Topic: Leadership Communications
Author(s), Title and Publication
Hoffman, B. J., Bynum, B. H., Piccolo, R. F., & Sutton, A. W. (2011). Person-organization value congruence: How transformational leaders influence work group effectiveness. Academy of Management Journal, 54(4), 779-796.
Summary
This study explored the effects of transformational leadership on employees’ work effectiveness, and whether the effects were influenced if an employee’s values match his or her supervisor’ values or the organization’s values. Transformational leadership is usually considered to be effective in motivating employees with organizational goals, encouraging employees to be positive with problems, and providing support and advice to each employee.
The researchers contacted the direct reports and supervisors of 140 managers attending an executive MBA program, via e-mail addresses provided by the managers. Direct reports of the 140 managers completed a survey about their manager’s leadership style, value congruence between them and the managers, and value congruence between them and the organizations. Supervisors of the 140 managers evaluated the overall effectiveness of the groups led by the managers.
Results showed that transformational leadership helps employees match their values with the organization’s values, and this value congruence increases employees’ work effectiveness. The effects of employee-supervisor value congruence were not significant when employee-organization value congruence was considered, suggesting a more important role of the latter in enhancing employees’ work effectiveness.
Implications for Practice
To foster employees’ support of organizational values and goals, it is crucial for supervisors to align their values with organizational values and to role model the values to convey clear messages to employees. It is also important for an organization to gain managers’ support especially when there is a change within the organization. An organization may want to win managers’ support by keeping them informed and including their input in organizational decisions.
Location of Article
The article is available online at:
http://ron-piccolo.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/2011-AMJ-TFL-Value-Congruence-Hoffman-et-al.pdf (full-article)
