders also pointed out that motivating employees by reminding them of their contribution to others is more useful than rewards, because the employees find a sense of belonging and a sense of purpose in their work. The intention of inspirational motivation is to inspire followers by being moral and ethical, and encouraging values that are instilled in the vision that the leader wishes his followers to adopt as their own. Instead of taking all the credit when goals are reached, the unit heads provide recognition and give the employees the credit they deserve by applauding their high performance. In turn the employees are inspired and motivated to do their best at work. These findings display the presence of inspirational motivation.
The findings revealed that the leaders encourage innovative thinking and the employees confirmed that their leaders encourage them to be creative in problem solving.
Transformational leadership enhances the development of followers, challenging them to think in ways in which they are not accustomed to thinking, inspiring them to accomplish beyond what they felt was possible and motivating them to do so by keeping in mind the values and high moral standards that guide their performance (Avolio and Bass, 2002).
Biswas (2012) stressed the importance of leading a unit to respond creatively to unique or unexpected challenges, knowing what its members’ strengths and weaknesses are, and sustaining performance by inspiring higher levels of motivation. One important role that leaders can play to foster creativity among subordinates is to help establish an organisational environment in which subordinates feel safe in trying out innovative approaches without the fear of punishment for failure (Bono and Anderson, 2005). The unit heads strongly believe in
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innovation and encourage employees to be creative when solving problems. Berendt et al.
(2012) stated that an intellectually stimulating leader provides employees with a flow of challenging new ideas that are meant to stimulate rethinking of old ways of doing things. This result confirms the existence of the intellectual stimulation dimension of transformational leadership.
The findings also showed that the unit heads support employee development and are concerned about the needs of the employees. As mentioned in the theoretical framework, a transformational leader has a developmental orientation towards followers (Rowe and Guerrero, 2011). The employees reporting to the unit heads confirmed that the leaders show interest in their development. Transformational leaders deal with followers as individuals and understand that each individual has different needs and abilities, and require personal attention and to feel valued. The unit heads have listening sessions with their employees in order to hear their grievances and resolve them. Individualised consideration implies that the leader considers the ability of followers and their level of maturity to determine their need for further development. The unit heads use the skills development plan to provide opportunities for further development. This result confirms that the unit heads practice individualised consideration.
6.2.3 Research objective three
The third and final objective was to determine the most widely adopted and influential style in the municipality. The findings revealed that transformational leadership was the more dominant leadership style, as all the unit heads identified themselves as transformational and the majority of the employees perceived their leaders as such. The characteristics of transformational leadership and the dimensions thereof were more apparent amongst the unit heads than those of transactional leadership. The majority of employees also identified more of the transformational leadership dimensions in their leaders as compared to transactional leadership dimensions, therefore transformational leadership was considered to be the more dominant style in eThekwini Municipality.
Transformational leadership also proved to be the most influential leadership style. The employees were used to realise this objective because they are directly influenced by their leaders on a daily basis; the employees respect their leaders and the decisions they make. The employees are also proud of their leaders and are inspired to perform to the best of their
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ability. The employees are confident that their short term goals as well as the long term 2030 vision will be achieved. The employees also displayed confidence in the future of the organisation because their leaders express high confidence in the followers’ ability to achieve expectations and realise the vision (Barroso et al., 2008). This element is related to communicating the vision with fluency and confidence in a positive manner, energising followers and increasing their optimism and enthusiasm for the tasks ahead. The employees also have complete faith in their leaders, which proved that the dominant leadership style was also influential.