TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP, FOLLOWER ORGANISATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOURS AND THE INFLUENCE OF FOLLOWER PERSONALITY

Description

Employee organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs: discretionary behaviours that benefit the organisation) aimed at individuals (OCBIs) and the organisation (OCBOs) have been linked to a variety of favourable performance outcomes in organisations. As such, it is important to understand how they operate in today’s competitive environment. Research has revealed that leaders can strongly influence employee OCBs. In this context, leadership research has largely revolved around the qualities of an effective leader and the skills required. Other studies have focused on follower personality and the traits of a good employee and what personalities are more prone to engage in OCBs. Very little research has looked at how follower personality moderates the leadership-follower OCB relationship, specifically transformational leadership (TL). A quantitative approach was used to answer the research question, “Does follower personality moderate the positive relationship between Transformational Leadership and organisational citizenship behaviours?”. The data were obtained anonymously using an on-line platform and the survey used pre-existing validated scales for TL, the five-factor model for personality, and organisational citizenship behaviour. Results indicated that those with higher neuroticism greatly benefited from transformational leaders, displaying higher levels of OCBIs. Additionally, OCBOs of those high in neuroticism were higher when the leader was perceived as charismatic, a factor of TL. OCBIs of those reporting higher conscientiousness were markedly higher also when the leader was perceived as being higher in charismatic leadership. Last, higher individualised consideration results in higher levels of OCBIs for those reporting higher but particularly lower agreeableness, although those reporting higher agreeableness had higher levels of OCBIs. Theoretically, the results advance understanding of the nature of TL in the context of follower personality and OCB. Practically, the results may help organisations with recruitment, retention and structuring leaders with followers to achieve the maximum benefit for the organisation.

Period	24 Jul 2019
Examinee	Lisa Marie Jankowski
Examination held at	Queensland University of Technology
Degree of Recognition	National