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Walking the extra mile: analysis of the effect of leadership behavior on the organizational citizenship

Woolderink, Marleen (2010) Walking the extra mile: analysis of the effect of leadership behavior on the organizational citizenship.

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Abstract:Imagine having the responsibility over the performance of a group of employees. In which way would you direct them to get the best results or in other words; how would you achieve to let your employees ‘walk an extra mile’ only in benefit of the organization? The primary goal of this research is to analyze ‘what the effect of different leadership behaviors is on the organizational citizenship behavior shown by employees in small and medium sized enterprises’. Literature research made clear that small and medium sized enterprises are a backward area in research regarding human research management. Most research on leadership behavior is done within large organizations; however, the question arises whether those same leadership behaviors are appropriate within small and medium sized enterprises. Within small and medium sized enterprises, the informality, close personal relations, short communication lines and small amount of hierarchy causes leaders to have different interactions with their employees. These different interactions feed the expectation that leadership behavior in those organizations has different effects on the willingness of employees to do more than is required of them; to show organizational citizenship behavior. Transformational leadership behavior is expected to have strong positive effects on the organizational citizenship behavior shown by employees because transformational leaders motivate employees to perform beyond requirements. Contingently rewarding employees is expected to have positive effects because rewarding employees based on their performance is expected to motivate them to work harder. Management-by-exception, only interfering when things go wrong, can happen in an active or passive manner. Actively keeping track of all mistakes is expected to have moderate positive effects while passively waiting for mistakes to occur is expected to have moderate negative effects. Last, but not least, the total absence and disinterest of a leader is expected to have strong negative effects on the organizational citizenship behavior shown by employees. Within these relations, the effect of trust is of special importance. Because of the close personal relations and little hierarchy it is expected that leaders are more able to foster trustworthy relations with their employees. When there are certain degrees of trust, employees are expected to show more organizational citizenship behavior. A survey research was conducted within six small and medium sized enterprises. These organizations were all production-oriented organizations that were primarily active in the construction sector. Results show that leaders within small and medium sized enterprises must be there when needed or when problems become serious, but that they must not actively check upon failures or mistakes and must not actively control their employees. The leaders have to be focused on chances and on the development of their employees; they need to give employees autonomy in order to let them detect and solve the problems themselves. But above all, leaders need to foster trust; most positive and significant effects regarding organizational citizenship behavior are obtained when leaders are trusted by their employees. The research is practically as well as scientifically applicable. Most leaders within small and medium sized enterprises do not know what their effect on employees is. Because of this research, and the reports that were written for each organization separately, those leaders are made aware of how they are influencing their employees and in what way this can be improved. Next to this, this research is complementing the little knowledge that exists nowadays on leadership behavior in small and medium sized enterprises. Most important, however, is that this research adds new insights by the focus on leadership behavior within one type of small and medium sized enterprises: production-oriented organizations.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/60056
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