Shahidul Hassan

An Improved Measure of Ethical Leadership

The appropriate way to define and measure ethical leadership has been a source of conceptual confusion in the leadership literature. Different measures have been developed, but they all have limitations. Some questionnaires are missing key indicators of ethical leadership, or they include behaviors that do not seem directly relevant. In this study, the authors assess the validity of a new questionnaire for measuring essential aspects of ethical leadership independently of other types of leader behavior. The research also examines how ethical leadership is related to leader–member exchange and work unit performance. Although the primary purpose of these analyses is to assess criterion-related validity for the new questionnaire, the results help answer important questions about the benefits of ethical leadership. The authors found that ethical leadership makes a small but significant contribution to the explanation of leader–member exchange and managerial effectiveness.

Ethical and empowering leadership and leader effectiveness

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how ethical leadership and empowering leadership are related to leader‐member exchange relations (LMX), affective commitment, and leader effectiveness.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using questionnaires filled out by 259 subordinates of public and private sector managers. Relationships among variables were analyzed using structural equation modeling.Findings – The results indicated that ethical leadership and empowering leadership have positive associations with LMX, subordinate affective commitment, and perception of leader effectiveness.Originality/value – This study is the first to examine the independent and joint relationships of empowering leadership and ethical leadership with leadership effectiveness and the mediating role of LMX.

Does Fair Treatment in the Workplace Matter? An Assessment of Organizational Fairness and Employee Outcomes in Government

The purpose of the current study was to investigate how perceptions of organizational fairness may facilitate positive outcomes and prevent negative consequences in government organizations. In that effort, this study examined relationship between perceived organizational fairness and organizational identification, job involvement and turnover intention with data collected through an organizational survey from 764 professional employees working in 65 geographically distributed offices in an agency in state government. The findings indicated that perceptions of procedural and distributive fairness have positive effects on professional employees’ job involvement and negative influences on their turnover intention, though these effects are mediated by their organizational identification. Implications of these findings for public management theory and practice are discussed.

Job Choice and Performance: Revisiting Core Assumptions about Public Service Motivation

ABSTRACT Although there has been considerable enthusiasm for public service motivation (PSM) research in recent years, two of PSMs fundamental assumptions have been relatively untested: its impacts on job choice and on job performance. Using panel data from two different studies, we offer stronger observational tests of these core assumptions. The findings provide mixed evidence. When testing PSMs effect on employment choice, we find that PSM measured during a law students first year predicts the sector in which they are employed after graduation three years later. In a separate study investigating PSMs effect on job performance, we find that government employee PSM does not predict employee absenteeism or supervisor assessments of their in-role and extra-role performance. Our findings support recent calls for a more nuanced theory and analyses of PSM to help better understand its implications for recruiting, retaining, and motivating the workforce used to provide public goods and services.

Variability in the Organizational Climate of Government Offices and Affective Organizational Commitment

Abstract This study examined the shared perceptions of 739 professional and technical employees regarding organizational climate and the strength of affective commitment in fifty-one geographically dispersed offices of an agency of state government. The results indicated that the level of affective commitment in these offices could be predicted reliably (adjusted R 2 = .75) from three of the eight dimensions of organizational climate included in the study: goal ambiguity, social cohesion and fairness and equity. Implications of these results with respect to developing effective human resource management strategies in public sector organizations are discussed in detail.

Sources of Professional Employees’ Job Involvement: An Empirical Assessment in a Government Agency

The purpose of the current study was to investigate antecedents of job involvement of professional employees working in government work settings. In that effort, this study examined whether four key characteristics of professional employees’ jobs: variety, significance, autonomy, and feedback, as well as their perceptions regarding their agency’s mission, rewards system, and the extent of their participation in decision-making process determine the level of their job involvement. These linkages were examined with data collected through an organizational survey from 764 professional employees working in geographically distributed offices in a large state agency. The analysis indicated that more than half of the total variance in professional employees’ job involvement could be predicted reliably by perceptions regarding the characteristics of their jobs and agency’s reward system. The results also showed that perception of an attractive and worthwhile agency mission accentuated the positive effect of task significance on professional employees’ job involvement. Implications of these findings for managing professional employees in government agencies are discussed.

Employee attachment to workplace: A review of organizational and occupational identification and commitment

This article provides a critical review of four constructs-organizational identification, organizational commitment, occupational identification, and occupational commitment-to advance our understanding about how public sector employees from different occupations may become psychologically attached to their organizations. This review is intended to clarify previous inconsistencies as well as spark new interest among public administration researchers to examine sources and consequences of public employees’ organizational identification and commitment. This article also elucidates about how public sector employees’ attachment to their occupations may influence their attachment to their organizations. In that effort, this article reviews interrelationships among the four constructs. Finally, based on the patterns of connections observed, a future research program including seven testable research propositions is proposed.

The Role of Employee Task Performance and Learning Effort in Determining Empowering Managerial Practices Evidence From a Public Agency

Touting its potential benefits, employee participation or empowerment has served as an underlying theme in many recent public sector management reforms. However, few studies have investigated the conditions under which public managers are more or less likely to use participatory practices while making decisions with their employees. This study contributes to the public management literature by investigating how public manager assessments of employee behavior can affect the degree to which the manager uses two different types of empowerment: consultation and delegation. Using survey data from both employees and their supervisors collected in a large government agency, we find that supervisor perceptions of subordinate task performance and learning efforts are important in predicting their use of the two empowerment practices. In particular, public managers are more likely to delegate work to employees they perceive as higher performers but more likely to consult with employees who they perceive as exhibiting greater learning effort.

An Assessment of the Prevalence, Perceived Significance, and Response to Dowry Solicitation and Domestic Violence in Bangladesh:

The current study focuses on the prevalence of two pervasive gender-related crimes in Bangladesh: dowry solicitation and domestic violence. We assess victim perceptions of how these two crimes rank in significance compared with other types of crimes experienced and the actions victim households took in response. Our research builds on prior qualitative studies by making use of nation-wide household survey data, collected by the World Bank, to examine dowry and domestic violence in the context of all legal conflicts experienced by households in every administrative region of the country. The analyses show that both dowry solicitation and domestic violence rank in the top five most common crimes, including violent and non-violent crimes. Women report more experiences of dowry solicitation and domestic violence, with urban females most frequently disclosing both. Among the households that experienced multiple types of violent and non-violent crimes, 55.9% of dowry and 70.8% of domestic violence victims reported another crime ranked higher in significance. Of the households that considered these two crimes the most serious they experienced, 56.1% of dowry and 32.5% of domestic violence households took no action at all in response. Among the households that took action, most eschewed both police and state judicial institutions. Choosing to act alone or with the help of family members was the most frequent response. The findings illustrate the need for governance reforms in Bangladesh and may inform state and non-state improvement initiatives.

Encouraging the Collection of Performance Data in Nonprofit Organizations: The Importance of Organizational Support for Learning

Abstract This article provides insight into how to facilitate performance data collection within nonprofit organizations. Following research on organizational learning, we propose that nonprofits that provide higher support for employee learning and development activities are more likely to collect performance data than those that provide limited support to such activities. We assess this hypothesis with data collected from 154 employees in 26 nonprofits in the greater New York Capital region. We find that higher support for learning indeed has a positive relationship with performance data collection, but the strength of this relationship depends on the nonprofits’ capacity to conduct performance assessment and clarity of their organizations goals. Implications of these results for research and practice on performance management in nonprofits are discussed.