Exploring the mediating effects between transformational leadership and organizational performance
| Date | 12 February 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-10-2016-0190 |
| Pages | 412-432 |
| Published date | 12 February 2018 |
| Author | Lorena Para-González,Daniel Jiménez-Jiménez,Angel Rafael Martínez-Lorente |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
Exploring the mediating effects
between transformational
leadership and organizational
performance
Lorena Para-González
Department of Economics and Juridical Sciences,
University Centre of Defence at the Spanish Air Force Academy, Murcia, Spain
Daniel Jiménez-Jiménez
Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain, and
Angel Rafael Martínez-Lorente
Department of Business Economics, Technical University of Cartagena,
Murcia, Spain
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to study the possible mediating mechanisms (human resource
management (HRM), learning and innovation) that could exist in the relationship between transformational
leadership and organizational performance. This topic has been studied only by a few groups of researchers
and these researchers have not analyzed all these concepts jointly.
Design/methodology/approach –This research explores the relationships using partial least squares with
data from 200 Spanish industrial companies. Analyzing the mentioned relationships in the Spanish context
has been done by few researchers before.
Findings –The study reveals that the adoption of transformational leadership styles improves performance
when specific systems of HRM practices, learning and innovation are developed in an organization.
Originality/value –This study, therefore, contributes to the understanding of the link between
transformational leaders and performance by proposing a model in which it is evinced that this leadership
style produces synergies between HRM, learning and innovation, which in the end, affect performance.
Keywords Innovation, Learning, Exploitation, Exploration, Human resource management practices,
Transformational leadership
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Transformational leadership can be described as a style of leadership that promotes the
collective interest of employees, helping them to reach collective goals (García-Morales et al.,
2012). Moreover, transformational leaders inspire their followers, enhancing employees’
knowledge and learning to encourage them to be innovative with problem-solving tools
(García-Morales et al., 2012). Transformational leaders possess charisma, provide
intellectual stimulation and inspire their employees, enhance communication, trust and
the sharing of knowledge (Senge, 1990; Bass and Avolio, 2000). These leaders are key to
stimulating a climate that encourages organizational learning (Narver and Slater, 1990).
That is why this leadership style is expected to promote higher performance than other
leadership styles, such as the transactional or laissez-faire methods (Bass and Avolio, 2000).
Although evidence demonstrates that transformational managers have influence over
performance, the processes through which this occurs are of special interest
Employee Relations
Vol. 40 No. 2, 2018
pp. 412-432
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-10-2016-0190
Received 12 October 2016
Revised 1 May 2017
27 June 2017
Accepted 28 June 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding received from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and
Competitiveness (Research Project No. ECO2012-37893) and Fundación CajaMurcia-BMN.
412
ER
40,2
(García-Morales, Lloréns-Montes and Verdú-Jover, 2008; García‐Morales, Matías‐Reche and
Hurtado‐Torres, 2008). In this sense, although several studies have analyzed the influence of
transformational leadership on performance through other variables, such as culture or
competitive strategies (Menguc et al., 2007), the existence of these kinds of analyses is still
limited. In fact, authors such as García-Morales, Lloréns-Montes and Verdú-Jover (2008),
García‐Morales, Matías‐Reche and Hurtado‐Torres (2008) or García-Morales et al. (2012)
advocated that research could investigate other concepts that mediate in the relationship
between transformational leadership and performance.
However, this relationship between transformational leadership and organizational
performance is even more important in current environments, where companies
must be innovative in order to achieve competitive advantages that enable them to
increase their results (Aragón-Correa et al., 2007; Donate and Sánchez de Pablo, 2015).
In this case, managers must be able to motivate their employees to become involved in
innovation processes, acquiring new knowledge that allows companies to launch new
products into the market (Andriopoulos and Lewis, 2010). In this regard,
transformational leadership and human resource practices have been considered by
recent literature as triggers for improving learning competences and innovation
(Afacan Fındıklıet al., 2015). Besides, Gumusluoglu and Ilsev (2009) affirmed that the
processes that mediate in the relationship between transformational leadership and
innovation should be examined. As well, Heffernan et al. (2016) pointed out that there is a
need for research concerning the variables that mediate between human resource practice
systems and performance.
Moreover, authors highlight the crucial role of knowledge management in enabling
companies to obtain information from their environments and their stakeholders and
transform it into knowledge. Consequently, in order to innovate, companies need to create
new and different learning skills for developing innovative products, services or new
methods of production. This learning could be split into two learning capabilities:
exploitation and exploration (Alpkan et al., 2012). Exploitation implies the refinement of
current organizational processes, using current competences in order to be more efficient,
improve production procedures and look for relatively assured benefits. However,
exploration focuses on the research and development of new competences for the
discovering of new possibilities, varying product lines and attaining an uncertain outcome.
Thus, it becomes essential not only to exploit the existing products or services, but also to
explore the chances to carry out new ones.
Furthermore, the relationship between learning and innovation is complex and should be
studied from other perspectives. Thus, in order to fill in the gaps in the existing literature,
the impact of transformational leadership on performance is examined, by using the
mediating practices of human resource management (HRM), learning and innovation.
Concretely, this research takes into account the gaps reflected by previous literature
and makes four important contributions. First, this study contributes to the
understanding that transformational leadership enhances a system made up of a series
of practices regarding human resources that mediate the relationship between learning
capabilities and performance, through incremental and radical innovation. Second, these
results show that learning capabilities promote product innovations. Finally, the paper
suggests that learning and innovation mediate the relationship between HRM
and performance.
Finally, few empirical studies have partially analyzed these relationships in Spanish
industry (Aragón-Correa et al., 2007; García-Morales et al., 2012). Therefore, there seems to
be a definite need for establishing an empirical link between transformational leadership
and organizational performance, taking into account the probable mediation of HRM,
learning and innovation.
413
Transformational
leadership and
performance
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