Faculty & Research
Faculty & Research
Is the Same Leadership Effective to All Followers?
Understanding the dynamics of how supervisors inspire higher performance levels in their staff, and how staff, in turn, inspire the same in their supervisors has important implications for organizations looking to boost productivity, reduce turnover, and improve employee job satisfaction. Companies will be more successful in meeting these goals if they hire people who view themselves and their abilities positively – what organizational literature refers to as having a high core self-evaluation (CSE) – and pair them with a supervisor capable of motivating them to tap into the strengths and abilities that they already believe they possess. This is one of the findings in a new research study co-authored by CEIBS Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management Tae-Yeol Kim. This leadership skill set is known as transformational leadership, and the results of Prof. Kim’s study also show that high CSE subordinates will themselves be more motivated when they work with transformational leaders. In addition, transformational leaders can boost the performance and commitment of low CSE employees if they are properly trained in how to provide the right kind of extra guidance and support.
An important aspect of this study is that it looks at supervisor-subordinate pairs in South Korean organizations. Most research in this area has been focussed in Western cultures, where social norms are substantially different. The results obtained by Prof. Kim and his co-authors in this study indicate that some prior research findings on how CSE positively influences employees work attitudes and behaviours can be applied in both Western and Eastern contexts.
The results of the study appear in the paper entitled “The Interplay between Follower Core Self-Evaluation and Transformational Leadership: Effects on Employee Outcomes” which will be published by the Journal of Business and Psychology. Prof. Kim’s co-authors are Robert C. Liden of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Sang-Pyo Kim of Jinju University in South Korea, and Deog-Ro Lee of Seowon University, South Korea.
