Abstract
This paper studies on how leadership behaviors and satisfaction of leaders matters in the productivity of the organization. The history of leadership is also addressed in brief, and how leadership style came in place, from the classical management theory, scientific management theory, to the human and contingency theories such as theory X and theory Y. Discussed are the transformational leadership style, the transactional leadership style and the organizational turnover intentions that lead to the leadership behavior and how leaders behave to motivate employees to work towards achieving the goals of the organization. The data used is of scholars in sports management analyzed in the emerald articles of team management. This article explains how the satisfaction of the leader mediates in both the transformational leadership, and transactional leadership behavior, and also on the voluntary organizational intentions. The results of the analysis show that transformational leadership behavior has a positive relationship with the satisfaction of leaders. Transactional and transformational leadership behaviors have a negative relationship with the voluntary organization turnover, which has been discussed in detail. A conclusion of why leadership behaviors and satisfaction of leaders matter a lot in an organization following the hypothesis done by the Janelle wells and Jon Welty Peachey. In this research, a survey is done on leaders in sports management, their behaviors and satisfaction in the workplace and how voluntary organizational turnover may arise in an organization. In my recommendations, I have analyzed in brief on guide to the researchers on the investigation of leadership behavior and satisfaction of leaders in the organization.
Introduction
Leadership and the study of leadership have evolved from the times of civilization, and our work, work environment, motivational skills among other aspects have been studied over two centuries now (Bass and Riggio 2005). Leadership behavior theories have been developed to explain leadership, but all of them summarize leadership as the influence and power on compliance to do something (Bass and Riggio 2005). One of the major contributors of these theories was max Weber, who discussed on the bureaucratic nature of organizations that routinized the administration work, and made the consistency of the authority and division of authority much easier. This is classified as the classical management theory. In the scientific management theory, Fredrick Taylor brought in the technological aspect of machines and how to improve productivity in the organization. The main focus to him was on the productivity of the organization, and leaders were to focus on the needs of the organization, and not on individual workers. Both the classical and scientific management theory viewed human beings as machines. This made other theorists focus on the relationships and satisfaction of leaders with fellow works (Lussier and Achua, 2009). Leadership has evolved from the authoritarian perspective of leadership where leaders believed that people are lazy, and they have to be pushed around for them to perform their work effectively. A lot of supervision was needed for them to do the work that is required of them. Organizations have transformed, and people have been empowered and are motivated to work without any supervision. This is well explained by the McGregor theory X and theory Y (Lussier and Achua, 2009). The leadership styles in the organization have changed over time. However, none of the earlier theories has been able to explain how leadership behavior and satisfaction of the leader matter in the productivity of the organization and the efficiency of the leaders in the workplace.
Transformational leadership behavior
Transformational leadership and transactional leadership are the main focus in learning how leadership behavior and satisfaction to a leader matters. I focus on the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership, and voluntary organizational turnover intentions, and how the satisfaction of leaders reflects positively to the leadership behavior and voluntary organizations intentions.
Transformational leadership was introduced by the leadership expert and researcher, James McGregor Burns. Transformational leadership behavior arises when a leader and his followers work together to raise each other’s morale and motivation (Bass and Riggio, 2005). Through visions and ambitions of the transformational leaders, can help change the expectations, and the perception the employees have in the organization and work towards accomplishing common goal and objectives of the organization. Transformational leadership has four main components that guide a leader in an organization. First, the leader has to have the ability to motivate employees or his followers, to have a creative mind in solving problems arising in the organization, this is known as intellectual simulation. Secondly, leaders should act as role models to their followers and employees. This is because, employees trust and obey their leaders and tend to emulate what the leaders do. Thirdly, transformational leaders should offer support and encouragement to their followers. They should keep their communication lines open, so that employees can contact them whenever they have a problem in the organization. Lastly, a transformational leader should have a clear vision of what the organization wants to accomplish in the long run and be able to articulate to employees and motivate them to have the same vision in accomplishing the goals of the organization.
Transactional leadership
The transactional leadership style was introduced first by max Weber and later on by James McGregor. It is based on contingency, meaning that the rewards and punishment of a person depends on the performance of the individual at the work place. Some of the other assumptions in the transactional theory are that employees are motivated by rewards and punishments, and those employees are not always motivated to work and they must be given incentives to work. A transactional leader creates a clear picture of the rewards to the subordinates whenever they do what is required of them. The first step of transactional leader is to design a contract of what is required of the employee and the salary package. A transactional leader has an option of being active in management in that he or she can monitor the work of the subordinates and check on where the deviations arise and also he can be passive and only intervenes when the performance is not as per the expectations. Transactional leader also can practice the laisser-faire leadership style, where he or she allows the subordinates to make decisions on their own without him intervening.
Organizational behavior turnover intentions
Organizational turnover has been a widely researched issue where most scholars have discovered the benefits, the cost, and the negative impact of organizational turnover. The cost of organizational turnover is said to be high, and this can make the organizational be dysfunctional for a while. Organizational turnover can be classified as voluntary or involuntary turnover. With voluntary turnover, a leader or a person may come up with an idea or decision, and leave the organization with him overseeing the implementation of the decision. His departure from the organization makes it dysfunctional and creates a lot of problems. In voluntary turnover, the organization determines the stay and departure of an individual from the organization. These makes the organization to be functional, in that the organization can remove anyone who is not productive in the organization, and hire those that can work within the standards of the organization. Most of the organizations prefer voluntary turnover intentions, since it can work more effectively in an organization. Before an organization can implement a turnover it must check on the cost, and the positive and the negative aspects it will have on the organization. Employee turnover rate decreases in an organization where the organization culture is positive, also the communication channels where employees can talk to their employers whenever they face difficulties in the organization. Commitment of the employees is enhanced when the employer shares his vision and objectives of the organization with them. Also, for an organization to retain its employees, it has to involve the employees in decision making.
Relationship between leadership behaviors and voluntary organization turnover
Following the analysis of both the transformational, transactional leadership style and organizational turnover intentions, transformational leadership is the most effective leadership style compared to the transactional leadership style. Transactional leadership style is not effective in the long run. It focuses on short term aspects of the organization of making sure that is work done the right way, without making individuals think creatively on how to make things done in the organization using different approaches. This is one of the aspects that transformational leadership focuses on. Some business scholars have identified that transformational leadership has an inverse relationship with voluntary turnover; this has been proven by the research, that voluntary turnover in an organization has a negative correlation of – 0.3 with transformational leadership. Organizations that have objectives that focus on the needs and rewards of employees reduce the voluntary turnover in an organization. Transformational leadership has a direct negative impact on the voluntary organizational turnover.
It has some visionary aspects of the organization and leaders work towards fostering the growth of the organization. In transformational leadership, trust and a sense of belonging is experienced in an organization. This is especially where a follower or an employee feels that he is needed in the organization. The trust formed between the leader and the followers will make it difficult for employees to leave the organization making it difficult for the voluntary turnover. Transactional leadership also has a negative impact on the voluntary turnover in the organizations. This was tested in the hypothesis that reflected a – 0.33 correlation between the voluntary turnover and the transactional leadership behavior.
Leadership behavior and satisfaction
Following the analysis of different scholars in the sports management and the business management fields, different findings have been found to analysis the relationships between the leaders’ satisfactions and leadership behavior. The satisfaction of leaders plays a key impact on how leaders behave while they are performing their tasks in their work places. Both the leadership behavior and the satisfaction of leaders and employees have a direct impact on the performance and progress of the organization. Transformational leadership behavior has a positive impact on the satisfaction of leaders (Bass and Riggio, 2005). This is because of the visionary aspects of these leadership behavior that helps leaders learn more and be more creative in coming up with ways of solving an emerging problem in the organization. Leaders are more satisfied when they get the results on the work they have worked on. From the analysis of the hypothesis of whether the leadership behaviors have a direct impact on the satisfaction of leaders it was proven that, transformational leadership had a 0.579 relationship with satisfaction of the leaders, and that of transactional leadership to be 0.295. Satisfaction of leaders has a negative impact on the voluntary organizational turnover.
Voluntary turnover depends on the experience that an individual gets from an organization. If the experience gained over a time is low, then the voluntary turnover is high. Supervisors, who work well with the subordinates and employees, tend to have more satisfaction while doing their work, compared to supervisors who have problems coordinating their subordinates. This will make the supervisors stay long on the same employment without quitting. The leadership behavior and voluntary turnover are determined by the satisfaction an employee gets from the leader. If the relationship between the leader and the employee is good and that the employee is satisfied with the leadership of his supervisors, chances of him or her leaving the employment is low. If the employee happens to leave, he might have psychological stress on the next position he might get in the organization.
Conclusion
Leadership behavior and satisfaction of leaders matter a lot in an organization. This ensures productivity and harmony with in the organization. Transformational leadership that fosters trust and creativity in both the leaders and employees should be adopted for the growth of the organization. Where employees feel that they have a sense of belonging, in an organization, they will be motivated to work harder in the accomplishment of the organizations objectives. This can only be possible if the leaders leading the subordinates are charismatic in nature, and are ready to learn the employees, and ready to listen to the employees ideas and complains. Employees in an organization can express their dissatisfaction to the leaders in either leaving the organization, or tell the supervisors of the problems they are undergoing while undertaking their work in the organization. To encourage employees to stay in the organization, they must be involved in the decision making process of the organization. Voluntary turnover in an organization has a big impact on the organization, and leaders should be keen with the way they carry themselves out in the working places since most of the time, the turnover will be determined by them. Transactional leadership behavior should not be widely encouraged in the organization. This is because it only brings maturity at the work place, where employees learn on how to perfect their work without thinking of other ways of doing the same work in different approaches. With these organizations will develop and have a competitive advantage over other competitors in the market.
Recommendations
Other researches should be carried out not only on business management teams and sports management, but to also other managements and compare the results of the findings with the one reported above. If any variances arise from the researches, there should be a good explanation as to why the variance came up and also investigated upon.
Referencing List
Bass, B and Riggio, R. (2005). Transformational Leadership, Second Edition. New York: Cengage Learning.
Lussier, R and Achua, C. (2009). Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development. New York: Cengage Learning.