Developmental Leadership Behaviour and Affective Commitment: an Explorative Study
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DEVELOPMENTAL LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR AND AFFECTIVE COMMITMENT: AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY By IGNATIUS GERHARDUS KRIEL Submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MAGISTER TECHNOLOGIAE In the subject HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: MR M.H. MEYER JOINT SUPERVISOR: MRS J.C. DIEDERICKS NOVEMBER 2008 i Student number: 586-768-1 I, declare that DEVELOPMENTAL LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR AND AFFECTIVE COMMITMENT: AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. …………………………………. ………………………….. SIGNATURE DATE (MR I.G.KRIEL) ii Acknowledgements God for His wisdom, kindness and love My wife for her unwavering support Marius Meyer for his academic assistance Roy Braxton for using the software platform Performax Marthinus Vosloo for help with data collection Emil Heppil for allowing me to use his Branch as a pilot site Hennie van Niekerk for helping to formulate the research proposal Gerrie Raphela for her help with the statistical analysis iii Abstract This mini thesis is aimed at establishing the relationship between developmental leadership and affective commitment as it presents itself across four levels of leadership within FNB Branch Banking. The four leadership levels targeted for research are Area Managers, Branch Managers, Administration Managers and Co-ordinators. The researcher used an Ex post facto research design in a natural field setting, formulating the research hypothesis that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between developmental leadership behaviours and affective commitment as reported by those whom directly reported to the four levels of leadership. Using 919 responses, the results of the statistical analysis showed all four leadership levels having a strong positive correlation between developmental leadership behaviours and the affective commitment of direct reports at a 99% confidence level. Finally the research also found that age has a statistically significant relationship with affective commitment and this should be examined in further research. Key terms Affective commitment; Developmental leadership; Leadership commitment survey; Trait leadership theories; Behavioural leadership theories; Situational leadership theories; Relationship based leadership theories; Transformational leadership; Pearson product moment correlation; Hypothesis iv Table of Contents Introductory pages Cover page i Statement ii Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv Chapter 1: Background to the study 1.1 Introduction 4 1.2 Deriving the research topic from preliminary reading 5 1.3 Identifying and articulating the research problem 7 1.4 General indication of the research design and methodology 10 1.5 Outline of the remainder of the thesis 15 1.6 Conclusion 16 Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Introduction 17 2.2 Trait Leadership Theories 19 2.3 Behavioural Leadership Theories 21 2.4 Contingency or Situational Leadership Theories 23 2.5 Relationship based Leadership Theories 28 2.6 Summary of the main conclusions 39 Chapter 3: Research design and methodology 3.1 Introduction 41 3.2 Hypothesis 41 3.3 Definitions 43 3.4 The research instrument 45 3.5 Research design 53 3.6 Sampling method 55 3.7 Research methodology 56 1 3.8 Data collection 57 3.9 Data capturing and editing 59 3.10 Data analysis 61 3.11 Shortcomings and sources of error 64 3.12 Ethical considerations 66 3.13 Summary 66 Chapter 4: Results: Presentations and discussions 4.1 Introduction 67 4.2 Delmas Branch Pilot data analysis 71 4.3 Area Manager Data analysis 78 4.4 Branch Manager Data analysis 85 4.5 Administration Manager Data analysis 92 4.6 Co-ordinator data analysis 99 4.7 Discussion of results by hypothesis 107 4.8 Thematic analysis of qualitative responses to the open ended Question in the LCS 110 4.9 Concluding interpretations 113 4.10 Summary 114 Chapter 5: Conclusions and recommendations 5.1 Introduction 116 5.2 Discussion of the salient points 116 5.3 Interpretation of results in terms of the existing theoretical models 119 5.4 Discussion of gaps in the data 121 5.5 The larger significance of the results 122 5.6 Policy and other recommendations 123 5.7 Future research suggestions 124 5.8 Summary 126 References 127 Appendices 142 2 List of Tables 144 List of Figures 145 3 CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1.1 Introduction Business is about making sustainable profits. For Human Resource Development practitioners in business, it is crucial to understand the Human Resource value chain that delivers sustainable profit, because everything happens through people (Tamkin, Cowling & Hunt, 2008). Recent studies show the pivotal role which affective commitment plays in achieving performance excellence, (Corporate Leadership Council, 2006, Eisenberger, Fasolo & Davis-LaMastro, 1990) so the question is, what causes Affective commitment and if we find the answer to this question, how can we inculcate this into our business so it becomes part of our business culture? Should transformational leadership be found to be the trigger or cause of affective commitment amongst employees, (Hay, 2007) then this is what business should inculcate into all the levels of leadership. However, could it be possible that one of the components of transformational leadership called Individualised Attention or developmental leadership (Rafferty & Griffin, 2006) as it has been renamed lately, (Wilson, 2004) is both necessary and sufficient to cause affective commitment? This study then, assumes a strong positive relationship between Developmental leadership and affective commitment in FNB Branch Banking. Meyer and Allen (1990) define affective commitment as “an affective or emotional attachment to the organisation such that the individual identifies with, is involved in and enjoys membership in the organisation”. 4 Once the correlation between Developmental leadership behaviour and Affective commitment have been established, follow-up studies can be done on causality to confirm the findings of the Corporate Leadership Council (2004) and Rafferty and Griffin (2006) which indicates a causal relationship between Developmental leadership behaviour and Affective commitment. Ultimately the aim is to build a predictive model with which the findings of Cascio (2000), Bass, Avolio, Jung and Berson (2003) and Geyer and Steiner (1998) can be replicated, proving to business, that Developmental leadership behaviour, through the employee commitment and customer satisfaction value chain, impacts positively on business revenue. Business can be provided with clear guidelines on which leadership behaviours to select for, which leadership behaviours to develop and which leadership behaviours should be rewarded. Above and beyond this, developmental leadership behaviour, once instilled into the business leadership DNA has a quality of self-perpetuation and is the foundation for greatness in future leadership generations. Galford and Maruca (2006) says the enduring value that you have, the most meaningful legacy you can leave behind as a leader, is that of developing others. 1.2 Deriving the research topic from preliminary reading When faced with the reality that there is no clear understanding of the importance of Affective commitment for business performance, or what causes it, or any substantial research done on which specific leadership behaviours within the business would drive business results, the researcher started searching for scientific publications on leadership models as a starting point. This search in sequence of publication, first led to the concept of transforming Leadership mentioned by Burns (1978) in a landmark book on leadership and then to the research done by Bass (1985) and Hater and Bass (1989) in which 5 they produced scientific evidence on the existence of a Leadership concept and model, which they called transformational leadership, which is said to have a direct effect on employee commitment (Rafferty & Griffin, 2006). Within the concept of transformational leadership, Hater and Bass (1989) through factor analysis identified four distinct Leadership constructs, one of which is called “Individualised Consideration”. When analysing articles written on Transformational leadership, it is evident that “Individualised consideration” as a component of Transformational leadership, was not given any serious research attention until recently. (Rafferty & Griffin, 2006 and Wilson, 2004) This however changed with the publication of research, first by Wilson (2004) on the traits and behaviour of Effective Developmental Leaders and later by Rafferty and Griffin (2006). These authors analysed the “Individualised Consideration” construct with the hypothesis that much of the inspiration and motivation that employees report stemming from “Individualised consideration”, actually stem from developing and enhancing their skills, thus giving scientific status to the concept of Developmental leadership. The relationship between Developmental leadership and Affective commitment is commented on by Feinzimer and Frame (2003). They argue that the most extraordinary effect that Transformational Leaders have on subordinates, is on their sense of commitment. They give subordinates meaning, identity and self-esteem. Affective commitment according to Meyer and Allen (1991) is one of three constructs which form organisational commitment, the other two being continuance and normative commitment. 6 They point out that affectively committed employees will