CEO Transformational Leadership Research Articles

How CEO transformational leadership promotes firm innovation: mediating role of collective task self-efficacy

PurposeInnovative capabilities are essential for the survival and development of an organization. Previous studies have found a positive relationship between CEO transformational leadership (CEOTFL) and firm innovation. However, limited studies have endeavored to investigate the relationship between CEOTFL and firm innovation through the cognition and attitudes of the ordinary employees, despite their significant role in corporate innovation. Existing TFL literature has predominantly concentrated on “the close relationships” between leaders and their immediate subordinates, leaving the remote influence of CEOTFL on ordinary employees under-researched. Therefore, the current study aims to explain the relationship between CEOTFL and firm innovation from a micro-level perspective.Design/methodology/approachMultilevel and multi-sourced data from 1,627 employees across 145 firms was used to test the hypotheses in this study.FindingsThe results indicate that CEOTFL can enhance firm innovation by enhancing the collective task self-efficacy of regular employees. Moreover, this effect is not observed when employees are exposed to a low level of work–life balance practices.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that CEOs can perform increased TFL to promote firm innovation. It is recommended that CEOs demonstrate their TFL not only to their direct subordinates but also to regular employees using various methods, such as participating in corporate activities with employees, delivering public speeches and sending emails to employees. Meanwhile, the HRM system should consistently align with the CEO’s leadership approach within the organization.Social implicationsThis study strengthens the importance of ordinary employees and their contribution to firm innovation.Originality/valueThe present study contributes to the literature on the micro-foundations of the relationship between CEOTFL and firm innovation by considering ordinary employee reactions as a mediator. Furthermore, this study enriches the CEOTFL literature by investigating the distant influence of CEOTFL on rank-and-file employees through the lens of social cognitive theory. Additionally, the authors expand cue consistency theory to the realms of CEO leadership and HRM literature by integrating CEOTFL and work–life balance practices into a unified model. The findings reveal the importance of coordination between CEO leadership and HRM systems within an organization. The inclusion of Chinese sample data in this study augments the cultural diversity of the sample within the CEOTFL literature.

Impact of risk-taking tendency and transformational leadership style on the use of management accounting system information: a direct-mediation model

PurposeThis research aims to determine the impact of the CEO's risk-taking tendencies and the transformational leadership style on the use of the management accounting system information, as well as the mediating impact of product creativeness and organizational citizenship behavior in this context. It also provides empirical evidence from Vietnamese enterprises.Design/methodology/approachThe current research was conducted using quantitative methods. It was conducted during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic in Vietnam. The study population is represented by all of the Vietnamese enterprises listed on stock exchanges. Therefore, an online email questionnaire was used for data collection. Specifically, 670 emails were sent to CEOs and 146 complete responses were collected (21.79% rate).FindingsBy using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), the study results show that the CEO's risk-taking tendencies and transformational leadership style have a significant positive effect on the use of the management accounting system information. Additionally, product creativeness mediates the relationship between the CEO's risk-taking tendency, and the use of the management accounting system information. Also, organizational citizenship behavior mediates the relationship between transformational leadership style and the use of the management accounting system information.Research limitations/implicationsDespite attempts to overcome by GDP contribution ratio, convenience sampling tends to cause common method bias. Furthermore, small sample sizes can lead to heterogeneity and unstable estimates of the parameter. Causality issues may also arise because the model has no control variables. Therefore, later studies should take the necessary additional steps when sampling to stay consistent with the study population, possibly conducting surveys in several batches to determine the correlation between changes in variables, and allowing the ability to discover and add any necessary control variables.Originality/valueThis research acts as a bridge between management and management accounting, confirming the importance of this combination when efficiently using the management accounting system.

Application of Machine Learning in Digital Human Resource Management

In today's high-speed information age, many problems of the traditional human resource management (HRM) system make it impossible to effectively analyze massive data in today's enterprise competition and development. Machine learning, as a novel field of research in computer science in recent decades, provides a potential solution to the current problems faced by HRM systems. This study focuses on strategic HRM, an essential means of shaping employee behavior, and a vital information transmission channel in the CEO's transformational leadership behavior. By reviewing past literature on machine learning and exploring the principles of the practical application of machine learning in HRM, this paper also focuses on the intermediary mechanism between enterprise performance and the latest progress in machine learning and HRM. Further, the study tries to summarize and refine the opportunities and challenges that HRM faces in developing HRM and possible future research directions and hotspots.

CEO Transformational Leadership, Supply Chain Agility and Firm Performance: A TISM Modeling among SMEs

This article aims to present an approach to enhance the firm performance of SMEs by understanding the dynamics between the elements of the transformational leadership style of the CEO and the agility of the supply network. The business environment among SMEs is marked by fierce rivalry, quick change, and tremendous instability. While an agile supply chain is seen as a winning option for manufacturing SMEs, a transformational leadership style of the CEO can be a source of competitive advantage to improve their performance. Thus, an attempt has been made to integrate transformational leadership and supply chain agility elements and delineate their structural relationship using the total interpretive structural modeling method. Results indicate that transformational leaders drive agile initiatives in the supply chain by setting and communicating a vision, encouraging supply chain members to think of innovative solutions for problems, and mentoring them individually to achieve high-performance standards. These practices will make the team members put in extra effort to accomplish the task, thereby establishing a committed and flexible workforce. Conclusions are drawn, and implications are discussed for enhancing firm performance.

Effects of CEO Transformational and Entrepreneurial Leadership on Employee Satisfaction: Mediating Role of Supportive Culture

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of CEO transformational leadership and CEO entrepreneurial leadership on employee satisfaction. Also, we paid attention to the mediating role of supportive culture among the relationships. The effects of the two CEO leadership styles have been reported to be positive to firm performance and employee outcomes, however they have different attributes. According to previous literature, leader’s entrepreneurial attitude or behavior emphasizing innovativeness, risk taking, and competitive aggressiveness could generate some stress or pressure to employees. Thus, we scrutinize the mechanism among the two CEO leadership styles, supportive culture, and employee satisfaction. The results showed that CEO transformational leadership had a positive effect on employee satisfaction directly as well as a positive effect on employee satisfaction through supportive culture indirectly. On the other hand, CEO entrepreneurial leadership had a positive effect on employee satisfaction through supportive culture indirectly while, there was no significant relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and employee satisfaction. Our research findings provide informative theoretical and managerial implications.

How CEO transformational leadership impacts organizational and individual innovative behavior: collaborative HRM as mediator

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to examine how the chief exective officers (CEO's) transformational leadership impacts organizational innovation and individual innovative behavior, through the mediating role of collaborative human resource management (HRM) practices.Design/methodology/approachBy using a stratified sampling technique, the data were obtained from ten Microfinance banks located in five metropolitan cities of Pakistan. By adopting a purposive sampling technique, total 427 responses were received out of which 411 responses were considered for data analysis. Structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was adopted using AMOS 21.0 to test the developed hypotheses.FindingsThe findings of the study described a significant and positive relationship between CEO transformational leadership and collaborative HRM. The collaborative HRM has also a positive impact on organizational innovation and individual innovative behavior. Moreover, the results revealed that collaborative HRM fully mediates between CEO transformational leadership and organizational innovation. However, partial mediate between CEO transformational leadership and individual innovative behavior.Practical implicationsThe results of this study can be helpful for bank organizations and policymakers who have extended vision and anticipate the significance of innovation in a fast-changing market. The results of the study also provide the space and scope for prospective researchers and scholars for further research.Originality/valueThere is substantial literature existing on the relationship between CEO transformational leadership, organizational innovation and individual innovative behavior. However, the study finds this that only few researchers took the opportunity to observe the mediating role of collaborative HRM on the relationship between CEO transformational leadership, organizational innovation and individual innovative behavior in the context of Pakistan.

기술기반 중소기업의 지각된 조직문화와 CEO의 변혁적 리더십이 혁신행동에 미치는 영향 - 개인-조직 적합성의 조절효과 -

This study investigated the effects of three contextual variables on employees’ innovative behavior: perceived innovative culture, perceived hierarchical culture, and CEO’s transformational leadership. The moderating effect of person-organizational fit(POF) was also examined on these relationships. The data were collected from 264 employees working in technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) including venture companies and inno-biz firms. We conducted confirmatory factor analyses, multiple regression analysis, and moderation analyses. Results of multiple regression analyses showed that the two types of organizational culture exerted differential influences on employees' innovative behavior. Perceived innovative culture was positively related to innovative behavior, while perceived hierarchical culture was not. CEO’s transformational leadership was also positively related to innovative behavior. We also analysed moderating effects using Process macro. The moderating effects of POF between independent variables and outcome were significant. The result of Johnson-Neyman technique, however, showed different significance areas. This study contributes to innovation behavior research in several ways. First, research areas has been expanded to technology-based SMEs in Korea. Second, both organizational cultures and CEO's transformational leadership were simultaneously considered as the antecedents of innovative behavior. Third, significant moderating roles of POF were found, suggesting the importance of personel selection based on POF. Based on the findings of the study, suggestions are provided for managers and entrepreneurs interested in facilitating innovative behavior in their employees. Implications for future research were also presented.

Mediating role of innovative climate among leadership and employee performance in textile exporting firms of Pakistan

This research seeks to examine how transformational leadership and ambidextrous leadership impact employee performance. The study focuses on the mediating role of innovation climate in influencing the relationship both directly and indirectly with employee performance. Previous literature shows that many studies have been conducted to measure the employee’s performance under the leadership. Still, no study has covered the mediating role of innovation climate between leadership and employee performance. The present study aims at filling that gap through the presentation of a statistical model. Respondents in the sample included the managerial staff of textile exporting firms of Pakistan. Multiple linear regression and the PROCESS for mediation model in the SPSS was used to analyze the collected data. The results indicated that the CEO transformational leadership and ambidextrous leadership had a significantly positive influence on employee performance. In addition, innovation climate was found to have a strong mediating effect. The researchers recommended the exploration of the impact of other possible moderating variables in future researches. Recommendations were also made for the top management of textile firms for the consideration of innovation climate along with the improvement of employee performance.

Emotionally intelligent top management and high family firm performance: Evidence from Germany

Executives in family firms are often confronted with emotionally loaded issues, in part due to the need to include the interests of the owning family. Given this context, we hypothesize how high family-firm performance is affected by the emotional intelligence (EI) of a family-based CEO and top-management team (TMT), in addition to the CEO's transformational leadership (TFL) and TMT's behavioral integration. Survey measures were taken from a random sample of 72 CEOs of German family firms and 245 members of their TMTs. We found that TMT behavioral integration mediates between CEO TFL and objective firm performance while CEO EI is significantly related to both CEO TFL and TMT EI. Implications are discussed for future research thereby suggesting an extension to upper-echelon theory.

Navigating Innovation Success through Projects. Role of CEO Transformational Leadership, Project Management Best Practices, and Project Management Technology Quotient

In an advancing project-based global economy, the ability to leverage innovation, and the adoption of disruptive technologies are critical for product and process innovation success. This study makes the initial attempt to examine the effects of CEO transformational leadership (CTL), project management best practices (PMBP), and project management technology quotient (PMTQ) on multi-dimensional innovation success. Drawing on data of 261 practitioners in the information and communications technology industry in South Korea, the hypothesized relationships were tested using higher-order partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The study finds supportive evidence on the positive effects of CTL, PMBP, and PMTQ on innovation success. Moreover, PMBP and PMTQ demonstrated a significant moderating influence on the relationship between CTL and innovation success. Besides the development and validation of a new PMTQ scale, the study findings offer novel theoretical predictions, methodological contributions, and implications for practitioners to mitigate the challenges of successful innovations.

Effect of CEO Transformational Leadership on Innovative Behavior in the Service Industry

This study explores the relationships among CEO transformational leadership, organizational learning, and employee innovative behavior from the perspective of social exchange theory. The investigation is conducted on valid questionnaire responses collected from 42 companies (173 employees). The results show that CEO transformational leadership is positively related to organizational learning and employee innovative behavior. Moreover, organizational learning plays a mediating role in the relationship between CEO transformational leadership and employee innovative behavior. These results offer reasons to consider employees’ innovative behaviors as the outcome of social exchange. Moreover, CEO transformational leadership exerts cross-level effects on organizational learning and employees’ innovative behaviors.

CEO Transformational Leadership Style and Performance of SMEs: A Literature Review, Kenya

CEO Transformational Leadership Style and Performance of SMEs: A Literature Review, Kenya

A mixed-methods study of CEO transformational leadership and firm performance

This mixed-methods study explores the relationship between CEO transformational leadership and firm performance relying exclusively on secondary data. We used a random sample comprising of 42 CEOs of publicly-listed US and European companies. We evaluated their transformational leadership drawing upon media sources which were content analyzed to create individual CEO profiles. These profiles were then given to a panel of three judges who rated the CEOs on their transformational leadership style. We obtained the firm performance data from Thomson Datastream. Our results showed significant associations between intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation respectively, and different financial performance indicators. We also observed a tendency of positive relationships between individualized consideration and firm performance. These findings remained significant after controlling for company baseline performance, firm size, CEO tenure, and company location. Our findings largely support the positive role of CEO transformational leadership in shaping firm performance.

Like-Minded Cooperators—The Research on the Relationship between the CEO Transformational Leadership and the Innovation Behavior of Designer

Based on the human-environment interaction theory, this study intends to expand the existing ASA model by combining the leadership behavior theory and organizational identity theory, and focuses on the role of the model in linking the innovation performance of the CEO and the R & D staff. Through the above research, the connection path between CEO transformational leadership at the organizational level and employee performance at the individual level has been opened up, and the relationship model between transformational leadership and employee creative behavior has been constructed. Besides, the variable relationship in the model has been verified by collecting questionnaires from fashion designers of 640 clothing enterprises. Data results show that the CEO of transformational leadership on employee leadership fit has a significant positive influence, staff leadership fit have a significant positive influence on identification of leadership, and leadership identity for employees’ innovation performance has a significant role in promoting, organizational political climate between CEO of transformational leadership and employee leadership fit to play an important inhibitory effect, namely the high organizational political climate, CEO of transformational leadership has been weakened by the influence to fit the leadership of the staff will be. This research will be an effective supplement to the recent research on innovation behavior and innovation performance at the enterprise and individual levels.

Cross-country evidence on project portfolio success in the Asia-Pacific region: Role of CEO transformational leadership, portfolio governance and strategic innovation orientation

Project portfolio management ensures a hierarchy of purpose and effective prioritization of projects in achieving organization’s strategic objectives. This study argues that the lack of discipline ...

Trickle-down effect of CEO transformational leadership on employee’s innovative work behaviors

Despite the theoretical foundation that links Transformational leadership (TFL) with innovation behavior, previous studies have overlooked on Transformational leadership and innovation behavior at the individual level relationship but paid less attention to how transformational leadership qualities of top leaders would advance innovative work behavior within the organizational setting. To date, the impact of Transformational leadership at a top executive level on employee’s innovative work behavior (IWB) within an organizational setting has not been dealt with in-depth. However, using transformational leadership theory, this study uncovers the pivotal role of innovation culture (IC) and managerial innovation (MI) in the relationship between CEO transformational leadership and employee’s innovation behavior in SMEs. A cross-sectional design with a total of 434 employees from 24 SMEs operating from Rwanda was analyzed using structural equation modeling to evaluate the relationship between the variables developed in the study. The findings of this study support our hypothesized model.

CEO transformational leadership and top management team performance: study from GCC

Purpose Various research studies have been carried out to study Chief Executive Officers’ (CEOs’) transformational leadership in driving organizational performance and success. Evidence shows that few studies were carried out on CEO transformational leadership and top management team (TMT) performance in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Thus, this study aims to provide a unique contribution and the first of its kind to examine the CEO leadership–TMT performance link across GCC countries. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the researchers approached 500 employees and 30 CEOs working in 30 different organizations operating in the GCC countries. The firms were selected conveniently from different industries located in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. The researchers used the PASW (SPSS) program to analyze the data. Findings The findings show that psychological empowerment has no significant role in moderating the transformational leadership – TMT performance relationship. Internal support for innovation plays a significant role in mediating the relationship between transformational leadership and TMT performance. Research limitations/implications The present study has not examined the behavioral aspects of CEO followers. Future research may study behavioral characteristics of the entire TMT. Originality/value This study contributes to body of research that identifies CEO transactional leadership as perceived by the followers was found to be more important in predicting TMT performance than transformational leadership in the context of organizations located in GCC countries. Managerial implications and future research areas are further discussed.

Strengthening Managerial Innovation Behavior in the SMEs

Managerial innovation as an internal change agent plays a central role in coping with the speed of today’s fast-paced customer demand and highly competitive market, yet previous studies paid less attention to the potential measures of strengthening managerial innovation behavior within organizations. Drawing from transformational leadership theory, the current study shed new light on this issue by examining the role of CEO transformational leadership (TFL), innovation culture (IC) and cross-functional integration (CFI) in advancing managerial innovation behavior in SMEs. A cross-sectional study with a sample of 434 respondents from 24 SMEs operating in Rwanda was conducted. To genuinely analyze the relationship between the variables hypothesized in this study, we used structural equation modeling (SEM) and bootstrapping technique using Amos 23 and SPSS 24. The overall findings revealed that the relationship proposed in the model were significantly supported. However, our new mechanism implying innovation culture and cross-functional integration in the relationship between CEO transformational leadership and managerial innovation behavior, provide a substantial contribution to management literature.

Demystifying the impact of CEO transformational leadership on firm performance: Interactive roles of exploratory innovation and environmental uncertainty

This paper aims to reconcile the inconsistent findings about the effects of CEO transformational leadership (CTL) on firm performance by using upper echelon theory to hypothesize and empirically demonstrate that CTL triggers exploratory innovation in a firm, which in turn has an inverted U-shaped effect on firm performance. In other words, CTL may only lead to better firm performance at moderate levels of exploratory innovation through optimal utilization of a firm's scarce resources and may actually hurt firm performance at higher levels of exploratory innovation because of suboptimal resource utilization. We also show that CTL's most detrimental effect on firm performance occurs when the contingencies of high technology uncertainty and low demand uncertainty are combined. Data from multiple sources within 288 Chinese firms support most of our hypotheses and provide insights into the complex mechanism by which CTL affects firm performance, especially in an increasingly uncertain global economic environment.

The role of CEO transformational leadership and innovation climate in exploration and exploitation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship among CEO transformational leadership, innovation climate and organizational innovation through exploration and exploitation.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire, designed as a self-reported survey, was distributed to individuals working in teams in US-based corporations, with a collected sample size of 215 organizations.FindingsResults show that CEO transformational leadership has a direct positive effect on organizational innovation and an indirect effect through innovation climate. CEO leadership is more impactful for exploitation, compared to innovation climate, which has more influence on exploration.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is the first to integrate CEO transformational leadership and innovation climate with exploration and exploitation outcomes. A research limitation is that there is a higher percentage of female than male respondents and a lower of percentage of female CEOs in this study. A further limitation is self-report which can lead to common method bias.Practical implicationsThe close connection among CEO transformational leadership, innovation climate and organizational innovation suggests that evaluating, supporting and training CEO transformational leadership becomes a vital activity for boards, investors and managers. If management wants to increase exploration, they should pay particular attention to creating a climate that is supportive of innovation. Organizations should recruit and train CEOs for transformational leadership and regularly assess climate to ensure innovation results.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this study is highlighting the role of innovation climate as a mediator between CEO transformational leadership and the outcome of organizational innovation which is measured by exploration and exploitation activities.