Respondents reporting to Unit Heads
5.9 Interpretation and discussion of findings
5.9.4 Dominant and influential leadership style i. Dominant leadership style
All the leaders had more transformational characteristics than transactional characteristics.
The leaders responded favourably to the transformational leadership interview questions and were less agreeable to the transactional leadership interview questions. The qualitative findings revealed that the leaders regarded themselves as transformational leaders to a greater extent. The quantitative sample validated the leaders’ view. The respondents confirmed that they also deemed their leaders as more of transformational leaders. The sample predominantly responded positively to the section that measured transformational leadership and they responded negatively to the section that measured transactional leadership. This indicates that the employees believe that their leaders have more of transformational leadership qualities as opposed to transactional leadership qualities. The quantitative findings revealed the employees deemed their leaders as transactional to a greater extent. The qualitative findings and the quantitative findings collaborated confirming the validity and reliability of the data.
ii. Influential leadership style
Transformational leadership was deemed to be the dominant leadership style in that the majority of the employees perceived their leaders to exhibit the characteristics and
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dimensions of transformational leadership. The employees were also used to determine which style is more influential because they report to the leaders on a daily basis and they are directly influenced by the dominant leadership style, which was found to be the transformational leadership style. Section D of the research questionnaire aimed to ascertain if the dominant leadership style is also the influential leadership style. Empirical research found that dominant leaders are also influential, persuasive and effective (Avolio and Bass, 2002; Bryant, 2003; Judge and Ronald, 2004; Zohar and Gazit, 2008; Ruggieri, 2009).
The results from the skewness indicate that there was a positive distribution to the answers in Section D of the research questionnaire which measured the influential leadership style. The positive distribution in Section C revealed that the employees deemed their leaders as transactional to a greater extent. Likewise, a positive distribution in Section D signifies that the responses were predominantly positive. Therefore the employees perceived their leaders to be transformational to a greater extent in Section C and they also confirmed that the transformational leadership style is influential in Section D.
A case processing summary revealed that the largest part of the respondents who deemed their leaders as transformational also responded positively to the questions in Section D whereas the respondents who perceived their leaders as transactional were primarily indifferent and slightly negative in their responses to Section D. This implies that the majority of the sample who deemed their leaders as transformational leaders also believe the leadership style is influential. This was confirmed by the following findings; 84% valued their leaders’ decisions, 74.7% were proud of their leaders, 82% believed in the short-term goals and 70.7% have complete faith in their leader. These results confirm that the dominant leadership style in Section C is also the influential leadership style in Section D of the research questionnaire.
The correlations showed that there was a weak negative relationship between contingent reward and inspiration of employees. This means that employees are not inspired by the contingent reward dimension of transactional leadership. Therefore it is not influential on the employees’ performance. The correlations revealed a weak negative relationship between monitoring employees and the employees’ confidence in the short-term goals. This implies that employees who are monitored do not have confidence in the organisational short term goals. The correlations also revealed a moderate negative relationship between the leaders’
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intervention and the employees’ confidence in their leaders. This implies that although the leaders have a desire to be proactive, the employees appreciate their space and therefore a negative relationship between management by exception and the employees’ confidence in their leader, thus this dimension is not influential.
The correlations revealed that there was a very strong positive relationship between emphasising the collective vision and the employees’ believing in the 2030 vision. This implies that the idealised influence dimension is influential because when the leaders communicate the shared organisational vision to the employees, the employees in turn believe in that vision. The correlations showed a moderate positive relationship between innovative thinking and how much the employees value their leaders’ decisions. This implies that the intellectual stimulation dimension is influential because the employees value the leaders’ decisions. The correlations revealed a strong positive relationship between motivation and the inspiration of employees. This signifies that the inspirational motivation dimension of transformational leadership is more influential because the employees are inspired to be the best they can be at work. The correlations also revealed a strong positive relationship between employee development and inspiration. This indicates that individualised consideration is influential because the employees who have development opportunities are highly inspired at work.
All the transactional leadership dimensions had negative correlations. However all the transformational leadership dimensions had positive correlations. This signifies that transformational leadership is more influential than transactional leadership in this regard.
One way ANOVA revealed that there were statistically significant differences in the employees’ confidence in short-term goals, ultimate inspiration at work and complete faith in the leader. The HSD Tukey identified which groups differed in this regard. The results revealed that employees who had worked longer in their current positions had more faith in their leaders as compared to the employees who had worked fewer years in their position.
The employees who had worked longer years in their current positions also had greater confidence in short-term goals as compared to employees who had worked fewer years. The employees who had worked longer in their current positions were more inspired than those who had worked fewer years in their current positions. This implies that there was a higher positive response rate from the employees who worked longer in their current position primarily because they have worked longer with their leaders and understand the leaders. The
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employees who have worked fewer years might be still adjusting with their work environment and still in the process of getting to know their leaders.
Empirical research (Bryant, 2003, Judge and Ronald, 2004, Zohar and Gazit, 2008, Ruggieri, 2009) displays that transformational leadership is influential because the leaders foster creativity. Transformational leaders are more creative, and they are more effective because they encourage their followers to be creative too. The leadership style becomes influential in the light of short-term goals. Followers of transformational leaders are more likely to pursue ambitious goals, be familiar with and agree on the strategic goals of the organization, and believe that the goals they are pursuing are personally important. The leaders instil these values in the employees by constantly reminding them of their role in achieving the IDP and in making eThekwini a better place.
Transformational leadership is also influential because the leaders articulate and communicate a compelling vision of the future. The charismatic leaders emphasise the vision and this vision is important in explaining how transformational leadership works because the leader must provide an attractive view of the future. Finally, transformational leadership is primarily centred on the leaders’ commitment. Transformational leaders tend to engender commitment on the part of followers and instil in them a greater sense of trust in the leader and optimism about the direction of the organisation.