Can transformational leadership and group potency substitute for one another?

Have you ever thought that the impact of your leadership might depend on your team’s belief in their own capacities? In a CCAL-funded study, researchers Nick Turner (Haskayne School of Business), Patrick Bruning (University of New Brunswick), and Hsin-Chen Lin (University of New Brunswick) wondered how the interplay between transformational leadership and group potency predicted groups’ positive affective tone (i.e., the emotional climate of the work group), as well as inferences group members make about each others’ job satisfaction, trust in their leader, and turnover intentions. To answer this question, researchers collected data from 135 government workers in a federal agency, all of whom worked in 29 groups. The findings are forthcoming in the Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences.

Results showed that transformational behaviours of group leaders made work groups feel more optimistic, enthusiastic, and motivated, particularly when groups had little belief in their own capacity to perform. These positive feelings extended to group members’ job satisfaction and trust in their leader. Moreover, the positive affective tone of the work group was associated with lower turnover intentions among group members. Interestingly, the findings were not the same for highly potent work groups: the associations among transformational leadership, positive affective tone, and group members’ job satisfaction and trust in the leader were negative in highly potent groups.

The findings of this study challenge the assumption that transformational leadership always leads to desirable outcomes. This study draws attention to the importance of groups’ potency in creating positive outcomes from transformational leadership. While groups with low potency may need transformational leadership, transformational leadership may harm the favourable attitudes of groups with high potency.

Reference

Bruning, P.F., Turner, N., & Lin, H. (in press). Transformational leadership, group affective tone, and group member social inferences: A leadership complementarity perspective. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences.