Transformational leadership builds organizational identity while transactional leadership does not

Evidence

The purpose of Study 1 was to examine the role of leadership and concomitant members’ attitudes in voluntary service organizations such as Lions Club or Rotary Club International, Inc. It was hypothesized that organizational identity is a potential mechanism (as shown by mediation analysis) through which transformational leaders influence employees’ outcomes. We propose that the relationships between transformational leadership and followers’ perceptions will be mediated by organizational identity. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1773

Organizational Citizenship Behavior A similar pattern holds for OCB (Table 13.3). As the relationship between OCB and leadership was reduced but not eliminated when identity was added to the equation (from β = .45, p < . to β = .33, p < .05), organizational identity was a partial mediator of the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1836

As theorists hypothesized (e.g., van Knippenberg et al., 2004), organizational identity was related to leadership, and served, at least partially, as a mediator between it and follower attitudes and self-reported behaviors (OCB). We have shown that this relationship may be particular to certain types of leadership. As shown in Study 2, only transformational leadership was related to follower perceptions, not transactional leadership. This result was predicted, as transformational leadership is based on building relationships with followers through encouragement and inspiration, as opposed to transactional leadership, which is based on exchange mechanisms (Bass & Avolio, 1997). The transformational leader puts forth a vision of the future for the group that the follower wants to embrace, thus engaging organizational identity and its concomitant follower outcomes (e.g., van Knippenberg et al., 2004, 2005). We agree with Van Vugt and Hart (2004, p. 585): social identity may be the “social glue” that encourages loyalty and hence holds groups together. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1855

Categorization

• QUESTION: The mediation claim is plausible but this is only a study hypothesis, not a finding — flag whether the chapter reports confirming results.
• XREF: The ‘social glue’ identity mechanism echoes ingroup/outgroup identity processes in the prejudice-psychology thread (social identity theory literature from Allport-related reassessment). — connects to: Leadership requires shared identity but also active identity entrepreneurship by leaders. — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 124
• corroborated: 6 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1773; Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1836; Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1855