Leadership and motivation: a qualitative study of transformational leadership and public service motivation
| Author | Bente Bjørnholt,Christina Holm-Petersen,Louise Ladegaard Bro,Lotte Bøgh Andersen |
| Published date | 01 December 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852316654747 |
| Date | 01 December 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
2018, Vol. 84(4) 675–691
!The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852316654747
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International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Article
Leadership and motivation:
a qualitative study of
transformational leadership
and public service motivation
Lotte Bøgh Andersen
Aarhus University and KORA, Denmark
Bente Bjørnholt
KORA – Danish Institute for Local and Regional Government,
Denmark
Louise Ladegaard Bro
Aarhus University, Denmark
Christina Holm-Petersen
KORA- Danish Institute for Local and Regional Government,
Denmark
Abstract
Transformational leaders work to clarify a vision, share it with their employees and
sustain it in the long run, and this is expected to result in increased employee public
service motivation (PSM), that is, orientation towards doing good for others and
society. Based on 48 in-depth interviews with 16 childcare leaders and 32 of their
employees combined with 16 days of observation in these childcare centers, this article
investigates the association between transformational leadership and PSM. When the
leaders clarify, share and maintain an organizational vision, their employees are more
motivated to do good for society and others, and this motivation tends to be less
paternalistic and slightly more society-oriented. This implies that it is relevant to ask
not only whether transformational leadership increases PSM, but also how it affects the
type of PSM.
Points for practitioners
Transformational leadership happens when leaders strive to develop a vision for the
organization, share the vision with the employees and sustain the employees’ attention
Corresponding author:
Lotte Bøgh Andersen, University of Aarhus, Department of Political Science, Bartholins alle A
˚rhus 8000,
Denmark.
Email: Lotte@ps.au.dk
to the vision. Transformational leadership seems to increase PSM and make employees
less paternalistic and more focused on contributing to society.
Keywords
public service motivation, transformational leadership
Introduction
Public employees perform better if they are oriented towards doing good towards
society and others (Andersen et al., 2014; Belle
´, 2013; Ritz, 2009), and it is therefore
highly relevant to ask how leaders can enhance their employees’ public service
motivation (PSM). According to Paarlberg and Lavigna (2010), transformational
leadership is a promising way to increase PSM, because transformational leaders
develop, share and sustain a vision, and employees will be more oriented to contrib-
ute to society if a strong vision demonstrates what the desirable end state looks like.
As expected, quantitative studies (Belle
´, 2014; Krogsgaard et al., 2014; Park and
Rainey, 2008; Vandenabeele, 2014; Wright et al., 2012) indicate that transform-
ational leadership increases employees’ level of PSM. Insight in the mechanisms
and complexity of the leadership–PSM relationship does, however, require more
in-depth, qualitative data, and this article combines interviews and observation
data to contribute to a deeper understanding of how transformational leadership
can affect the level and type of PSM.
Public service motivation is the motivation to serve others and improve the well-
being of society at large (Perry and Wise, 1990), while transformational leadership
concerns leaders’ efforts to ‘‘develop, share and sustain a vision to elevate follower
motivation to higher levels of performance’’ (Jung and Avolio, 2000: 949). It is
expected to change and transform people by appealing to the importance of col-
lective and/or organizational outcomes (Moynihan et al., 2012: 147; Northouse,
2010: 171). This sense of vision among employees is expected to provide confidence
and direction about the future of the organization, and to encourage employees to
transcend their own self-interest for the sake of the organization and its users.
Until recently, transformational leadership was primarily studied in private
organizations, but we agree with Wright and Pandey’s (2010: 77) statement that
‘‘transformational leadership [may be] particularly useful in public and nonprofit
organizations given the service and community oriented nature of their missions’’.
The services provided by public welfare organizations are often at least partly
financed by the government, because a political coalition thinks that the service
provision benefits the general public. This makes both PSM and transformational
leadership very relevant. Specifically, we analyze childcare provision in Denmark,
because it is a publicly subsidized service provided by public organizations with a
clear leader–employee relationship and tasks which benefit both society and indi-
vidual other people (the children). This enables us to analyze the dynamics between
these two aspects by looking at the contents of the organizational visions. How do
676 International Review of Administrative Sciences 84(4)
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