The impact of transformational leadership on employees’ acceptance to change. Mediating effects of innovative behaviour and moderating effect of the use of information technology
| Date | 12 November 2018 |
| Pages | 559-578 |
| Published date | 12 November 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/VJIKMS-05-2018-0039 |
| Author | Ritu Tayal,Rajesh Kumar Upadhya,Mohit Yadav,Santosh Rangnekar,Reena Singh |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Knowledge management,Knowledge management systems |
The impact of transformational
leadership on employees’
acceptance to change
Mediating effects of innovative behaviour and
moderating effect of the use of
information technology
Ritu Tayal
Department of Management, Uttarakhand Technical University, Dehradun, India
Rajesh Kumar Upadhya
Department of Management Studies,COER-School of Management, Roorkee, India
Mohit Yadav
Jindal Global Business School, OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India
Santosh Rangnekar
Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, India, and
Reena Singh
Department of Management, Doon University, Dehradun, India
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to empirically examinethe association between transformational
leadership and employee acceptance to change while establishing the mediating effects of innovative
behaviourand the moderating effect of the use of information technology (IT) on this association.
Design/methodology/approach –In total, 378 employees of ten banks from Uttarakhand, India,
participated in a questionnaire-based survey. The proposed hypotheses and the proposed conceptual model
were tested usingmacro process (Hayes, 2013).
Findings –The results indicated that there exists a positive association between transformational
leadership andemployee acceptance to change. Furthermore,it was found that this association was mediated
by employeeinnovative behaviour and moderated by the use of IT.
Practical implications –The findings of this study will help managers to comprehend the
significance of the innovative behaviour of employees in moulding their acceptance towards change.
This paper should encourage bank managers to perceive the significance of the working practice and
the infusion of IT. Furthermore, this study accentuates the significance of an effective leadership style, i.
e. transformational leadership, as an essential phenomenon to positively impinge on employee
acceptance to change in a service-oriented industry, namely banking.
Originality/value –The present study enriches the extant research on transformational leadership and
employee acceptance to change by demonstrating the use of IT and innovative behaviour as vital and the important
factors that influence the level of persuasion that transformational leadership has on employee acceptance to change.
Keywords Transformational leadership, Bank, Innovative behaviour, Acceptance to change,
Use of information technology
Paper type Research paper
Acceptance to
change
559
Received24 May 2018
Revised14 September 2018
Accepted30 September 2018
VINEJournal of Information and
KnowledgeManagement Systems
Vol.48 No. 4, 2018
pp. 559-578
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5891
DOI 10.1108/VJIKMS-05-2018-0039
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2059-5891.htm
1. Introduction
The Indian banking sector has been revolutionalized due to economic reforms initiated by
the Government of India (Kamath et al., 2003). The banking industry is involved in
consumer banking, corporate banking, finance and insurance, venture banking, mortgage
loans, private equity, savings,asset management, wealth management and credit cards. The
industry has been growing faster than the national economy, resulting in the increase in
GDP (Sharma and Shekhar, 2015). In the financial year 2016, the value of the total Indian
banking sector assetsreached US$1.96tn and is expected to reach US$1.97tnin the year 2017
(IBEF, 2018). Access to banking facilities has revamped over recent years because of the
government’s attempts to advance banking technology and extend services to non-
metropolitan urbanareas.
Organizational change is the biggest challenge faced by the banks today (Akhtar,2006;
Hassan et al.,2012;Hussain and Corresponding, 2010). These changesmay be in the form of
changes in mission, strategic changes, operational changes and changes in the personal
attitudes and the behaviour.Change can be explained as the series of occurrences happening
in the organization (Kassim et al.,2010). Hannan and Freeman (1977,1984) have discussed
how the theories on organizationaldevelopment and organizational change aim to examine
and explain how individuals accept change. If the odds of failure of successfully
implementing change have to be reduced, there ought to be a strong commitment by
employees towards acceptance of change (Wood et al., 2010). This points the organization
towards growth and progress (Pierce,2003). It has been stated that for acceptance of change
to be decisive for any organization, keepingin mind the end goals to survive and prevail in
the profoundly focussed andcompeting business environment (Todnem, 2005), the ability of
the organization to maximize their employees innovative potential is fundamental (Romer,
1990). The knack of an organization to successfully implement the major changes will
depend upon the employees’competencies,their innovative behaviour and skills developed
to match the demands of these changes. According to West and Farr (1989), employee
innovative behaviour is allied with employee commitment to which pursues superior
behaviour to achieve higher values and competenciesfor the organization. The merit of the
employees’innovativebehaviour is that it places both the organization and the employees in
a win-win situation as this hasa momentous effect on business performance(Womack et al.,
1990;Hammer and Champy, 1993;Goldmanet al., 1995).
The above discourse exhibits an intricate situation which requires persuasive
administration to achieve the coveted outcomes. Such administration along with efficient
systems, requires an effective leadership which can communicate the vision and mobilize
the energy necessary for a turnaround. Yukl (1998) stated that transformational leaders
define the needs for change, craft new visions and muster commitment to the vision, focus
on long-term objectives,instigate adherents to rise over their own interests to achieve higher
order goals and mentor followers to take responsibility for their development and that of
others. Thus, it can be said that to attain successful organizational change, an appropriate
type of leadership is required where leaders can trigger the change by motivating and
coordinating followers via appropriate learning conditions and by emphasizing the
significance and applicationof the relevant information related to change (Erdil and Keskin,
2004). Moreover, organizations need to provide adequateinfrastructures to store, update and
access information as and when required. Organized and labelled databases can be created
by the organizationthrough the pertinent use of information technology (IT).This will aid in
recovering data, as well as filtering a proliferation of information where and when needed;
this further assumesa vital part in expediting changes (Bayerl et al.,2013).
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