James C. Sarros

Building a Climate for Innovation Through Transformational Leadership and Organizational Culture

Research has called for organizations to be more flexible, adaptive, entrepreneurial, and innovative in meeting the changing demands of todays environment. Appropriate leadership to effect such change is required; however, there has been little empirical analysis of the theoretical relationships among the key components that make up such change strategy, including transformational leadership, organizational culture, and organizational innovation. This study examines these linkages in terms of their relationships with climate for organizational innovation in Australian private sector organizations. Structural equation modeling based on responses to a survey of 1,158 managers explores the relationship between transformational leadership and climate for organizational innovation and the extent to which a competitive, performance-oriented organizational culture mediates this relationship. Strategies for building innovative organizations are discussed.

Servant Leadership: Its Origin, Development, and Application in Organizations

This paper examines the philosophical foundation of servant leadership by extracting several value-laden principles drawn from Greenleafs and Jesus Christs delineation of the concept. The primary intent and self-concept of servant leaders are singled out as the distinctive features of servant leadership. While empirical research studies are critically needed to develop the concepts underlying the servant leadership movement into sound theory, an accurate understanding of the conceptual roots of servant leadership is essential in the process. The current developmental stage of the servant leadership movement is explored in order to provide some useful signposts for future research directions.

Defining and Measuring Servant Leadership Behaviour in Organizations

This paper examines the development and initial validation of a multidimensional measure of servant leadership behaviour (Servant Leadership Behaviour Scale). Both qualitative and quantitative studies are reported to establish preliminary psychometric properties for the new 35-item, six-dimension measure. The resultant servant leadership model is characterized by its service orientation, holistic outlook, and moral-spiritual emphasis, thereby extending current models of servant leadership and existing works on contemporary leadership approaches. Theoretical contributions, practical implications, and future research directions are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.

The transformational‐transactional leadership model in practice

Explores the nature of transformational and transactional leadership among business executives. Comments reveal that most executives believe there are weaknesses as well as strengths with both leadership constructs in practice. Overall, major leadership strengths are in the role modelling, coaching, and consideration behaviors of executives. Major weaknesses are in failure to motivate and challenge workers beyond the expected outcomes. Other facets of each of the four transformational and two transactional leadership behaviors are examined in this article. Lists leadership strategies and approaches for achieving positive results and implications for future research are also provided.

Work Alienation and Organizational Leadership

This study examines the extent to which a leaders behaviour (i.e. transactional and transformational styles) and aspects of an organizations structure (i.e. centralization, formalization dimensions) directly and/or indirectly relate to elements of work alienation (i.e. powerlessness, meaninglessness, self estrangement). The study utilized structural equation modeling techniques to estimate the goodness of fit of a leadership-organizational structure-work alienation model based on the responses of personnel in a major US eastern seaboard fire department (a bureaucratic, quasi-military type organization) (= 326). Goodness of fit statistics indicate good fit to the observed data. Results show that transformational leadership was associated with lower work alienation, whereas transactional leadership was associated with higher work alienation. Organizational structure was not significantly predictive of work alienation, but was negatively associated with transformational leadership and positively associated with transactional leadership. The significant indirect effects between organizational structure and work alienation, and between organizational structure and transformational leadership, provide further evidence that the leadership style of the organization has a more significant impact on feelings of work alienation than antecedent conditions such as organization rigidity. The study argues that managers as well as leaders need to question bureaucratic orientations to work and manager-employee relations by rethinking their value orientations and adapting new models that encourage individual fulfilment, learning and personal development.

The Academic Work Environment in Australian Universities: A Motivating Place to Work?

This paper identifies positive (motivating) and negative (demotivating) sources of academic work motivation in Australian universities. In 1998, the Academic Work Environment Survey (Winter, Taylor, & Sarros, 2000) was administered to a stratified sample (five positions, five disciplines) of 2,609 academics in four types of university (research, metropolitan, regional, university of technology). A total of 1,041 usable surveys were returned (response rate of 40 per cent). Across the sample, academics reported moderate levels of work motivation. Work motivation was found to be relatively strong at professorial levels but weak at lecturer levels. Quantitative and qualitative findings indicated the work environment in academe is motivating when roles are clear, job tasks are challenging, and supervisors exhibit a supportive leadership style. The work environment is demotivating where there is role overload, low job feedback, low participation, and poor recognition and rewards practices. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of study findings for university leadership.

Leadership, climate, psychological capital, commitment, and wellbeing in a non‐profit organization

Purpose – This exploratory study aims to examine the effects of leadership on organizational climate, employee psychological capital, commitment, and wellbeing in a religious/church‐based non‐profit organization.Design/methodology/approach – Leadership effects are investigated using established scales including the transformational leadership scale, (TLS), organizational climate questionnaire (OCQ), positive and negative affect scale (PANAS), psychological capital (PsyCap), and organizational commitment. It is a context‐based study that considers a unique organizational culture that comprises social, political, economic, technological, personnel, and personal facets. The survey was administered across a large religious/church‐based non‐profit organization.Findings – The findings show strong positive relationships between employee ratings of their immediate supervisors transformational leadership and employee ratings of organizational climate, wellbeing, employee commitment and psychological capital. Addi...

A study of competitive strategy, organisational innovation and organisational performance among Australian manufacturing companies

Abstract This paper is part of a larger study of competitive advantage, organisational innovation and organisational performance. The paper is based on preliminary tests performed on Australian manufacturers participating in the Best Practice Program. The main aim is to provide a conceptual model and establish critical constructs for operationalisation of the main concept as seen by company executives. The purpose was to establish what managers consider the important items for various scales in order to facilitate a common understanding between academics and practitioners. The findings are interesting in that they indicate what practitioners believe to be important elements of the research constructs. The results also indicate possible future findings by pointing out the relationships among the constructs.

Leaders and values: a cross‐cultural study

This paper examines the value orientations of executives and their linkages to leadership behaviors. The 181 executives in this study were randomly selected from the top 500 Australian companies. Value orientations of Australian executives compared with their Russian, Japanese, and Chinese counterparts reveal as many similarities as there are differences. In general, transformational leadership styles were most closely related to personal values orientations. The implications of the findings are discussed, and practical suggestions for leadership development and research are proposed.

Social Support and Teacher Burnout.

This study of 491 government secondary school teachers in Victoria, Australia, explores the relationship between sources and types of social support and teacher burnout. Examines both a conceptual model of social support and a social support instrument based on House′s typology developed for the purpose of the study. The major finding that principal support is a significant predictor of burnout is consistent with established research. However, the result that certain types of social support contribute to burnout presents a unique dimension on the social support‐burnout relationship. Also examines the support provided to others by teachers themselves and its impact on burnout. Explains the implications of the findings for theory and practice.