The Relationship Between Leadership Styles and Organizational Identification: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Organizational changes such as service integration, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, are often only partially implemented. Failure of fully implemented change is often attributed to leadership and lack of integration between organizational cultures. Therefore, understanding the role of leadership style in influencing employee organizational identification may be critical in successful organizational change. This study aimed to provide a meta-analytic estimate of relationship between a range of leadership styles and follower organizational identification. A meta-analytic review examined the correlation between followers’ perceptions of leadership styles and their organizational identification across eight leadership styles. The meta-analytic estimate of the correlation between perceptions of leadership styles and organizational identification was r = 0.47 (k = 62, N = 22,893). While all but passive leadership showed positive correlations with organizational identification, some styles yielded stronger correlations than others. In particular, transactional (r = .60), ethical (r = .54) and transformational (r = .51,) leadership yielded the largest correlations with organizational identification. Results suggest that various leadership styles can be used to foster a positive connection to their organization in employees. This research presents the first known meta-analysis examining a range of leadership styles and their relationship to followers’ organizational identification.