Are transformational and transactional types of leadership compatible? A two‐wave study of employee motivation

Transformational and transactional leadership strategies have become prominent in public administration research, but it is unclear whether they are compatible or whether they could undermine each other. We examine the combined and interactive effects of transformational and three types of transactional leadership (contingent verbal rewards, material rewards, and sanctions) on employee work motivation, conceptualized as work engagement and intrinsic motivation. Panel analyses using repeated measures of 385 leaders and 3,797 employees show that transformational leadership and contingent verbal rewards increased employee motivation. However, simultaneous use of contingent material rewards undermined the benefits of transformational leadership. Thus, the motivational potential of service‐ or community‐oriented visions was undercut when leaders also appealed to extrinsic material motives. This could help explain why financial incentives do not always have the expected benefits in public organizations. We therefore argue that research and practice should pay more attention to how different leadership strategies work in combination.     

Squatter settlements in Latin American cities: The response from government

Little attention has been paid by sociologists interested in Latin American urban problems, to the ways in which Governments have responded to the existence of squatter settlements. Government intervention in these areas, which is usually designed to ‘integrate” the squatter population, has taken several forms. Particularly in respect to housing, little has been learned from the experiences of squatters themselves, and little attempt has been made to give squatters a voice in the way their settlements develop. The result is that though the role of Government is widened, the benefits this brings the squatter population are few.     

Researching Local Government Using Electronic Surveys

E-government is a theme central to the modernisation of public services and local government in the UK. An unintended consequence of the growth of ICTs is the potential for electronic research methods to replace traditional techniques, potentially resulting in efficiency savings for both researcher and researched. Their viability, however, remains untested. The article reports on the results of two related research exercises involving e-methods in local government research. Response rates from three different survey methods-internet, email and post-are compared. Whilst ICT based surveys proved to be effective research tools, the article also highlights problems of technological compatibility and sample bias. Poor ICT skills, out of date hardware and software and deficient ICT working practices were also experienced, particularly among elected members. These problems may also potentially prove to be a barrier in creating more joined up service delivery and raise questions relating to the pursuit of broader e-government goals.     

Is there universality in the full range model of leadership?

Universality implies that the relations between attributes of the person and performance as a leader are a constant across situations. It also implies that similar concepts and behaviors associated with leadership can be relevant everywhere. It is a difficult position to maintain. Nevertheless, this lead article contends that a model of transformational and transactional leadership has some degree of universality. The article describes the elements of the model and summarizes the support for these elements which derives from research initiated in the United States. Three corollaries are discussed with supportive evidence gathered in studies conducted in India, Italy, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Sweden and elsewhere to document the universality of transactional and transformational leadership. We conclude that although this model of leadership may require adjustments and fine-tuning as we move across cultures, particularly into non-Western cultures, overall, it holds up as having considerable universal potential.     

Transformational Government? The role of information technology in delivering citizen-centric local public services

Following on from five years of ‘electronic government’, the Labour Government has recently announced a new five year plan for ‘transformational government’. Like its predecessor, t-government emphasises the important role of information technology in enabling the delivery of modernised public services. Modernisation is defined as an increasing emphasis on citizen choice, personalisation of services and understanding and responding to service user needs. This paper explores the appropriateness of the t-government agenda by drawing upon lessons learned from the preceding e-government era. Arguably the most significant citizen-focused technology of the e-government era was customer relationship management. The potential of CRM to support service transformation is explored and co-production, an alternative approach to citizen-centric service design, is examined both as a way of addressing weaknesses in IT-enabled service transformation and as a candidate later stage in the evolution of citizen-centric local public services.     

中国加入《政府采购协议》与相关法律制度的完善

中国政府采购领域的主要法律是《政府采购法》、《招标投标法》以及自主创新产品制度等。按照《政府采购协议》(2010年)文本,中国相应法律在采购主体、争端解决程序和若干具体事宜与协议存在不一致之处。如果中国加入了《政府采购协议》,上述规则有必要部分修改。中国加入WTO已10年,通过参与国际贸易获得了巨大的利益,未来也应继续上述做法。     

Training transformational leaders: a call for practicing empowerment in the classroom

This article is based on the premise that organizations are in dire need of transformational leaders who will imbue them with the values and practices necessary to survive and grow in the 21st century. Unfortunately, our educational system is not doing very much to prepare our students to successfully perform this transformational role. We suggest that the reason for this deficiency lies in the fact that too many faculty practice traditional bureaucratic pedagogies which neither models nor develops the values and skills students need to become transformational leaders. Furthermore, the extensive use of these practices serves to limit student involvement in the teaching-learning process and decreases student motivation to perform high quality work. Therefore, this article will discuss how faculty can model transformational leadership by empowering their students. We have found that this approach creates stimulating classes which increase student feelings of ownership, self-efficacy, and motivation. Moreover this experience helps prepare students to be the transformational leaders our world so desperately needs.     

THE CONTRIBUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS IN THE SUCCESS OF ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT COMMERCE

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to identify factors which affect the success of electronic commerce applications in federal agencies and to explore the role of transformational leadership and strategic planning for Web sites in the success of electronic commerce applications designed to serve citizens. Based on the literature review relative to electronic government commerce, the research model in this study postulates that transformational leadership, strategic planning for Web sites and other factors such as the size and complexity of the Web site influence the success of electronic commerce applications in federal agencies. The success of electronic commerce applications is the dependent variable and is measured by a combination of user-based criteria and system-based criteria. This research employed a combination of an online questionnaire survey and a Web structural survey. Questionnaires were electronically mailed to IT managers and/or users who have e-mail addresses at federal agencies. The results of the research confirmed the close association between organizational factors (transformational leadership and strategic planning for Web sites) and the success of electronic commerce applications in federal agencies.     

High Performance Expectations: Concept and Causes

Employees contribute more when they are aware of their leaders’ high performance expectations (HPE), but how can leaders successfully convey HPE? Here it is argued that both transformational and transactional leadership behaviors involve goal-setting, which can affect employee-perceived HPE. Using a leadership training field experiment with 3,730 employees nested in 471 organizations, the findings support that training in transformational, transactional and combination leadership training significantly increased employees’ HPE relative to a control group. Furthermore, transformational leadership and pecuniary rewards seem to be important mechanisms. This implies that public leaders can affect HPE through leadership and thus potentially organizational performance.     

A tough act to follow: traumatic executive departure and the post-transformational context

After turning their organizations around, transformational leaders often move on, taking new roles outside or even within the organization. Sometimes these changes occur in abrupt and traumatic circumstances, raising an important question: what is the impact on an organization when the transformational leader suddenly exits? This article examines the factors that shape the “post-transformational context” facing the successor to a transformational figure. These factors are seen to affect the organization's identity and followers' commitment to it. A framework and research propositions are presented, focusing on: antecedent conditions in the organization; the nature of the leader's departure; the emotional responses characterizing such situations; and the effects on organizational systems. These dynamics are examined in an illustrative case, and suggestions are made for further research.     

Optimal feeder roads in developing countries: The case of Thailand

The economic rationale of the construction of feeder roads in LDC's is that such roads stimulate agricultural activity within the area of influence of the road. Nearly all project reports prepared by contractors stress the probable agricultural benefits of feeder road construction but the evidence of a limited number of post‐construction appraisals suggests that such benefits may be small or nonexistent. It is the purpose of this article to examine the economic theory underlying the possibility (or non‐possibility) of induced benefits. The article concludes with an application of the theoretical results to feeder road construction in Thailand.     

Small Retailers in Brazil: Are Formal Firms Really More Productive?

This paper examines the productivity of formal and informal retailers in Brazil by simultaneously estimating a stochastic production frontier and an efficiency model for a cross-section of some 11,000 retail firms with, at most, five workers. Results show that the efficiency of firms is positively related with ICT adoption, managerial ability, technical assistance and participation in a guild. Formal retailers are more productive than informal retailers, even after controlling for self-selection and firm, industry, and firm-owner characteristics.     

Only If We Agree? How Value Conflicts Moderate the Relationship Between Transformational Leadership and Public Service Motivation

Existing studies find positive associations between transformational leadership and public service motivation (PSM), but value conflict may moderate the relationship. This is investigated for Danish University Colleges using a mixed-methods design. These colleges educate future teachers, pedagogues, nurses, and social workers, and their strong public service-oriented missions and potentially conflicting public values make this sector a well-suited case to test whether consensus on public values is a precondition for a positive association between transformational leadership and employee PSM. Based on a survey of 968 employees combined with qualitative interviews concerning specific public values, we find that the less value conflict, the stronger the positive relationship between the direct managers’ level of transformational leadership and the employees’ PSM. This is also the case for the top management. This implies that transformational leadership might be a way for managers to enhance employee PSM, but only if there is no severe value conflict.     

The place of corporate ownership and management in local government anti‐poverty strategy in Britain

Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh Government has developed a distinctive approach to the management of local government policy. Alongside an emphasis on welfarism and partnership, local authorities have been exhorted to put the citizen at the centre of public service delivery. Drawing on the notion of assemblage, developed in the governmentality literature, this paper identifies two different rationalities running through Welsh Government policy documents. On the basis of a series of interviews with government officials and their counterparts in the Welsh Local Government Association we find evidence of important tensions in the Welsh approach. While the emphasis on the citizen has worked in building a ‘political rationality’, the evidence from our interviews suggests that it works less well as a ‘government technology’.     

The humanitarian cyberspace: shrinking space or an expanding frontier?

In an effort to contribute to a more critical understanding of the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in humanitarian action, this article explores the topography of the ‘humanitarian cyberspace’ – a composite of ‘cyberspace’ and ‘humanitarian space’ – as it has emerged since the mid-1990s. The goals are to offer some observations about the conditions of the humanitarian cyberspace and to reflect on the relationship between the persistent features of humanitarian action and new developments brought on by ICT. The prism through which the role of ICT in humanitarian action is explored is that of the ‘shrinking humanitarian space’.     

Do Employees Feel Comfortable Blowing the Whistle When Their Supervisors Practice Transformational Leadership?

Although public organization literature is replete with studies examining whistleblowing, scholars have generally neglected the connection between leadership styles and whistleblowing. Furthermore, no study was found that examined the relationship between whistleblowing and the most often studied leadership style, transformational leadership. This article fills this void in the literature by examining the relationship between transformational leadership and whistleblowing in government agencies. After controlling for employee commitment and several power-dependency factors, the results revealed that employees were more comfortable blowing the whistle when they perceived organizational leaders and managers were practicing transformational leadership than when they perceived they were not. In fact, transformational leadership was the most important predictor. Employees were also most comfortable when they exhibited high levels of commitment and job satisfaction. On the other hand, minority employees were less at ease reporting wrong-doing to their supervisors than Caucasian employees. The implications of these results are thoroughly discussed in the article.     

Recognizing Innate Transformational Traits in Public Administrative Services: Are We Doing Right?

ABSTRACT

With shifting paradigm, public administration needs even more transformational leaders. A large part of an individual’s leadership potential refers to innate personality traits which are brought out by relevant nurturing processes. Environment, favorable or unfavorable, interacts with these processes and impacts the flourishing of natural potential. Experience promotes the positive growth of innate potential that one possesses. Using data from India, this article looks into the systematic impact of public administrative training institutes on the development of top-tier civil servants. By comparing the performance of officers in public administration training academy possessing innate personality traits suitable for transformational leadership vis-à-vis innate personality traits suitable for transactional leadership, we test whether current training evaluation promotes transformational innate personality traits and suggests the implications. Interestingly, our mix-method study evaluating the entry-level induction training of public administrative leaders reveals that there is a gap between theory and praxis.     

Examining the Mediating Roles of Affective and Normative Commitment in the Relationship between Transformational Leadership Practices and Turnover Intention of Government Employees

The purpose of this study was to investigate the indirect effect of transformational leadership practices on turnover intention of government employees through affective and normative commitment to the organization. A total of 201 respondents were surveyed from the state and local governments in the east region of a mid-Atlantic state in the United States. The results from bootstrapping mediation analysis supported that transformational leadership fosters employees’ affective and normative commitment, which in turn lowers their turnover intention. Furthermore, the strength of the indirect effect of transformational leadership on turnover intention tends to be greater for baby boomers than other generations.