Does Perceived Leadership Style of District Governors Affect Employees’ Job Satisfaction? An Empirical Examination
Mehmet Nasih Tağ, Duygu HıdıroğluOne of the factors that affect employees’ job satisfaction and hence their motivation and performance is their manager’s leadership style. This study examines how district governors’ leadership traits and behaviors are perceived by their chiefs of staff, and the relationship between the governors’ perceived leadership style and their chiefs of staff’s job satisfaction. Survey data from 111 district governorships shows that there is a relationship between district governors’ leadership style and their chiefs of staff’s job satisfaction. This result suggests that the leadership behavior of district governors is a crucial determinant of not only the employees’ motivation but also the bureaucratic efficiency of the government, given that all governmental offices at the district level operate under the supervision of the district governor.
Kaymakamların Algılanan Liderlik Tarzı Çalışanların İş Tatminini Etkiliyor mu? Ampirik Bir Çalışma
Mehmet Nasih Tağ, Duygu HıdıroğluÇalışanların iş tatminini ve dolayısıyla motivasyon ve performanslarını etkileyen en önemli faktörlerden biri liderlik işlevi olan yöneticilerin sergiledikleri liderlik tarzıdır. Bu çalışmada kaymakamların liderlik özellik ve davranışlarının en yakın astları olan yazı işleri müdürleri tarafından nasıl algılandığı ve bu algının yazı işleri müdürlerinin iş tatmini ile ilişkisi incelenmektedir. Bir anket aracılığıyla 111 kaymakamlıktan elde edilen veriler kaymakamların liderlik tarzı ile yazı işleri müdürlerinin iş tatmini arasında anlamlı bir ilişki olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. İlçe düzeyinde faaliyet gösteren kamu kurumlarının performansının kaymakamın karar ve yönetim uygulamaları ile yakından ilişkili olduğu dikkate alındığında, bu sonuç kaymakamların liderlik tarzının sadece çalışanların motivasyonunu değil, aynı zamanda devlet kurumlarının da bürokratik etkinliğini etkilediğini ortaya koymaktadır.
Introduction
According to a recent global survey by Gallup, overall 85% of employees worldwide are not engaged at their work. Obviously, the low level of engagement results in lower level of innovation, lost productivity, and low profitability. An important result of this survey is that current management and leadership practices are among the major causes behind low levels of employee engagement. Moreover, it appears that employees’ perception of their leaders’ behavior and their exchange with their leaders determine their work engagement (Gallup, Inc., 2017). These findings underscore the importance of leadership style with respect to employees’ behavior, job satisfaction and performance. This paper examines how district governors’ leadership traits and behaviors are perceived by their chiefs of staff, and the relationship between the governors’ perceived leadership styles and their chiefs of staff’s job satisfaction. District governors occupy the highest level of governmental position in a district and are responsible from administering and coordinating the activities of governmental offices. Given that the performance of the governmental bureaucracy at the district level is closely related to the job engagement (i.e., behavior and attitudes) of employees, a district governor’s leadership style and capacity to influence employees have an enormous impact on the public welfare. So, how does the leadership style of a district governor affect employees’ job satisfaction? Despite the abundance of scholarship on leadership, effective leadership style and behaviors remain largely elusive. On the other hand, a plethora of leadership models enables us to examine the linkage between leadership style and employees’ behavior and attitudes. An important consequence of leadership behavior with respect to employees’ attitudes is job satisfaction (Braun et al., 2013; Lok and Crawford, 2003). An increase in job satisfaction is expected to lead to higher level of motivation and hence higher job performance (Riketta, 2002). Despite this, there is a dearth of research on how the leadership styles of district governors in Turkey affect employees’ job attitudes and behaviors. With few exceptions, most research on district governorships have been exploratory in nature. In this paper, drawing on leadership models of Avoilo and Bass (1988), Avolio, Bass and Jung (1999), and Bass (1985), we develop and test a conceptual framework that links a chief of staff’s job satisfaction to a governor’s leadership behaviors at district governorships. We examine four leadership behaviors or styles: transformational leadership, reward oriented transactional leadership, management by exception oriented transactional leadership and passive-avoidant leadership.
Data and Method
To analyze our framework, we collected data by surveying chiefs of staff employed by district governorships across Turkey. A questionnaire was distributed to all attendants of a county-wide chiefs of staff meeting that was held in the city of Antalya in 2015. Of all participants, 209 participated in the survey. However, due to missing answers on some items, our analyses were based on a final sample of 111 observations. Our dependent variable is perceived job satisfaction. To measure job satisfaction, we use the measure developed by Weis et al. (1967). In our analyses, we use two versions of this measure. One version is based on the simple average of the answers to all items in the scale. The other version is based on the rounded (up or down) averages of the answers. So, while the first measure can be considered a continuous one, the second measure is ordinal. Our main independent variables are those that measure leadership behaviors. To measure leadership behaviors, we use the multifactor leadership questionnaire developed by Avolio et al., (1999). Our questionnaire consists of 33 items, which load onto four distinct factors in our confirmatory factor analysis. Based on related literature, we label these factors, which we take as our main independent variables, as follows: transformational leadership, reward oriented transactional leadership, management by exception oriented transactional leadership, and passive-avoidant leadership. In our analyses, we control for several individual characteristics of chiefs of staff. We use both the ordinary least squares and ordered probit regression estimators to analyze our data. Because regression errors are not homoscedastic, we use the heteroskedasticity-robust estimate of the variance-covariance matrix in both regressions.
Results
About 27% of the participants in our sample report that they are satisfied with their jobs. Our regression results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between transformational leadership behavior and job satisfaction, even after holding several individual level factors constant. Similarly, reward oriented transactional leadership behavior appears to be positively and significantly related to job satisfaction. On the other hand, both management by exception oriented transactional leadership and avoidant leadership are negatively related to job satisfaction, although the coefficient on avoidant leadership is marginally significant, when two-tailed test is used. These results hold for both measures of job satisfaction, though the results are stronger when the ordinal measure, and hence the ordered probit regression, is used. Overall, our results indicate that leadership behavior has a significant impact on employees’ job satisfaction. In addition, our results suggest that even though leaders, such as district governors, in government bureaucracy have limited authority to transform the organizations they manage, their employees are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs when they perceive their leaders to be charismatic, transformative and considerate.
