Gender Dimensions of Support for Local Policy: Resident, Policymaker, and Policy Gender

Teamwork is essential in any organizations, and leadership plays an important role in influencing teamwork attitude. Transformational leadership as a positive leadership in influencing employees has been highly researched. However, its influence in teams has not been explored much in the current literature. In order to investigate the underlying processes of how transformational leadership may affect teamwork attitude, the present study aims to investigate how transformational leadership promotes teamwork attitude through trust in leaders, trust in team members, and collective efficacy. Two hundred and five full-time employees (Female = 64%, N= 131; Mean age = 29) from private sectors in Malaysia participated in the study. Through linear regression, the results indicated that transformational leadership leads to higher trust in leaders, trust in team members, higher teamwork attitude, and higher collective efficacy. Trust in leader and trust in team members mediate transformational leadership and collective efficacy, and collective efficacy mediates trust in leader, trust in team members, and teamwork attitude. Overall, these findings imply the importance of transformational leaders in promoting positive teamwork attitude among employees by focusing on trust in leader, trust in team members, and collective efficacy. Future studies may investigate how different leadership styles may be able to promote a teamwork attitude and their mediational pathways.

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is an extra-role behavior that is known to increase an organization’s success and effectiveness, while transformational leadership has been found to increase employees’ OCB. However, factors and processes on how transformational leadership may increase employees’ OCB are seldom discussed in the literature. Few researchers pointed out this mixed evidence on the underlying mediators within the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB. Hence, the purpose of this research is to understand the effect of transformational leadership on employees’ OCB by investigating trust in leader, self-efficacy, and affective commitment as mediators between the two. Two hundred and five full-time working adults (Male = 74, Female = 131; Mage = 29.01) in Malaysia participated in the study. Using regression and mediation analyses, results showed that there is a significant relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ OCB. Findings also indicate that trust in leader and self-efficacy mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and affective commitment. Affective commitment also mediates trust in leader and self-efficacy and OCB. This implies that transformational leadership is effective in nurturing employees’ OCB in Malaysia. This study may further expand to include other leadership styles that are motivating, such as empowering leadership on its mediational pathway in motivating employees.

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the problematic of public policies and leadership challenges for socio-economic transformation in South Africa. The paper illustrates that policies and laws of socio-economic reform have been introduced in democratic South Africa. However, socio-economic transformation remains a challenge. Lack of trust in the leadership relationships amongst political and economic agents is pointed as a contributing factor. Hence, LE emerges as a leadership strategy to help mitigate the problem.Design/methodology/approachThe paper starts by presenting the current economic situation of South Africa touching on some important economic indicators to illustrate the consequences of poor leadership in public policy implementation process. The paper then analyses the leadership challenges to drive socio-economic reforms that have been introduced in South Africa since the end of apartheid with focus on the current National Development Plan. Lack of trust in leadership is identified as a problematic factor and leadership ethos (LE) emerges as a leadership strategy to enable the building of trust in leadership for the purpose of a successful implementation of public policies.FindingsLack of trust in leadership is identified as a problematic factor contributing in the absence of cooperation and collaboration in the leadership relationship amongst public servants (from up to bottom) and citizens for the purpose of successful implementation of public policies. Hence, there is need for a new leadership paradigm that would enable the building of trust in these leadership relationships. LE emerges as such a leadership strategy.Practical implicationsThe paper calls for an exploration into the understanding and practice of LE and its inherent critical success factors (CSFs) considered as a leadership strategy that can help drive particularly public policies implementation process. LE intends to promote moral leadership that helps public servants to build good character and thus the will to do the right thing, and mutually trusting relationship is a CSF of LE. Therefore LE enables build the much needed trust in leadership relationships for a successful organisational leadership and management.Originality/valueThis paper provides significant implications by identifying lack of trust as a problematic factor in the leadership relationships amongst political and economic agents in South Africa, contributing thus in the poor implementation of public policies. LE emerges as a leadership strategy that would help mitigate the problem by enabling the building, the maintenance and restoration of trust in organisational and or institutional management for a successful public policy implementation process.

Leadership, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and trust have become important processes for healthcare management in recent years. One of the contemporary human resource management functions in the organizations involves engaging in leadership development, improving organizational trust and organizational commitment and increasing job satisfaction. Considering the rapidly changing healthcare technology and higher levels of occupational complexity, healthcare organizations are increasingly in need of engaging in leadership development in any given area of expertise to address ever-changing nature of the industry and the delivery of quality of care while remaining cost-effective and competitive. This paper investigates the perceptions of both public servants and private sector employees (outsourcing) on transformational leadership, organizational commitment, organizational trust and job satisfaction in Turkish healthcare industry. Additionally, the paper analyzes the predictability of organizational commitment based on employee – both public servants (physicians, nurses, administrative personnel and other healthcare professionals) and private sector employees (outsourcing) (auxiliary services such as administrative assistants, security personnel, kitchen, laundry and housekeeping employees) – perceptions of transformational leadership, job satisfaction and organizational trust. Using a survey instrument with items adopted from the transformational leadership inventory (TLI) [Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Moorman, R. H., & Fetter, R. (1990). Transformational leader behaviors and their effects on followers' trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Leadership Quarterly, 1, 107–142], the organizational commitment questionnaire [Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1997). Commitment in the workplace: Theory, research, and application. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage], the organizational trust inventory (OTI) [Cummings, L. L., & Bromiley, P. (1996). The occupational trust inventory (OTI): Development and validation. In R. Kramer & T. Tyler (Eds.), Trust in organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research (pp. 302–330). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage] and job satisfaction survey (JSS) [Spector, P. E. (1985). Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the job satisfaction survey. American Journal of Community Psychology, 13, 693–731], this quantitative study was conducted among 2108 healthcare employees (public servants and private employees) in two large government hospitals in Turkey. The study findings indicate a significant difference between the public servants and private sector employees in terms of their perceptions on two dimensions of transformational leadership (being an appropriate model, providing individualized support), overall transformational leadership and one dimension of job satisfaction (communication). The two dimensions of job satisfaction – operating procedures and communication – as well as organizational trust were the significant predictors of organizational commitment of public servants, whereas the two dimensions of leadership – individualized support and fostering the acceptance – as well as the two dimensions of job satisfaction – promotion and contingent rewards – and organizational trust were the significant regressors of organizational commitment of private sector employees. In addition, there is a significant difference between the predictors of the dimensions of organizational commitment (transformational leadership, job satisfaction and organizational trust) in terms of public servants versus private sector employees. Finally, organizational trust has a significant effect on overall organizational commitment as well as its three dimensions for public servants and private employees.

The importance of the stereotypes and teachers’ beliefs about mathematics as the male domain, for the students’ perception of their competences and achievements is the subject of extensive research. It is generally assumed that teachers – as guardians of socialisation – replicate this stereotype. An attempt to measure the stereotypical teachers’ assumptions has been offered only by J. Tiedemann (2002). It has become an inspiration to design the authors’ own research programme in which the relationship between increased stereotype beliefs and teachers’ asymmetry of female and male students’ abilities is sought. The paper presents the results of the study of the Polish version of the Gender Stereotypes Scale among 120 mathematics teachers (95 female, 25 male) from junior high schools. It has been shown that a) the stereotype is irrespective of the teacher’s gender, b) its profile is different in the sample of male and female respondents, c) the length of employment does not differentiate it. The educational implications of the obtained data have been presented in the paper.

ABSTRACTIllegitimate tasks are duties that violate established role expectations, such as assigning urban planning officers to manage traffic hotlines. In the public sector, bureaucratic structures, resource constraints, and leadership limitations often contribute to the proliferation of such tasks, yet their impact on public servants' behaviors remains unclear. This study examines how and when illegitimate tasks inhibit public servants' innovative work behavior through the mediating role of cognitive flexibility and the moderating roles of different forms of trust in leaders. Hierarchical model analyses using multi‐wave data from public servants and their managers in Vietnam reveal that illegitimate tasks indirectly reduce innovative work behavior via cognitive flexibility. Additionally, relationship‐based trust amplifies the negative effect of illegitimate tasks on cognitive flexibility, whereas character‐based trust does not. These findings highlight the need to minimize illegitimate task assignments and reveal the potential drawbacks of relationship‐based trust in such adverse work conditions.

This study examines the impact of policy transparency on citizens’ levels of policy understanding and support for a hypothetical policy. Specifically, we propose that the effects of transparency on understanding are heavily contingent upon the way government information is presented. Further, we suggest that greater policy understanding will be associated with higher levels of policy support. We examine these relationships using a survey experiment that draws upon a nationally representative panel of citizens. The results demonstrate that effects of policy transparency on policy understanding are heavily contingent upon presentation – participants exposed to more detailed information about the policy understood the policy worse than those exposed to less detailed information. In turn, objective levels of understanding are associated with lower levels of policy support. As such, our findings suggest the presence of a positive indirect effect of policy transparency on policy support. Our study also shows that an individual’s sense of understanding predicts greater policy support among citizens with a poor objective understanding of the policy. Implications for theory and research are discussed.

COVID-19, leadership and lessons from physics.

Purpose This study aims to develop a cross-level research model to explore the relationship between ambidextrous leadership (AL) and team innovation, the role of team learning mediation and the effect of trust in leader moderation on the relationship. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a cross-sectional approach, which included a quantitative survey. The survey was given to 404 respondents from 99 working groups from 29 regional apparatus organizations in Indonesia. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis using MPLUS software was used to test the proposed relationships. Findings AL has a direct negative correlation with team innovation. However, AL can have a positive impact on team innovation when it is mediated by team learning and strengthened by trust in leader. Originality/value This study offers a novel and substantive contribution to the advancement of dynamic capability theory within the unique context of local government organizations in Indonesia, an area that has been largely underexplored. By dissecting the intricate mechanisms linking AL to team innovation, this research challenges the commonly held assumption that AL is inherently beneficial. It reveals a counterintuitive finding: AL, in isolation, has a non-significant impact on team innovation unless mediated by team learning and reinforced by trust in the leader. This nuanced insight expands the theoretical boundaries of dynamic capability by emphasizing that an organization’s adaptive and innovative capacity hinges on not solely leadership style but also the cultivation of collective learning processes and relational trust. Such findings not only enrich existing theoretical models but also offer practical implications for fostering innovation in bureaucratic and hierarchical institutional settings.

Two experiments examined the polarization of public support for COVID-19 policies due to people’s (lack of) trust in political leaders and nonpartisan experts. In diverse samples in the United States (Experiment 1; N = 1,802) and the United Kingdom (Experiment 2; N = 1,825), participants evaluated COVID-19 policies that were framed as proposed by ingroup political leaders, outgroup political leaders, nonpartisan experts, or, in the United States, a bipartisan group of political leaders. At the time of the study in April 2020, COVID-19 was an unfamiliar and shared threat. Therefore, there were theoretical reasons suggesting that attitudes toward COVID-19 policy may not have been politically polarized. Yet, our results demonstrated that even relatively early in the pandemic people supported policies from ingroup political leaders more than the same policies from outgroup leaders, extending prior research on how people align their policy stances to political elites from their own parties. People also trusted experts and ingroup political leaders more than they did outgroup political leaders. Partly because of this polarized trust, policies from experts and bipartisan groups were more widely supported than policies from ingroup political leaders. These results illustrate the potentially detrimental role political leaders may play and the potential for effective leadership by bipartisan groups and nonpartisan experts in shaping public policy attitudes during crises.

Does receiving information about a policy's source shape individual support for the policy? Is the public more supportive of policies issued by courts, legislatures, or citizens voting on a ballot initiative? Using a survey experiment, we find strong evidence that learning about a policy's source can affect support for the policy. Specifically, we find that state‐level policy sources influence both the degree and direction of influence on policy support. In general, when informed about a policy's source, survey participants are least likely to support the policy when it is judicially determined and instead prefer the policy when it is produced either through the legislature or by the voters. However, upon learning of the policy's source, self‐identified partisans and Independents differ significantly in their support for the policy.Related ArticlesGrossmann,Matt.2014. “.”Politics & Policy42():881‐904.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12102/abstractErtas,Nevbahar.2015. “.”Politics & Policy43():426‐451.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12120/abstractRugeley,Cynthia R., andJohn DavidGerlach. 2012. “.”Politics & Policy40():444‐470.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2012.00352.x/abstractRelated MediaFox,Joe, andJamesNubile. (2012) “Question 1: The Battle for Same Sex Marriage in America.”http://www.q1-themovie.com/Klink,Jack.2013. “Rise above the Mark.”https://riseabovethemark.com/

While transparency is viewed as a means of improving citizen understanding of public policies and eliciting policy support, there are few empirical assessments of these relationships. We address this gap in the literature using an experimental design. We predict that exposure to less detailed policy information improves policy understanding, and that this effect varies according to presentation format. Further, we predict that policy understanding will correspond to greater policy support. Using a nationally representative panel of US citizens we find that exposure to detailed policy information decreases policy understanding and that the effect varies by presentation format. In addition, policy understanding is negatively associated with policy support. These findings culminate in a positive indirect effect—increasing detail reduces understanding, which in turn is negatively associated with policy support. However, interestingly, policy support was highest among those who felt they understood the policy best, yet possessed the lowest levels of actual understanding.

Critique and change: The “what”, “why”, “how”, and “so what”

Are personal stories more effective in shaping opinion than experts’ endorsements? This study investigates the persuasiveness of personal stories and expert endorsements in shaping public opinion on education spending and pollution reduction policies. Using a survey experiment in Spain, we found that personal stories consistently increased support for both policies, with a particularly strong effect on citizens with populist attitudes or voters of populist parties. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the success of populist parties and the influence of personal stories on public opinion.

This study examines how information regarding poverty influences support for redistribution. Redistributive policies involve allocating resources to address poverty and inequality. Previous research finds that support for redistributive policies is grounded in attitudes towards government size, social mobility, partisan identity, and political ideology. In this study, we test how information regarding poverty impacts support for redistributive policies. When subjects are given information about the material well-being of those in poverty, we expect to find less support for redistributive policies. On the other hand, when subjects are presented with information about the effect of poverty on the decision-making of those in poverty, we expect to find greater support for redistribution. Using survey experiments with undergraduate subjects from a public university in the southern region of the United States, we find no differences in support for redistributive policies in response to these two types of information.