Is Leadership an Effective Way of Monitoring Employees at Leicester University - Research Paper Example

Leadership in Leicester Introduction Employee job satisfaction and effective leadership and aretwo main factors that have been regarded as basic for the success of every organization. An effective leader provides a clear direction towards attainment of some intended goals. In the same manner, employees who are satisfied in their jobs are most possible to be productive in their allocated tasks in carrying out organizational duties. Any organization that fosters high job satisfaction can draw and retain employees with the required skills. Several scholars have tried to look at the link between the two and concur that organizational leadership plays a major role in job satisfaction and organizational commitment. High levels of job satisfaction enhance employee’s psychological and physical wellbeing and have positive effects on employee performance (Sivanathan, 2002). Job satisfaction of employees is the attitude that employees have towards the organization and their job. Several researchers have argued that job fulfillment is largely affected by several contextual factors varying from salary, job security, job satisfaction, job autonomy, suppleness at the place of work to leadership. Particularly, organizational leaders can embrace suitable styles of leadership to have an effect on employee commitment, job satisfaction and productivity. Past studies looked into the link between employee job satisfaction and leadership behavior in some settings like education, military, healthcare, and business organizations (Porac, Sivanathan & Bass, 2005). These studies have shown that employee job satisfaction in the public sector is equally important as in the private sector. This study is going to examine two leadership styles, namely, transformational and transactional as a better way of evaluating employees at Leicester University. The main research questions of the study are: i. Is leadership an effective way of monitoring employees at Leicester university? ii. What is the relationship between features of transactional leadership with job satisfaction among the employees at Leicester University? iii. What is the relationship between transformational leadership such as inspirational motivation with job satisfaction among employees at Leicester University? Literature review Leadership It is a process where leaders interrelate with their followers and try to persuade their followers in realizing intended goals. Previous studies have identified different types of leadership. Among the common forms of leadership styles are transformational and transactional. Transformational leadership put emphasis on the personal growth and intrinsic motivation of their followers. This type of leadership tries to align the aspirations and needs of their followers to that of the organization. By doing like that, transformational leadership nurtures the loyalty of their followers to that of the organization and inspires them to enhance their performance. In current dynamic and complex environment, transformational leaders are seen as ultimate agents of change who can steer their followers successfully in times of high risk taking and uncertainties (Yukl, 2005). On the other hand, transactional leadership gain legitimacy by maximizing the use of promises, praises and rewards so as to meet the pressing needs of their supporters. They engage their supporters by rewarding them so as to achieve certain desired goals. Although transformational leadership is seen as more suitable than transactional leadership, it has been realized that such argument is deceptive. Burns (1998) argued that all leadership is transactional, though such transactions are not limited to short term rewards only. An effective leader has to appeal to the personal interest of the followers and make use of both short term and long- term rewards in order to lead supporters towards the realization of organizational objectives Dimensions of transformational leadership Transformational leadership exists in four dimensions. These include idealized influence, individualized consideration, inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation. Inspirational motivation- is the way in which leaders motivate their followers so as to commit themselves towards the organizational objectives the mission. Leadership with these qualities nurtures effective team building as a way of guiding team members towards the attainment of organizational goals and objectives. Idealized influence-majorly deals with the design and communication of vision and demanding goals by inspiring their supporters to go beyond their personal interest in achieving some common goals. According to this dimension, leaders are seen as role models who are very admirable, respected and trusted by their followers. Leaders with idealized influence are ready to risk and are dependable rather than arbitrary by portraying high moral and ethical standard. Intellectual stimulation- mostly concerned with the manner in which leaders inspire creativity and innovation in their followers by criticizing assumptions and tackling old state of affairs in a new manner. They constantly inspire their followers to attempt latest ways or methods of resolving old problems (A, 2013). Individualized consideration-these are leaders who pay much attention to needs of their followers so as to enhance growth by acting as a mentor or a coach. Dimension of transactional leadership Transactional leadership comprises of three dimensions: contingent rewards, management by exception (passive), and management by exception (active). Contingent reward is a scenario where leaders clarify the work to be done by use of rewards in exchange of excellent work done. Passive or Management by exception refers to those leaders who only intercede whenever there is a problem whereas active or management by exception refers to those leaders who continuously monitor the progress and ensure that their followers adhere to stipulated standards Job satisfaction It is a pleasant or a positive exciting condition from the appraisal of personal experience. The meaning suggests that workers tend to align their job attitudes by considering their beliefs, behaviors and feelings. Several researches have shown that if workers find their job rewarding and fulfilling, they become more contented with their duties. Generally, satisfaction of employees is a fundamental ingredient in the success of every organization. Successful organizations have employees who are contented with their jobs whereas low job satisfaction pulls down organizational performance. Job satisfaction involves entire job satisfaction together with a range of satisfaction aspects. It is influenced by a number of factors such like communication satisfaction, nonverbal expression of the supervisor, effects of gender and supervisor’s communication style. It is also noticeable that job satisfaction affects job dissatisfaction levels, absenteeism, grievance expression, low morale, high turnover and decision making. This may affect the overall organizational productivity (Akehurst, 2009). Generally, numerous factors affect job satisfaction among the employees, including: salaries, working condition, fringe benefits, achievement, autonomy and recognition, communication, co-workers, organizational climate, job importance, degree of professionalism, interpersonal relationship, positive affectivity, workplace flexibility and genetic factors. Sources of low job satisfaction are linked with working with unsuitably trained or unskilled staff, laborious task such as documentation, role ambiguity, repetition of duties, tensions with role expectations, feeling overloaded, increasing overtime work, relations with co-worker and organizational factors. Effects of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction There is a complex relationship between employee behavior and job satisfaction. Job satisfaction combines with employee motivation to affect some behavioral patterns. The strongest link between employee behavior and job satisfaction is clearly seen during membership decision. If the appraisal is negative, employees look somewhere else for another source of employment. When employees experiences negative effect and are constantly in a negative state, they evade coming to work and look for alternative ways of relieving themselves by this negative affective state by considering other sources of employment. As long as employees are satisfied with the performance of their leaders, they do what is required to remain employed, i.e. meet the expectations of their leaders (Bass, 2005). As employees become discontented with their job, they start to look for means of reducing the minimum requirements as required by their superiors. For extra job to be completed, there has to be a source of inspiration from the leadership (contingent relationship between extra job and either reward, positive task feedback, positive social feedback, or goal accomplishment). While high job satisfaction increases extra job behavior driven by inducement system, job satisfaction alone does not create high levels of extra job behavior. Nevertheless, job dissatisfaction can have high suppressor effect on extra job behavior. Employees who are not satisfied are not likely to assume new responsibilities, assist fellow employees, or go beyond their job description to assist customers or clients. Burns (1998), proposes that eenhancing job satisfaction by doing away with dissatisfaction is most likely to enhance membership, but will not create extra job behavior unless there is a source of motivation from the leadership within the organization. Intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction Satisfaction at the place of work consists of two main components: Intrinsic- which encompasses work as well as extrinsic which represent job features outside the normal task. Intrinsic job satisfaction is the manner on people’s reactions regarding the job nature while extrinsic job satisfaction entails how somebody feels on facets of the nature work situation outside the work itself. When a person is intrinsically motivated, s/he will go for the challenging task instead the reward or to avoid being given a punishment. According to Cranny 2(001), research on intrinsic motivation mostly focuses on certain conditions that incites, sustain and increase this type of motivation against those other factors that reduce or undermine it. Conginitive evaluation theory identifies social factors that cause disparity in intrisnic motivation. Conginitive evaluation theory suggests that interpersonal structures and actions like rewards, feedback and communication leadaing to high level of competence can improve intrinsic motivation because these feelings of competence has to be combined by sense of autonomy. On the otherhand, extrinsic motivation refers to an activity with a feeling of nervousness, tension or bieng presurised. It is a motivation to do something so as to ensure that outer goal is met or that some external constraint is attained. This research, therefore, examines the two facets of job satisfaction, various work-place situations as well as working assignment. Work-place situation refers to the atmosphere where work is being carried out and comprises of the relations between the management functions and the mentoring system (Akehurst, 2009). Unfavorable work-place conditions, inefficient organization of work, inadequate staffing, and managerial practices affect staff turnover and perception towards work and the organization. Research studies on type of leadership and employee job satisfaction Job satisfaction is an affirmative emotional response arising from the appraisal of a job or characteristics of a job. Job satisfaction can be influenced by several factors such as: the work itself, working condition, supervision, compensation, policy and administration, interpersonal relationship, empowerment and recognition. Leadership style has a big responsibility in influencing the level of job satisfaction of an employee. Research has shown that different leadership engenders carious working environment and directly affects the employee job satisfaction. For instance, transformational leadership intrinsically fosters job satisfaction, with the capacity of communicating a sense of intellectual stimulation as well as mission. In essence, transformational leaders cheer up and encourage their supporters to be autonomous and take more conscientiousness, therefore, enhancing employee sense of accomplishment and job satisfaction (Burns, 1998). Both transformational and transactional leadership has been linked to positive organizational consequences at both individual and organizational level. Motivation to work depends majorly on the existing relationship between expectancy valence and instrumentality. Expectancy is the belief of a person that putting more effort will lead to job satisfaction. Instrumentality is the belief that an employee believes that good work will be rewarded. On the other hand, valence is the value that an employee has towards the results. Style of leadership determines the job satisfaction of an employee. Job satisfaction of employees depends on the internal environment of the organization, including organizational climate, type of leadership, and personal relationship. Methodology This describes the methodology to be used during the research process. Research setting, sampling and population will also be reviewed. Research design The research utilized descriptive design to gather information so as to ascertain if leadership a good way of monitoring employees at Leicester University. Sampling procedure Leicester University has a population of 600 workforces. Purposive sampling method was used to locate the respondents from the entire population within the organization. A total of 300 respondents were selected through purposeful sampling Sample selection Random selection was used in ascertaining the sample size. This method was considered convenient since it provided an equal opportunity for every member of the entire population to be selected. This method was also used so as to avoid research bias during selection. Methods of collecting data The research adopted the use of both qualitative and quantitative approach where both secondary and primary data was utilized. Leadership behavior, as a way of monitoring the employee performance, was measured bearing in mind the view of the research questions. Primary data This source of data can be collected through various ways, such as interviews, observations as well as questionnaire. However, it was found that use of the questionnaire was the most suitable approach to the research questions since it can provide an effective way of collecting responses from the entire population prior to quantitative analysis. Secondary data Research work and supportive material from library sources, textbooks, and online international journals as the main secondary sources of information were utilized in aid of the research findings. Data collection instruments In order to assess the results of the above questions, questionnaire was designed as the main source. Questionnaires and the interviews will be based on how employees experienced leadership behaviors of their managers and the effects of these leadership behaviors on their behaviors. Therefore, questionnaire comprised of questions that contained various items describing whether certain behaviors were desirable or not. The respondents comprised of workers from various university levels such as clerical, lower, middle and upper level management. A total of 300 questionnaires will be distributed. Respondents will be given two weeks to complete the questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised of four sections. Section one comprised of 10 items. These items will measure both basic/biographic and demographic information of the respondents. On the other hand, sections two, three and four 4 consist of 40 items that measure various leadership styles of the top management as well as job satisfaction among the workers in the university by use of a Likert scale. Data analysis This section is meant to analyze data to be collected from the field. Total of three hundred questionnaires will be sent to the university employees. The respondents are expected to be from various sections in the university. Questionnaire will have five optional answers I. Strongly Agree II. Disagree, III. Neutral, IV. Agree, V. Strongly Agree. Data will be obtained from the respondents and will be analyzed by the use of statistical software, mainly program SPSS. According to this research, independent variables comprises of two types of leadership styles i.e. transformational and transactional leadership style. The dependent variable, which is employee job satisfaction comprises of two elements: work assignment and working condition. The results will also be analyzed by use of tables, bar graphs and pie charts where appropriate. In addition, Pearson Coefficient correlation analysis will be carried out to check if the hypothesis will be allowed or denied. Ethical considerations Several researchers have to come into agreement concerning ethical considerations. Some researchers have agreed that there has been a problem in persuading the respondents to cooperate with the researcher during the process of collecting data. During the research process, the respondents have ethical rights including the right to privacy and voluntary participation, confidentiality and anonymity Participating in research usually interrupts the daily activities of the respondents and can invade the respondents’ privacy. Research participation has to be voluntary and the participant reserves the right to refuse to give some information regarding them. In most instances, research requires participants to disclose personal information that may not be known to their associates and friends. One of the greatest concerns in the research is the preservation of the interests and well-being of the respondents by concealing their identity (A, 2013). If disclosing their responses would injure them in one way or the other, adherence to this norm could be essential. In most cases, anonymity is not a constraint on the research, since most of the researchers are interested in group data instead of individual data. The problem of anonymity can be overcome by removing the names of the respondents or identifying the participants by code instead of using the name. Confidentiality is another ethical consideration. The respondents must be fully assured that the data will only be used for the research purposes and no one else will access research data. References A, G., 2013. Operations Management. 3rd ed. s.l.: John Wiley. Akehurst, G. C., 2009. Job satisfaction and commitment in the entrepreneurial SME.. Small Business Economics,, Volume 32, p. 277–289.. Bass, B. M., 2005. Leadership and performance beyond expectations.. New York: Free Press. Burns, J. M., 1998. Leadership.. New York: Harper & Row. Cranny, C. S. P. &. S. E., 2001. Job satisfaction: How people feel about their jobs and how it affects their performance.. New York, NY: Lexington Books. Hilgerman, R., 2008. Communication satisfaction, goal setting, job satisfaction, concretive control, and effectiveness in self. Ney York: Harper & Row. 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