Examining the nature and significance of leadership in government organizations

    Authors

    T. Trottier; M. Van Wart;X. Wang

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Public Adm. Rev.

    Keywords

    PATH-GOAL THEORY; PUBLIC-SECTOR; CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP; SATISFACTION; MANAGEMENT; LESSONS; Public Administration

    Abstract

    Though the mainstream organizational literature has advanced in the last 20 years with the integration Of transformational and distributed leadership theories, as well as genuine attempts at comprehensive models, the public sector literature has lagged, especially in utilizing large-scale empirical studies. This study takes advantage of a very large government data set to test the utility of one of the best known theories, the "full range" leadership theory of Bernard Bass. It addresses three important research questions: How inclusive is Bass operational definition of leadership? How much of an impact do Bass leadership competencies have on follower satisfaction? Finally, how important is transformational leadership compared to transactional leadership in government settings? The results indicate that Bass broad definition of leadership comes quite close to capturing what federal employees perceive to be effective leadership. The relationship between good leadership in an organization and follower satisfaction is also presented as an important outcome in the federal government. Finally, both transactional and transformational leadership are perceived as important in the federal government, although transformational leadership is considered slightly more important even after shifting one important factor, individualized consideration, back to the transactional model.

    Journal Title

    Public Administration Review

    Volume

    68

    Issue/Number

    2

    Publication Date

    1-1-2008

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    319

    Last Page

    333

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000253194900010

    ISSN

    0033-3352

    Share

    COinS