The Adaptive Employee a Study on the Effects of Transformational Leadership and the Big-Five Personality Traits on Adaptive Performance
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The Adaptive Employee A study on the effects of Transformational Leadership and the Big-Five Personality traits on Adaptive Performance Master Thesis Organization Studies 2017-2018 Stijn van Heck BSc. 607588 Mondriaan Management & Consultancy Partner Organization Details thesis Individual details Name: Stijn van Heck BSc. Administration-number: 607588 University-number: U1251301 Supervisors Tilburg University Supervisor 1: Dr. R.S. (Remco) Mannak Supervisor 2: Prof. Dr. J.M.M.L. (Joseph) Soeters Supervisors Partner Organizations Partner Organization: Mondriaan Management & Consultancy Supervisor 1: Dhr. A.J. (Alfred) Algra Supervisor 2: Dhr. J.H.M. (Johan) Jansen Title Master Thesis Title The Adaptive Employee Subtitle A study on the effects of Transformational Leadership and the Big-Five Personality traits on Adaptive Performance 2 Abstract The focus of this study is on the relationships between transformational leadership, the big-five personality traits and the adaptive performance of employees. Hereby, the relationships were tested on three perspectives of adaptive performance: total adaptive performance, reactive adaptive performance, and proactive adaptive performance. In order to test this, a cross-sectional multi method research design was used. In the first stage, multiple hierarchical regression analyses were performed to test the various hypotheses of this study. Consequently, in-depth semi structured interviews were used to validate the results found in the quantitative stage. This study provided evidence for four out of the six hypotheses around the relationship towards adaptive performance. Conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness to experience were found to have a positive relationship with adaptive performance. Furthermore, neuroticism was found to have a negative relationship with adaptive performance. No further results confirmed that there was a significant relationship between agreeableness or transformational leadership and adaptive performance. Besides the testing of the hypotheses, this study tried to validate the distinction between reactive and proactive adaptive performance as proposed by Huang et al. (2014). However, no validation was found in the confirmatory factor analysis of this study. This study contributes to the literature as it expands the understanding of the relationships between the big-five personality traits and adaptive performance. Second, the inclusion of the transformational leadership concept makes this study among one of the first to study both contextual and employee characteristics studied in one study. Finally, this study expands the research about adaptive performance by testing the reactive and proactive adaptive performance operationalization. Keywords: Adaptive Performance of Employees, Transformational Leadership, Big-Five Personality Traits, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Reactive Adaptive Performance, Proactive Adaptive Performance 3 Preface Before you lies my master thesis as the final part of the extended master programme of Organization studies. The extended master programme provided me with an opportunity to combine writing my master thesis and at the same time gain some practical work experience in the field of organization studies. It was quite a hard process to combine working at Mondriaan Management & Consultancy, working on my thesis, and next to this make sure that my social life was still going on. The past year has been an interesting year and a meaningful experience for my professional development. Although most of the process has to be done by myself I couldn’t have done it without the help and support of some people who I would like to thank. First of all, I would like to thank my academic supervisors dr. Remco Mannak and prof. dr. Sjo Soeters. Remco, thanks for all your advice, suggestions, and constructive criticism which really brought my thesis to a higher level. The meeting we had together or with the group provided a good atmosphere, I would like to thank you for that. Sjo, thanks for the two important feedback moments in the process of writing my master thesis. The suggestions and approaches during the meetings made me critically reflect on my thesis from another perspective. Furthermore, I would like to thank Dave, Ken, Sietske & Jorrit, my fellow circle colleagues. Thanks for all the talks, the room to complain when things didn’t went as planned and the feedback during the circles. Second, I would like to thank my colleagues at Mondriaan Management & Consultancy. The past year I really felt part of the Mondriaan team and really felt supported in the process of writing my master thesis. Alfred and Johan, thanks for the sharp comments on my thesis and challenging me to think how my study contributes to the many organizations out there. Roosmarijn, thanks for the checking and reflection on my master thesis. And last but not least, thanks Eline, for the tasteful lunchbreaks. Finally, I would like to thank some of my relatives and friends. My parents for the support both financial, but more important the support and love they give. All of my friend who supported me during the process of writing my thesis, I couldn’t have done it without the relaxing activities in between. Especially, I would like to thank Jasper Kee and Thomas Schoot for the feedback on my thesis and for challenging me in the process of writing it. Enjoy reading my master thesis, I hope you find it as interesting as I do. 4 Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Preface ............................................................................................................................................. 4 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 7 1.1 Research Problem ................................................................................................................................... 7 1.2 Research question ................................................................................................................................... 8 1.3 Research Relevance ................................................................................................................................ 9 1.3.1 Theoretical relevance ....................................................................................................................... 9 1.3.2 Practical relevance ........................................................................................................................... 9 2. Theoretical Background ............................................................................................................. 10 2.1 Adaptive Performance .......................................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Transformational Leadership ................................................................................................................ 11 2.3 Big-Five Personality Traits ..................................................................................................................... 13 2.3.1 Conscientiousness .......................................................................................................................... 13 2.3.2 Openness to experience ................................................................................................................. 13 2.3.3 Extraversion ................................................................................................................................... 14 2.3.4 Neuroticism .................................................................................................................................... 14 2.3.5 Agreeableness ................................................................................................................................ 15 2.4 Control variables ................................................................................................................................... 15 2.4 Conceptual model ................................................................................................................................. 16 3. Methodological Framework ....................................................................................................... 17 3.1 Research context ................................................................................................................................... 17 3.2 Research design .................................................................................................................................... 17 3.3 Sample strategy .................................................................................................................................... 18 3.4 Measurement ........................................................................................................................................ 19 3.4.1 Adaptive Performance ................................................................................................................... 19 3.4.2 Transformational Leadership ......................................................................................................... 21 3.4.3 Big-Five Personality traits .............................................................................................................