Transformational leadership style’s

The primary goal of transformational leadership is to effect positive change in order to achieve organizational goals. Transformational leadership fosters a more positive working connection between management and subordinates. It aids in comprehending the changes that must be made, such as simplifying tasks to ensure they are focused toward accomplishing the organization’s vision. The leader aids the subordinate employee in carrying out their duties and responsibilities efficiently. With this form of leadership, a leader may identify a crucial step to make and then persuade the other members to carry out the desired change. Team performance refers to how well a team fulfills its key goals. Transformational leadership and team performance have been evaluated over time in by different authors in literature. Different literature materials approach the relationship between two ideas in different ways. The importance of this paper is to review various articles on transformational leadership and team performance to find out if there is any concrete relationship between the two concepts. The objective of this paper is to examine how the different articles have defined transformational leadership and team performance through comparison. To achieve this purpose, this article will review the following seven scholarly articles.

Effects of transformational and shared leadership styles on employees’ perception of team effectiveness.

The purpose of this article was to examine the effectiveness of transformational and shared leadership styles about team effectiveness. The writers this article were, Choi, Kim, and Kang. They questioned senior managers of different firms to gain information about the tasks performed by team members. With the cooperation of the managers they sent surveys to 500 team members, and they were all informed that their answers would be confidential (Choi, Kim, & Kang, 2017). A 7-point scale ranging from 1= strongly disagree to 7= strongly agree, was used to measure the responses. Transformational leadership will be positively related to team effectiveness, was the hypothesis used. The primary variables were transformational leadership (TL), shared leadership (SL) and team effectiveness. The other variables used were age, gender, level of education and tenure (Choi, Kim, & Kang, 2017). The results showed that Transformational leadership was positively related to the output of effectiveness and the overall efficiency of the team but not to organizing and planning effectiveness.

To determine if there was a typical method bias, the authors conducted Harman’s Single factor test. There was no significant common method bias established since the variance of the most significant factor was 0.31. The conclusion from the research was that transformational leadership was a critical determinant of team performance. Transformational Leadership is a leadership style whereby the command originates from the appointed formal leader of an organization. Transformational leaders are more likely to have a more productive team than leaders who use other leadership styles. Hence the transformational leadership style has a positive correlation with the team performance.

How transformational leadership works during team interactions: A behavioral process analysis

This article, written by Lehmann-Willenbrock, Meinecke, Rowold, and Kauffeld, focused on leader- team communications during team interactions to understand how and why transformational leadership can foster team interactions. Transformational leadership is a process whereby the leader influences significant changes in the attitudes and assumptions of organization members and builds a commitment towards the organization’s mission objectives and strategies. There were three sets of hypothesis used. First, transformational leadership is has a positive relationship with team members’ solution-focused communication. Second, the leaders using transformational leadership mediate its effect on team member’s solution-focused and counterproductive discussion. Third, during solution focused communications leaders statements inhibit statements by team members.

They videotaped thirty regular team meetings which lasted for one hour in two different organizations in German. They calculated means, standard deviations and all correlation coefficients using SPSS. All the sessions focused on problem-solving topics. The results of the research showed a significant effect of transformational leadership on team’s members’ interactions (Lehmann-Willenbrock et al., 2015). The conclusion was that these findings indicate that leaders can set the tone for more functional interaction during team meetings.

Linking Team Condition and Team Performance: A Transformational Leadership Approach

The authors of this article, Tabassi, Roufechaei, and Yusof, aimed at exploring a hierarchical team condition with the mediating effects of transformational leadership. The study had two hypothesis. First, there is a definite relationship between the construction teams and team performance. Second, there is a particular relationship between the transformational leadership quality and condition of construction teams. The term conditions were used to refer to factors that help make a great team. Third, there is a definite relationship between the team leader’s transformational leadership behavior and team effectiveness. Fourth, that transformational leadership has a mediating effect on the team performance (Tabassi et al., 2017). The study applied PLS path modeling to assess the hierarchical hypothesized model in Malaysian construction companies.

Survey questionnaires were distributed in three sets for data collection. They were based on Likert Scale of five ordinal measures ranging from one to five according to the level of importance. The questionnaires had their sections which assessed respondent’s backgrounds, the leadership styles of the leaders and the transformational leadership qualities of the team director. The sample comprised of 282 members 94 construction teams and their corresponding 94 team leaders and also 94 supervisors (Tabassi et al., 2017). The results from this study revealed that transformational leadership act as a mediator between working conditions of the teams and the overall team performance.

The Effect of Transformational Leadership Style on Team Performance in IT Sector

This study conducted by Gyanchandani, aimed at answering the question of how transformational leadership improves team performance especially in the IT sector. It also examined the extent to which the transformational leadership in any organization helps in team performance. The primary objective of this study was to identify the best leadership style which leaders can use to improve the team performance (Gyanchandani, 2017). The hypotheses used were, there is a definite relationship between transformational leadership made team effectiveness, the extra effort of team members and satisfaction of team members. They collected data by use of Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire criteria. Their respondents were the team members, and they were to rate the leadership style of their leader.

The respondents were asked to give their views on effectiveness, satisfaction, and extra efforts. 330 questionnaires and they returned 280 of the total. The response rate was 93.57% which is acceptable in social science. A 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all, 2 = once in a while, three = sometimes, 4 = fairly often, and 5 = frequently, if not always, was used to rank the items of transformational leadership. The results of this study showed a significant correlation between team performance and transformational leadership. The correlation coefficient r, between transformational leadership and team effectiveness, was 0.79 and the p-value less than 0.01. The conclusion drawn from this study was that teams who work under a transformational leader perform better, are highly satisfied and ready to put extra effort which improves performance.

Humor as a Relationship Lubricant: The Implications of Leader Humor on Transformational Leadership Perceptions and Team Performance

The purpose this was to examine the impact of a leader’s humor on the transformational leadership perceptions and team performance. Four authors Mao, Chiang, Zhang, and Gao, conducted the research. They collected data from leaders and followers. The study population comprised of employees of a large manufacturing company in Northern China. Team leaders rated their humor using seven items suggested by Thorson and Powel (1993a). In total, 245 leaders and 850 followers participated in the on-site Time 1 survey Sample items were “I say things in such a way as to make people laugh” and ”I use humor to entertain coworkers” (1 = never; 7 = always). The Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was 0.87.

They used three hypotheses, first, relationship conflict between the leader and his or her team member’s moderates the indirect effect of leader humor on team performance, such that the indirect impact through subordinates’ transformational leadership perceptions will be stronger when relationship conflict is high. Second, Leader humor is positively related to subordinates transformational leadership perceptions. Third Leader humor has a positive, indirect effect on team performance through its positive effect on subordinates’ transformational leadership perceptions. (Mao et al., 2017) The results of this research showed a positive correlation between leader humor and subordinates’ perceptions of the leader’s transformational leadership (β = 0.13 p < 0.05). They concluded that leader’s humor could be a great aid in facilitating social interactions between leaders and their subordinates that would translate into positive subordinate performance. They also discovered that the positive effect of leader humor on team performance would be more notable in the context of any conflict between a leader and his team members.

Transformational Leadership and Team Performance: The Mediating Roles of Cognitive Trust and Collective Efficacy

This study was done by Chou, Lin, Chang, and Chuang, and aimed at exploring the relationship between transformational leadership, cognitive trust, and team performance. The dependent variable here was transformational leadership. They collected data by use of questionnaires, whereby 320 questionnaires were distributed. The study population comprised of 160 teams in Taiwan organizations and each had two surveys. Out of the 320, 98 questionnaires were returned, which translates to a 28.78% response rate. Every question was measured on a 5-point Likert-type scale (from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) (Chou et al., 2013). They used partial least squares (PLS) approach for model testing and data analysis because it is suitable for small sample size research.

The first hypothesis was, a team’s collective efficiency affects team performance positively. The second assumption was that transformational leadership style has a different effect on cognitive trust in the team leader as its effect on cognitive confidence among team members. The results of this study revealed that cognitive faith acts a mediator between the impact of transformational leadership on collective efficacy and cognitive trust. They concluded that there was a direct relationship between transformational leadership style and team members cognitive confidence. Growth in teams cognitive faith in the leadership process led to an increased efficiency of the organization hence improved team performance.

Transformational Leadership and Organizational Commitment in Teams: The Mediating Roles of Shared Vision and Team-Goal Commitment

This articles purpose was to examine the link between transformational l leadership and organizational performance through a shared vision in an in an organization. The authors of this article are, Chai. Hwang, Joo. Transformational leadership is positively related to the organizational commitment of team members, was the hypothesis tested in this study. The study population of this research consisted of 4,126 employees on 455 teams who were working for Korean organization in the food industry (Chai, Hwang, & Joo, 2017). The length of employment varied from one to twenty-one years. They used a 5-point Likert scale ranging from (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) to rate the responses. They did an examination of the normality of the variables by checking kurtosis and skewness on each item. All values lied between -1.0 1nd 1.0 confirming normality. No multi-collinearity which was identified and |r| < .85. The conclusion drawn from this study was that the important outcome of transformational leadership effectiveness is an improved performance of the team members.

In conclusion, although other factors might affect the level of performance of a group, the leadership style is a critical factor in determining team’s effectiveness. The above-reviewed articles reveal that there is a direct relationship between transformational leadership and team performance. A transformational leader should have all the leadership qualities such as cognitive trust, to enable him/her have an influence on the team’s performance. In times of conflicts, a leader might be forced to use leader humor approach to avoid affecting team performance negatively. During solution-based communications, a transformational leader has a critical role in influencing team members’ participation.

References

Chai, D. S., Hwang, S. J., & Joo, B. K. (2017). Transformational Leadership and Organizational Commitment in Teams: The Mediating Roles of Shared Vision and Team-Goal Commitment. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 30(2), 137-158.

Choi, S. B., Kim, K., & Kang, S. W. (2017). Effects of transformational and shared leadership styles on employees’ perception of team effectiveness. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 45(3), 377-386

Chou, H. W., Lin, Y. H., Chang, H. H., & Chuang, W. W. (2013). Transformational leadership and team performance: The mediating roles of cognitive trust and collective efficacy. Sage Open, 3(3), 2158244013497027.

Gyanchandani, R. (2017). The Effect of Transformational Leadership Style on Team Performance in IT Sector. IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 11(3), 29-44.

Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., Meinecke, A. L., Rowold, J., & Kauffeld, S. (2015). How transformational leadership works during team interactions: A behavioral process analysis. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(6), 1017-1033.

Mao, J. Y., Chiang, J. T. J., Zhang, Y., & Gao, M. (2017). Humor as a Relationship Lubricant: The Implications of Leader Humor on Transformational Leadership Perceptions and Team Performance. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 1548051817707518.

Tabassi, A. A., Roufechaei, K. M., Bakar, A. H. A., & Yusof, N. (2017). Linking Team Condition and Team Performance: A Transformational Leadership Approach. Project Management Journal, 48(2), 22-38.