An Analysis of the Components of Transformational Leadership Which Affect
Innovative Work Behavior
Rutchapong Chatchawan1, Kanon Trichandhara2, Idsaratt Rinthaisong3
Student Ph.D. (Management), Faculty of Management Science, Prince of Songkla University,
[email protected]
2
Asst. Prof. Dr. Department of Public Administration Faculty of Management Sciences,
Prince of Songkla University, [email protected]
3
Dr. Department of Public Administration Faculty of Management Sciences, Prince of
Songkla University, [email protected]
1
Abstract
This study aimed to analyze the components of transformational leadership which affect innovative
work behavior. A document research method was used in the study to present an analysis of relevant
theories, research studies, books, and articles published in Thailand and in other countries. The findings
reveal that transformational leadership plays an important role in developing innovative work behavior,
which is critical to the survival of organizations nowadays. From a review of relevant literature, this
study also presents the four components of transformational leadership, which consist of 1) Idealized
Influence, 2) Inspirational Motivation, 3) Intellectual Stimulation, and 4) Individualized Consideration.
Keywords: innovative work behavior, transformational leadership
1. Introduction
“Innovation” is derived from the Latin word
“innovare”, which means “to create something
new” (National Innovation Agency, 2004) .
Innovation is an important and interrelated
concept in economics, social studies, politics,
and cultural studies. It creates structural changes
in the manufacturing and service industries, as
well as shaping the social structure. Innovation
is an economic driver. It increases international
competitiveness of the country ( Yodyingyong,
2009) . At present, rapid advancement in science
and technology has gradually changed the global
community to a knowledge-based society. In
today’s economic competition, organizations
and countries rely on knowledge to survive,
grow, and assure their security. The current
economic system does not depend on land, labor,
or capital any longer. Instead, the economy is
driven by knowledge and innovation. The
studies of innovation initially focused on how to
distinguish organizations from their competitors.
Recently, a study of human behavior in
connection with innovation was introduced and
later defined as innovative work behavior. The
concept was developed to encourage better work
performance of the employees and the
organizations (De Jong & Den Hartog, 2008).
In several research studies, it appears that
innovative work behavior is influenced by both
direct and indirect factors. It is found that
transformational leadership strongly affect
innovative work behavior. This concept is also
supported by the studies of Mark et al., (2008),
Rabia et al., (2009), Yaping et al., (2009), and
Ghulam et al., (2012). The four basic components
that underlie transformational leadership are
Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation,
Intellectual Stimulation, and Individualized
Consideration (Bass & Avolio, 1996).
In this study, concepts, theories, and research
studies related to the components of transformational
leadership which affect innovative work
behavior were analyzed and synthesized. It is
hoped that this study is able to provide useful
information for organizations to develop
innovative work behavior among their
employees to guarantee efficacy and success of
the organizations.
Objective
To analyze the components of transformational
leadership which affects innovative work
behavior
Research Methodology
This study was conducted through a review of
literature and document analysis. The data was
presented in a form of descriptive report with an
analysis of secondary data which was
gathered from relevant documents and research
studies, as well as from electronic database
including Business Source Complete, Emerald
Full Text, JSTOR, Science Direct, Scopus,
Web of Science, Google Scholar and Wiley
Online Library. The search terms used to
retrieve data are Innovative Work Behavior and
Transformation Leadership.
Results
1.1 Definition of Transformational Leadership
Several leading scholars have a common view
on transformational leadership focusing on the
employees’ acceptance of objectives and
missions of the organization to pursue and
achieve their goals. Leithwood (1990) defines
transformational leadership as a process of
setting directions by communicating mutual
missions and a positive response to a higher
level of expectations in work behavior to
achieve objectives through a structure and
system of the organization. Transformational
leaders make the followers feel that their leader
has a special ability to incorporate positive
power by building trust among the employees to
overcome obstacles and bring pride to them. The
followers associate a leader with a symbol of
success and professionalism. Bass & Avolio
(1994) believe that transformational leaders are
able to inspire the followers and engage them in
new perspectives of work to have awareness of
organizational visions and missions and to
increase their capacity and potential.
Transformational leaders can motivate the
followers to focus on greater organizational
objectives rather than their own aims.
Transformational leaders inspire the followers
to attempt higher than their expected level and
challenge them to have high expectations and to
achieve higher levels of idealized performance.
Razik & Swanson (1998) define transformational
leaders as those who can motivate employees to
perform better than their usual levels and focus
on achieving a high level of performance.
Transformational leaders provide reassurance to
employees to complete missions. Williams
(2005) refers transformational leaders to those
who make employees aware of and accept group
objectives or goals and the benefits to the group.
Van Woerkom & De Reuver (2009) state that
transformational leaders incorporate an
individual’s goal with the organizational goals.
In Thailand, Kecharananta (2003) suggests
that a transformational leader is either a member
of the organization or an outside collaborator
whose main objectives are to bring in
knowledge, skills, and experience to facilitate
organizational changes effectively. Rakthai
(2003) explains that a transformation leader is a
person who sees the need to change and is in a
position to work with the group to achieve the
objective.
This study, therefore, concludes that transformational
leadership refers to the leader’s ability to motivate
the employees, build trust and confidence, and
influence them to attempt a higher level of
performance in the best interest of the greater
organization.
1.2 Components of transformational leadership
To increase the organizational efficacy and
performance, transformational leaders require
different dimensions of leadership to pose some
changes to followers and the organization.
Transformational leaders influence the
employees’ creativity directly by increasing
their intrinsic motivation and indirectly by
providing a supportive work environment to
nurture the employees’ experiments and
initiatives without any fear of being punished if
the results does not meet the expectations
(Amabile et al., 1998). The concept of
transformational leadership was a new
paradigm of leadership models (Bass, 1997)
which was further developed by Burns (1978)
and Bass (1985). Transformational leadership
establishes a paradigm shift from the traditional
concept towards leadership because it entails
power distribution, motivation and morale to
encourage leadership among the followers
through a variety of mechanisms. Transformational
leadership is crucial to successful organizations
in today’s rapidly changing world (Mosley et al.,
1996). Bass & Avolio (1996) investigate and
compare different leadership styles and
leadership effectiveness in making the
followers attempt higher levels of performance
than their expectations and gain improved
skills, as well as an ability to make the
followers aware of the organizational missions
and vision and to focus on the organizational
aims more than their own ones. Bass & Avolio
(1996) propose the four components of
transformational leadership as follows.
1.) Idealized Influence
Idealized Influence involves transformational
leaders who display intelligence, commitment,
and determination to perform the work with a set
of beliefs and values. They have idealized traits.
They are admired by the employees. They are
able to build trust and confidence in the team
making the employees feel proud of working
together. The employers see the leader as a role
model. Leaders with the idealized influence
component are those with a clear vision and who
can translate the vision to the followers. They
need to have great control of themselves in time
of crisis. They need to maintain high moral
standards and do not abuse leadership power for
their personal gains. They are committed to
achieve organizational objectives.
2.) Inspirational Motivation
Inspirational Motivation refers to the
leader’s ability to inspire the employees to have
intrinsic motivation by communicating clear
objectives and challenges to the followers.
Leaders with inspirational motivation are able to
stimulate the team with enthusiasm, optimism,
and positivity. The leader’s motivation inspires
the employees to have commitment to perform
to their best ability and to have confidence and
determination in achieving the objectives.
3.) Intellectual Stimulation
Intellectual Stimulation is the leader’s
ability to encourage the team to think about
problems and draw in difference perspectives to
identify solutions by using creativity and initiations,
raising questions, making assumptions, and
challenging the usual frame of thinking. Leaders
with intellectual motivation support the
followers by cleverly involving them in the
problem solving process and encouraging them
to think freely.
4.) Individualized Consideration
Individualized Consideration is an
ability to pay attention and be concerned of the
follower’s needs and desires, as well as
encouraging them to take up professional
development programs. The leaders with the
individualized consideration component act as a
coach or a mentor giving advice and
suggestions to the subordinates and giving an
equal support to all members in the team.
Transformational leaders provides opportunities
for each team member to take more
responsibilities and help them to fulfill their
potential talents in the organization.
Additionally, Aldag and Kuzuhara (2002)
suggest that, apart from having the four above
components of leadership, transformational
leaders also require the following five unique
skills.
1. Anticipatory Skills, which involve
the ability to systematically see and
understand the pattern and the
change of the environmental forces
2. Visioning Skills, which involve a
process of motivating people or the
team to perform the leader’s or
organizational objectives
3. Value – Congruent Skills, which
involve the ability to value the needs
of the employees and integrate their
values into the organizational
objectives
4. Empowering Skills, which involve
the ability to delegate power and
responsibilities to the employees to
have ownership of the work and feel
empowered with the successful
outcomes
5. Self – understanding Skills, which
involve the ability to recognize one’s
own strength and weaknesses and
having a good understanding of the
subordinates
A review of relevant literature and
research studies in the field of transformational
leadership show that similar components of
transformational leadership have been proposed.
In short, it is agreed that transformational
leadership entails the ability to inspire employees
to trust and believe in the leader. A transformational
leader influences the employees to take up
changes, work harder to achieve goals, develop
their capacities, and contribute to the success of
the organization. This study found that the following
four basic components of transformational
leadership have been extensively discussed by
all leading scholars, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Components of Transformational
Leadership
Scholar Components of Transformational Leadership
Idealized InspirationalIntellectual Individualized
Influence Motivation Stimulation Consideration
Gholam et
√
√
√
√
al., 2015
Kristen E.
√
√
√
√
Williams,
2014
Rabia et
√
√
√
√
al., 2009
Mark et
√
√
√
√
al., 2008
Boyett,
√
√
√
2006
Bass &
√
√
√
√
Avolio,
1996
Atwater &
√
√
√
√
Wright,
1990
Bass, 1985
√
√
√
√
Kachornkit
√
√
√
√
tiya, 2012
Siwapitak,
√
√
√
√
2011
Therefore, it can be concluded that
transformational leadership plays a key role in
promoting innovative work behavior. The main
components of transformational leadership
consist of Idealized Influence, Inspirational
Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation, and
Individualized Consideration as shown in
Diagram 1.
Diagram 1: Transformational Leadership Model
1.3 A relationship between transformational
leadership and innovative work behavior
Several studies support the idea that
transformational leadership is an important
factor to promote innovative work behavior.
Boyett (2006) proposes that effective leaders
must have a sense of authority, confidence,
competence, a clear vision, core values, and
commitment in achieving goals. They must
focus on organizational goals rather than their
personal ones. Transformational leaders make
the followers feel proud to work towards the
benefits of the team. Various factors related to
transformational leadership were studied in
several previous research. Mark et al (2008), for
example, investigate the gender of managers
and employees and a relationship between
transformational leadership and innovative
work behavior. The project was conducted by
the health services team in a period of three
years and funded by Australian Research
Council. The subjects of the study were 335
employees from 41 professions working in
hospitals in Australia. Multifactor Leadership
Questionnaire developed by Bass & Avolio
(1994) and The Aston Team Performance
Inventory developed by West et al (2005) were
used in the study. The results showed a reliability
score of 0.86 and revealed that transformational
leadership and innovative work behavior have
significantly positive correlation. In addition, it
was found that more employees developed
innovative work behavior when working with
male leaders than when working with female
leaders. However, the study found no statistically
significant correlation between transformational
leadership and the gender of the manager and the
employees. Similar results were also found in a
study of Rabia et al (2009), who investigated
transformational leadership and innovative
organization. The study involved 296 managers
in the telecommunication sector in Pakistan.
Hierarchical Regression Model was used to
study a relationship between sizes of organizations
and transformational leadership. It was found
that sizes of organizations had a statistically
significant correlation with all components of
transformational leadership.
Moreover, innovative organizations showed a
statistically significant correlation with the
component of Individualized Consideration. It
also showed that transformational leadership
positively affected innovative organization and
the two concepts significantly support one
another (Gholam et al., 2015). These results are
supported by the study of Yaping et al (2009),
who investigated transformational leadership
and employees’ creativity. It was found that
transformational leadership demonstrated a
positive correlation with employees’ creativity.
Ghulem et al (2012) studied a relationship
between transformational leadership and
innovative work behavior in 200 educational
institutions (schools, colleges, and universities).
Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Almas,
2007), Innovative Work Behavior Scale (Butt,
2006), and Pearson Correlation were used in the
research. It was found that five components of
transformational leadership including Prestige,
Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation,
Intellectual Stimulation, and Individualized
Consideration were significantly correlated
with the four components of innovative work
behavior, which are idea acceptance, idea
generation, affective commitment, and utilization.
In conclusion, it is evident that transformational
leadership has a positive correlation with
innovative work behavior.
The relationship between the factors discussed
above is presented in Diagram 2.
Diagram 2: Model of a relationship between
transformational leader and innovative work
behavior
5. Conclusion and Suggestions
This study aimed to investigate the components
of transformational leadership which affect
innovative work behavior. Extensive literature
review of this study has demonstrated that there
is
a
positive
correlation
between
transformational leadership and innovative work
behavior.
The
main
components
of
transformational leadership consist of 1)
Idealized Influence, which involves the ability to
act as a role model and make their followers
proud to be associated with the leader; 2)
Inspirational Motivation, which involves the
ability to motivate and inspire the followers to
work with enthusiasm and optimism; 3)
Intellectual Stimulation which involves the
ability to encourage the followers to be aware of
problems in the organization and seek
innovative and creative solutions; and 4)
Individualized Consideration, which involves
the ability to deal with people as individuals
with unique needs, abilities, and aspirations as
well as making them feel valued by the
organization. This study has shown that these
components are evidently correlated. It is hoped
that the results of this study have contributed to
the
body
of
knowledge
regarding
transformational leadership and innovative work
behavior. The results of this study can also be
used as guidelines to promote and develop
transformational leaders on the organizations
in the hope of encouraging innovative work
behavior to increase the efficacy and
performance of the organizations.
2. Acknowledgment
This study is funded by Prince of Songkla
University’s Postgraduate Studies Fund.
References
[1] Abbas, G., Iqbal, J., Waheed, A., & Riaz,
M., N. (2012). Relationship between
Transformational Leadership Style and
Innovative Work Behavior in Educational
Institutions. Journal of Behavioural
Sciences, 22(3), 18-32.
[2] Almas, S. (2007). Leadership styles as
predictors of conflict management styles
(Unpublished M. Phil dissertation).
National Institute of Psychology, Quaid-iAam University Islamabad, Pakistan.
[3] Aldag, R. J. & Kuzuhara, L. W. (2002).
Organizational Behavior and
Management. Ohio, USA: South-Western,
Thomson learning.
[4] Amabile, T. M. (1998). How to Kill
Creativity. Harvard Business Review,
76(9), 77-87.
[5] Bass, B. M. (1997). Does the
transactional/transformational leadership
transcend organizational and national
boundaries?. American Psychologist, 52.
130-139.
[6] Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1996). The
transformation and transactional
leadership of men and woman. Applied
Psychology: An International Reviews,
45(1), 5-35.
[7] Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1994).
Improving Organizational Effectiveness
Through Transformational Leadership.
Thousand oaks CA: Sage.
[8] Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and
Performance beyond Expectations. New
York: Free Press.
[9] Boyett, J. H. (2006). The Science of
Leadership Transformational leadership
the highly effective leader/ follower
relationship. Retrieved from
http://www.veritasig.com/assets/files/Arti
cles/Leadership.
[10] Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New
York: Harper & Row.
[11] Butt, S. Z. (2006). Determinants of
innovative work behavior: Organizational
and individual characteristics assessment
of military leadership (Unpublished
M.Phil. Dissertation). National Insitute of
Psychology. Quaid-i-Azam University
Islamabad.
[12] De Jong, J., & Den Hartog, D. (2008).
Innovative Work Behavior: Measurement
and Validation. Scientific Analysis of
Entrepreneurship and SMEs.
[13] Foumany, G. H., Mehraban, M., &
Gahani, S. (2015). The Effect of
Transformational Leadership on
Innovation with the Mediating Role of
Knowledge Management among High
School Teachers in Saveh City. Research
Journal of Fisheries and Hydrobiology,
10(13), 125-131.
[14] Gong, Y., Huang, J., & Farh, J. (2009).
Employee Learning Orientation,
Transformational Leadership, and
Employee Creativity: The Mediating Role
of Employee Creative Self-Efficacy.
Academy of Management Journal, 52(4),
765-778.
[15] Kecharananta, Nattaphan. (2003).
Strategic Changes and Organization
Development. Bagnkok: Exportnet Ltd.
[16] Khan, R., Rehman, A. U., & Fatima, A.
(2009). Transformational Leadership and
Organizational Innovation : Moderated by
Organizational Size. African Journal of
Business Management, 3(11),
678-684.
[17] Leithwood, K. A., & Jantzi, D. (1990).
Transformational Leadership: How
Principals Can Help Reform School
Culture. School Effectiveness and School
Improvement, 1(4), 249-280.
[18] Rakthai, Yuda. (2003). Change
management. 3rd ed. Bangkok:
Theeraporm Liteature.
[19] Reuvers, M., Enger, M. L. van,
Vinkenburg, C. J., & Wilson-Evered, E.
(2008). Transformational Leadership and
Innovative Work Behaviour: Exploring
the Relevance of Gender Differences.
Journal Compilation, 17(3), 227-244.
[20] T.A. Razil and A.D. Swanson. (1998).
Fundamental concepts of Educational
Leadership, 2nd ed.
New Jersey: Merrill Preantice-Hall.
[21] Van Woerkom, M., & De Reuver, R.S.M.
(2009). Predicting Excellent Management
Performance in an Intercultural Context: a
study of the Influence of Multicultural
Personality on Transformational
Leadership and Performance. The
International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 20(10), 2013-2029.
[22] William, C. (2005). Management .3rd ed.
Texas Christian University. Thomson.
[23] Yodyingyong, Keerati. (2009). Concept
and Process of Innovative Organizations.
Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University
Press.