Reinforcing the Need for More Sophistication in Leadership Studies in the Government Sector

Abstract

We certainly welcome the interest in our recent piece in Public Administration Re view, Examining the Nature and Signifi cance of Leadership in Government Organizations. This research incorporated the highlights of Dr. Trottier's dissertation, to which Drs. Van Wart and Wang pro vided academic and methodological guidance. It built on the work of Professor Van Wart in calling for more empirical studies, especially testing extant frameworks in various public sector contexts (Van Wart 2003), and his work calling for more testing and refinement of comprehensive models of leadership. The study was empirical (based on 100,657 usable surveys from the 2002 Federal Human Capital Survey), limited to the federal setting, and primarily tested Bass's full range theory, especially teasing out the differences between how followers perceived their leaders' transactional and transformational competence descriptively, as well as what they wanted in their leaders (examined through regression analysis). It found that although federal managers perceive their leaders to possess stronger transactional skills, it was their transforma tional skills that they would like to see emphasized. It also found that Bass's rather elegant, universalistic model held up well, generally consistent with other research, in the government setting. Finally, it found that leadership variables (using Bass's concepts) are considered among the most important in determining follower satisfaction, with the sole exception of per sonal fulfillment of the job, and, when combined, accounted for an adjusted R2 of .736.