Question
A company is designing a new leadership training module for its team leads. An organizational consultant suggests that there are many different styles of leadership,
A company is designing a new leadership training module for its team leads. An organizational consultant suggests that there are many different styles of leadership, and asks what style the module should focus on. As senior managers within the organization, a group needs to answer this question. There is some research on leadership and its effect on variables like employee engagement, job performance, and turnover (i.e., intentions to stay or leave one's job). But the research is mixed... Study 1: A group of researchers conducted a survey of 2,281 employees across 567 different companies. Employees were asked to read descriptions of three different leadership styles: "transformational", "servant", and "transactional". After this, the employees selected which leadership style most closely matched the style their direct supervisor used. Employees then answered questions about their level of engagement, self-reported performance, and intentions to stay versus leave their job (each question used a 1-5 scale). The researchers found that employees who had a supervisor who used a "transformational" leadership style reported feeling more engaged and claimed they performed more effectively. However, there did not appear to be a statistically significant relationship between supervisor leadership style and intentions to stay versus leave the organization. The researchers concluded that using a transformational leadership style fosters greater employee engagement and higher employee performance. Study 2: A researcher conducted an experimental study on the effect of different leadership styles on employee outcomes. To do so , the researcher recruited a sample of 380 undergraduate students through a university research participation pool. The students were randomly assigned to read one of three different scenarios about a supervisor and their employee: One third of students read a scenario about a transformational leader; one third read a scenario about a transactional leader; and, one third read a scenario about a servant leader. After reading the scenario, each student was asked how likely they would be to perform extra work for this supervisor (job performance), how engaged they would feel working with this supervisor, and how likely they would be to accept a different job offer (turnover intentions). The researcher found that students assigned to read the "servant leadership" scenario reported that they would be more likely to perform extra work and less likely to take a competing job offer. However, students assigned to read the "transformational leadership" scenario reported that they would feel more engaged. The researcher concluded that using a transformational leadership style fosters greater employee engagement; however, using a servant leadership style fosters higher performance and reduces intentions to quit. Which of the following studies do you feel provides the best evidence based on its methods (and why do you feel that way)?
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