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I J A B E R, Vol. 13, No. 5, (2015): 3433-3448 LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS, ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR AND TASK PERFORMANCE: THE ROLE OF JOB CHARACTERISTICS AT THE WORK PLACE Neetu Choudhary * , Rajender Kumar ** and P. J. Philip *** Abstract: Purpose: The present research aims to develop a model in the area of the leadership effectiveness in Indian service sector. Model proposes a different mechanism for explaining the expanding the leadership effectiveness at the workplace. Research Methodology: A sample comprised of 188 professional working in Indian public and private sector organizations operating in IT and telecommunication. Besides, zero order correlation and structure equation modeling were used to examine the four hypotheses of the study. Findings: Results supported the framed structure model, which showed the direct effects of leadership effectiveness on beneficial job behaviors, which are supplemented, by effects on employees’ perception of job characteristics and intrinsic motivation. Further intrinsic motivation is also related with beneficial job behaviors; task performance and OCB. Research Implications and Limitations: The theoretical and operational implications of the results are discussed in the paper. The study is limited to the perception of Indian IT and telecommunication engineers. Originality: The paper examines the proposed model and relationship between intrinsic motivation and task performance and OCB for the first time in the Indian service sector. Keywords: Transformational leadership, job characteristics, intrinsic motivation, OCB and task performance. INTRODUCTION By all counts, leadership ranks among the most researched topics in the organizational behavioral sciences. And over the past two decades, transformational leadership emerged as a popular approach to understand leadership effectiveness. Transformational leadership is based upon the fact that a leader can motivate followers to higher level of productivity (Bass, 1985). Since, the positive relationship between transformational leadership and followers’ behavior is very well documented (Lowe, Kroeck, and Sivasubraniam, 1996; Judge * Assistant Professor, School of Business, Lovely Professional University – 144411 ** Professor and HOD-MBA, National institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra-136119 *** Professor and Dean Academic Student Welfare, National institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra- 136119

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I J A B E R, Vol. 13, No. 5, (2015): 3433-3448

LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS, ORGANIZATIONALCITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR AND TASK PERFORMANCE:

THE ROLE OF JOB CHARACTERISTICS AT THEWORK PLACE

Neetu Choudhary*, Rajender Kumar** and P. J. Philip***

Abstract: Purpose: The present research aims to develop a model in the area of the leadershipeffectiveness in Indian service sector. Model proposes a different mechanism for explaining theexpanding the leadership effectiveness at the workplace. Research Methodology: A samplecomprised of 188 professional working in Indian public and private sector organizationsoperating in IT and telecommunication. Besides, zero order correlation and structure equationmodeling were used to examine the four hypotheses of the study. Findings: Results supportedthe framed structure model, which showed the direct effects of leadership effectiveness onbeneficial job behaviors, which are supplemented, by effects on employees’ perception of jobcharacteristics and intrinsic motivation. Further intrinsic motivation is also related withbeneficial job behaviors; task performance and OCB. Research Implications and Limitations:The theoretical and operational implications of the results are discussed in the paper. The studyis limited to the perception of Indian IT and telecommunication engineers. Originality: Thepaper examines the proposed model and relationship between intrinsic motivation and taskperformance and OCB for the first time in the Indian service sector.

Keywords: Transformational leadership, job characteristics, intrinsic motivation, OCB andtask performance.

INTRODUCTION

By all counts, leadership ranks among the most researched topics in theorganizational behavioral sciences. And over the past two decades,transformational leadership emerged as a popular approach to understandleadership effectiveness. Transformational leadership is based upon the fact that aleader can motivate followers to higher level of productivity (Bass, 1985). Since,the positive relationship between transformational leadership and followers’behavior is very well documented (Lowe, Kroeck, and Sivasubraniam, 1996; Judge

* Assistant Professor, School of Business, Lovely Professional University – 144411** Professor and HOD-MBA, National institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra-136119*** Professor and Dean Academic Student Welfare, National institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra-

136119

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3434 � Neetu Choudhary, Rajender Kumar and P. J. Philip

and Piccolo, 2004; Krishnan, 2005; Ramachandran and Krishnan, 2009). However,research on leadership effectiveness has not fully explored that what are theunderlying mechanisms and processes through which a transformational leaderinfluences their followers’ behavior and promotes dramatic changes in them (Karkand Shamir, 2002). Some studies have been performed in western countries toexamine the processes by which theses effects are accomplished (Dvir et al. 2002;Bono and Judge, 2003; Kark, Shamir and Chen, 2003). These studies inclined tohighlight the role of followers’ workplace attitude (satisfaction, trust and justiceperception) towards leaders. So, here we propose a different mechanism forexplaining the leadership effectiveness. It can be said that leadership effectivenessis governed by a number of variables. However, we can also state that the leadershipeffectiveness one rooted not only in his attitude but also rooted in job of a follower.Because a leader is one who defines and shapes the “reality” in which followerswork. Proposed model based upon the job characteristic theory given by Hackmanand Oldham’s (1976). Authors gave five job characteristics – variety, identity,significance, autonomy and feedback. All these five job characteristics try to capturethe key factors of that “reality”. Authors also suggested that a leader can encourageemployees’ positive job attitude and increase work quality by enhancing jobperception along these five characteristics. In addition, we can say that leadershipphenomenon by itself is universal. However it differs across cultures. In Indiancontext, It has been drawn from grounded theory approach that universaldimensions of TL constitutes 44% and culture specific dimensions constitutes 56%of the responses for Indian transformational leadership (Singh and Krishana, 2007).So, it is interesting to find out the relationship between transformational leadershipand employees’ perception of job characteristics in Indian context. Therefore wetested the model shown in figure 1, in which direct effect of leadership effectivenessby transformational leadership on job characteristics then leadership relationshipwith task-performance and organizational citizenship behavior (beneficial jobbehavior at the workplace). The perception of job characteristics then go on topredict intrinsic motivation, which itself related to the two beneficial job behaviors.Therefore, this study provides a unique integration of two variables in theorganizational behavior: leadership effectiveness and job characteristics perceptionin India.

LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS AND BENEFICIAL JOB BEHAVIORS

A number of research studies very well documented the relationship betweentransformational leadership and leadership effectiveness (Bass, 1985; Lowe et. al.1996; Bass et. al. 2003; Piccolo and Colquitt, 2006). Dvir et at. (2002) argued thattransformational leaders make an additional influence by appealing to followers’believes and values, to perform beyond the expectations specified in the exchangeagreement. They also enhance commitment to organizational vision and inspirefollowers to develop a new way of thinking about routine problems and issues at

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the workplace. Although a particular leadership style might have been effectivein the western countries, but when same leadership style was tried in differentcountries, results showed that same leadership style did not carry through its fullprospective everywhere. In fact, sometimes it proved to be unfavorable (Beyer,1999; Conger, 1999; Dickson et al. 2003; Pillai et al. 1999; Smith and Peterson, 2002).Robert et al. (2000) found that there was a negative relationship between ratings ofmanagers and empowering employees in India, while reverse was found in theUSA, Mexico, and Poland. Hence, transformational leadership may not apparentitself in the same set of dimensions in India as it does in the other western countries.In the Indian context, transformational leaders have been found to displaycharacteristics like personal touch, simple living, loyalty, nurturing, expertise andself-sacrificing. Indian transformational dimensions are unique than the universaldimensions of leadership behavior given by (Bass, 1985 and Bass and Avolio, 1993).So, Singh and Krishnan (2007) validated a new scale and found that there wereunique and universal dimensions to Indian transformational leadership. Kejriwaland Krishnan (2004) found that culture influences transformational leadership byframing the leaders worldview. Therefore, it is worthwhile giving some attentionto TL in the Indian context. Six factors given by Singh and Krishnan (2007) are asfollows:

Figure 1: Proposed model of leadership Effectiveness and Job Characteristics

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Performance-oriented and Humane – It indicates the characteristics that aleader has while approaching any task. Performance-oriented and humane factorhighlights hardworking, enthusiastic and dedicated attitude of a leader towardshis/her work and inspires the followers to do the same (Singh and Krishnan, 2007).

Openness and Nurturing – It involves trusting the followers and motivatingthem to work independently. For example, encouraging followers to solve problemsindependently, showing tremendous amount of faith in their ability. All theseshow that subordinates expect their managers to empower them. Singh andBhandarker (1990) showed that such leaders had an empowering attitude towardstheir followers.

Sensitive and Conscientious – It includes punctuality and patience.Conscientiousness indicates a high degree of sincerity and seriousness of the leadertowards other individuals. This is a cross-cultural phenomenon and highlightedby several studies on leadership (Dayal, 1999).

Personal Touch - It is degree to which leaders attend to followers’ need andact as their mentors. Indians are known for their personalized relationships (Sinha,2000). Although, this dimension is similar to the individualized consideration factorgiven by Bass (1985). As postulated by Sinha (2000: 27), this factor shows thattransformational leaders in India taking interest in the whole person; that is, inboth personal as well as professional aspects of the follower’s life.

Self-conviction – It indicates self-confidence as well as confidence on vision;which is prompting by him/her. Self-conviction helps a leader in giving role-modeling effects. Advance planning for the worst possible outcomes, clear inthoughts and actions, persistent in achieving the targets serve as example of leader’sself-conviction (Kanungo and Misra, 2004).

Non-Traditional – It includes openness to change and challenging followers’assumption. They are not just open to new ideas and ways of solving problems;they also help their subordinates in adopting new strategies. Pillai et al. (2003)have highlighted this in their cross-cultural study; they showed that Indian leaderspreferred distributive rather than procedural justice in organizational contexts.Khandwalla (1988) in his model suggested similar dimension that promotesintelligence, problem-solving ability and rationality of followers.

Of all the transformational leadership effects, its association with beneficialjob behaviors is very well documented in the research. A number of researchersfound that transformational leaders have the ability to raise followers’ performancelevel and their organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) at the workplace. Thetransformational leadership dimensions showed strong and significant correlationwith task performance and OCB (Fuller et al. 1996; Judge and Piccolo, 2004).Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is extra-role behavior, which isdiscretionary in nature and not defined in the job description of an employee

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(Organ, 1988). In a meta-analytic research Podsakoff et al. (2000) found that therewere almost 30 different forms of citizenship behavior. However, there wasconceptual overlap between these thirty constructs. So, they grouped theseconstructs into seven dimensions. Earlier to this, Organ (1988) identified fivedimensions of OCBs: conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy, altruism andcivic-virtue. Which is used by most of researchers in their studies. Some recentempirical studies have found that TL is especially relevant in exhibiting employeecitizenship behavior (Lowe et al. 1996 and Bolino and Turnley, 2003). TL enhancesthe conscientiousness (a dimension of OCB) of subordinates by appealing to theirmoral values such as justice, equality, freedom, peace and humanity (Masood et.al. 2006). So, employees who work for TLs are motivated to go beyond requiredlevel for the benefit of their organization. However, Purvanova, Bono andDzieweczynski (2006) examined the impact of TL on OCB. It is reported from theresults that, TLs had direct effect on OCB Furthermore; the effects oftransformational leadership on citizenship performance are mediated throughemployees’ perceptions of job characteristics. Besides, according to Bryant (2003),TLs influence workers to a higher level of motivation. They create an environmentthat is productive for knowledge creation, sharing and exploration. And employeesare more productive when they have freedom to crate and test out their new ideas.Bass et al. (2003) told that TLs provide encouraging feedback to their followers. Asa result, followers tend to behave in a way that makes them better task performer.Furthermore, there is little research known to us that has investigated the abovestated relationship across India. Although, Modassir and Singh (2008) found thatTL is not directly related to the extra-role behavior (OCB) of the followers.Interestingly in western countries, TL and OCB relationship are well establishedthrough direct (Pillia et. al. 1999 and Piccolo and Colquitt, 2006) or indirect(Podsakoff et. al. 2000) ways.

Hypothesis1: Transformational leadership is positively related to OCB andfollowers’ task performance.

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND JOB CHARACTERISTICS

Research on job design focused on the characteristics of job and used to testrelationship between nature of job and employee workplace outcomes (i.e.,satisfaction, commitment). Hackman and Lawler (1971) suggested that jobcharacteristics affect employee’s attitude and behavior at work. Hackman andOldham (1976) introduced job characteristics theory to explain an employee’sattitude condition in which he/she feels motivated when they positively perceivefive dimensions of job characteristics (i.e., variety, task identity, autonomy,significance and feedback). According to theory, an organization can enhanceemployees’ positive work behavior and work quality by enhancing their perceptionalong theses five dimensions of job characteristics. These includes:

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Variety – When a job requires an employee to engage in activities that challengehis skills, that job almost experienced as meaningful by employee. It includes a setof different activities for completing out a job.

Task Identity – “the degree to which the job requires completion of a “whole”and identifiable piece of work, that is, doing a job from beginning to end with avisible outcome” Hackman and Oldham (1976: 257).

Significance – the degree to which job has meaningful impact on the lives ofother employees. When an employee understands that outcome of his job mayhave significant on the well being of the colleagues, the meaningfulness of that jobautomatically enhanced.

Autonomy – the degree to which the job provides considerable freedom toemployee in scheduling and determining the procedures to be used to carry outthe work.

Feedback – the degree to which an employee obtain direct and clear informationabout the effectiveness of his/ her performance.

Griffin (1981) was the first researcher who tested the notion that leaders caninfluence employees’ perception of job characteristics. Although employees’perception of job characteristics is solely depend on the job description.Transformational leaders can foster such positive perception by three ways – (i)Through own actions (ii) Through management of meaning (iii) Through alertingbehavior without alerting job characteristics. Smircich and Morgan (1982: 258)suggested that leaders motivate followers by “mobilizing meaning, articulatingand defining what has previously remained implicit and unsaid, by inventingimages and meaning that provide a focus for new attention, and by consolidating,confronting, or challenging prevailing wisdom”. Secondly, “management ofmeaning” means employees relay on information clue from their surroundingenvironment. Smircich and Morgan (1982) also suggested that a leader work tocreate an important foundation for organized actions. These actions involve amoving figure-ground principle. Here figure involves a flow of actions andcomments (i.e., what leaders do) and ground represents the action, or experiencesthat constitute the situation being managed. This perspective on leadership issimilar to the social information-processing model given by Salancik and Pfeffer(1978). Although Griffin (1981) also argued that employee’s perception of jobcharacteristics have five basic source of information that help in building his/herperception about job. They are technology, organizational structure, colleagues,job responsibilities and supervisor. Author also suggested that information cluesfrom individual’s immediate supervisor might have changed employees’perception about their job. Shin and Zouu (2003) have found transformationalleaders to be multifaceted and dynamic. They can influence followers byhighlighting followers’ social concept and values. Besides, Dionne and his

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colleagues (2004) told that transformational leaders with the help of individualizedconsideration, addresses issues of competence and meaningfulness, and encourageindividual development.

Hypothesis 2: Transformational Leadership is positively related to followerperception of job characteristics.

EFFECTS OF JOB CHARACTERISTICS

Lufthans (1998) defined work motivation is a force that arouses and maintainbehavior at the workplace. Work motivation further can be divided into twocategories – intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is extent with whichindividuals are self-motivated to perform their jobs effectively (Hunter, 2006).Author also found that job characteristics contribute to employees’ intrinsicmotivation and effectiveness. Hackman and Oldham (1980) found that one ofthe important predictions of job characteristics theory is that employee’s “intrinsicmotivation”, which is positively associated with job characteristics. And intrinsicmotivation defined as the doing of an activity for its inner satisfactions ratherthan for some separable outcomes. In addition, Deci discussed internal motivationas “an ongoing process of seeking and conquering challenges” (1975: 131). It isgenerally accepted that job characteristics has a considerable impact on theattitude and feelings of the employee (Suman and Srivastava, 2009). A numberof studies found that jobs which are more challenging and autonomous, are moreintrinsically motivated for employees. In job characteristics theory, Hackmanand Oldham (1976) argued that complex jobs are associated with increasedperformance and motivation. Job characteristics dimensions influencepsychological state of employee, which in turn affect work outcome (i.e., internalwork motivation).

In the meta-analysis of 200 studies Fried and Ferris (1987) reported thatthere is significant correlation between Job characteristics and internalmotivation. In addition, authors also suggested that a comparison among thefive job characteristics dimensions with psychological outcomes revealsthat, skill variety has the strongest relationship with intrinsic motivation ofemployees.

Hypothesis 3: Follower perception of job characteristics is positively relatedto follower’s intrinsic motivation.

Divr et. al. (2002) found that transformational leadership are positive andsignificant impact on developments of followers’ empowerment. They alsoconfirmed that these developments of empowerment can enhance task performanceof employees. Staw (1977) argued that internally motivated employees drivesatisfaction from their work accomplishment and therefore work harder to achievegoal. Hackman and Oldham (1980) made a similar argument that employee with

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higher level of intrinsic motivation also exhibit high levels of task performance.However these arguments are valid to job quality. Kark and Dijk (2007) arguedthat when the job of an employee is challenging and complex and requiresresponsibility, creativity, and intense effort; then employees feel more internallymotivated and this internal motivational force is strongly linked to performance.Hackman and Oldham (1980) also reported that internally motivated employeesare less engaged in task withdrawal activities such as day-dreaming, unnecessarybreaks, which show the work effort. Kanfer (1991) reported similar results in hisstudy. He argued that intrinsically motivated employees show consistent workengagements at the workplace. These consistent work engagements enhance workquality over time and acquisition of work related skills. However, the relationshipbetween task performance and intrinsic motivation has received very little empiricaltesting. And a number of studies considered intrinsic motivation only as dependentvariable. Unfortunately, while considering Indian business context, very lessstudies documented on intrinsic motivation and OCB. But relation can be foundbetween two variables. As Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is extra-role behavior, which is discretionary in nature and not defined in the job descriptionof an employee (Organ, 1988). This is a behavior related to individual values forself-satisfaction. So, we can say OCB is self-generated behavior due to some internalmotivation. However, Lee and Allen (2002) reported relationship between intrinsicmotivation and some dimensions of OCB.

Hypothesis 4: Follower intrinsic motivation is positively related to followertask performance and OCB.

METHODOLOGY

Sample

A sample of 188 respondents was selected through convenience sampling foradministrating the questionnaires, which is a form of non-probability sampling.A non-probability sampling is a sample that has been selected using a randomsampling method which means that in non-probability sampling some people aremore likely to be chosen than others (Krishnaswamy et. al. 2009). The samplecomprised of professional working in Indian public and private sector organizationsoperating in IT and telecommunication. E-mails were sent directly to respondentsfor asking them for their assistance in completion of questionnaires. To encouragehonesty, respondent anonymity was maintained. Out of the 500 questionnaires,188 were collected back, representing a response rate of 37.6 per cent. More than ahalf of these respondents were from the private organizations. Seventy six percentof the respondents were men. Their average age was thirty-two years, and theiraverage current job tenure was 5.8 years. Ninety two percent of the respondentshad engineering background.

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Measures

Indian Transformational Leadership (ITL): The Multifactor Indian Leadershipquestionnaire (ITL) was used to measure Transformational Leadership developedby Singh and Krishnan, 2007. All the Six dimensions were measured using twenty-seven items. A sample item states, “my supervisor …..shows tremendous amountof faith in the ability of the subordinates”. These items were rated on a 5-pointlikert scale labeled: not at all (0), to if not always (4).

Job characteristics: Perception of Job characteristics was measured with ten-items scale developed by Idaszak and Drasgow (1987). A sample item states “thejob provide me the chance to completely finish the piece of work I begin”. Thereported reliabilities for each factor ranged from .77 for variety to .79 for feedback.The questionnaire used a 7-point likert scale ranging from 1 = very inaccurate to 7= very accurate.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) Scale: OCB was measured withthe OCB scale developed by Podsakoff et al. (1990). Questionnaire consists of twentyfour items based on the definition of the five dimensions of OCB namely altruism,sportsmanship, courtesy, conscientiousness and civic-virtue. Each dimension hadfive items except Courtesy. The reported reliabilities for each factor ranged from.71 for conscientiousness to .79 for altruism. The questionnaire used a 5-point likertscale ranging from 1 = Never to 5 = Every day.

Intrinsic Motivation: It was measured with the Intrinsic Motivation scaledeveloped by Hackman and Oldham (1974). Original scale consisted of 4 items.Sample item is, “my opinion of myself goes up when I do this job well”. Thereported reliability for IM was .71

Task Performance: Supervisors were asked to complete the 7-item scaledeveloped by Wiliams and Anderson (1991). Sample item state, “this employeeadequately completes assigned duties”. The reported reliability for the variablewas .76.

A pilot study was conducted for checking the reliability and content validityof the scale in the Indian context. Original questionnaires were used for the study.

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Before testing the hypothized model, a measurement model at the item level tofind out if scale items were adequate indicator of their constructs (Bandalos andFinney, 2001). The measurement model had five latent factors (transformationalleadership, perception of job characteristics, intrinsic motivation, task performanceand organizational citizenship behavior) and 72 items (twenty seven for TL, tenfor job characteristics, four for intrinsic motivation, seven for task performanceand twenty four for OCB). The measurement model provided a good fit to dataand all the items had significant factor loadings (> .70) on their constructs.

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The SPSS Amos 22 is used to analyze the data and examine hypotheses. Zero-order correlation is used to find the significant relationship between transformationalleadership, perception of job characteristics, intrinsic motivation, task performanceand organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Besides, structure equation modelingis used for checking the goodness of fit for the proposed model. Table 1 reportsmean, standard deviation, correlation and reliabilities (cronbach’s alpha) of thevariables. Data analysis reveals a good acceptable range of reliabilities for all variables.Transformational leadership (TL) dimensions’ reliability range from 0.71 for Personaltouch to 0.79 for self-conviction. Besides, reliabilities for job characteristicsperception’s dimensions ranged 0.78 to 0.83. The intercorrelation betweenindependent variables is moderate; which excludes the possibility of multicollinarity.

*p< .05

Figure 1 assessed the fit of the structural model, in which predicted path hasbeen added to measure the model. Structure model provided adequate fitness todata (?2 ?390?? 628.29, CFI? .81, NNFI? .82, RMSEA? .059, GFI? .77 and SRMR?.083?. Further we examined the SEM path coefficients to estimate support for fourhypotheses. Hypothesis one predicted a positive and significant relationshipbetween transformational leadership and (a) task performance (b= 0.25, p< .01)and (b) organizational citizenship behavior (b= 0.22, p< .01). Hypothesis twopredicted a positive relationship between TL and perception of job characteristics.The path coefficient is significant and positive (b= 0.38, p< .01). In support ofhypotheses three and four; path coefficients between perception of jobcharacteristics and intrinsic motivation are (b= 0.36, p< .01). And between intrinsicmotivation and (a) task performance (b= 0.25, p< .01) and (b) organizationalcitizenship behavior (b= 0.22, p< .01) are positive and significant. So, results showedthat transformational leadership is significantly related to the job characteristicsperception, task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).Furthermore, job characteristics perception is also related to intrinsic motivationthat is further significantly related to beneficial job behaviors (task performanceand OCB) at the workplace.

DISCUSSION

As the Indian service sector is becoming globalized, it has become necessary forservice industry to emphasize on the efficient use of human resources. But it is

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very important to understand that effectiveness of an employee is governed bymany factors including employee’s attitude towards the job, organizationalvariables such as size, organizational environment, and type of technology. Allthese different organizational forms are likely to impose different demands onleaders and thus require specific leader behaviors. Hence, the understanding ofleadership effectiveness is significantly important due to its direct and indirectimpact on the performance of an organization and individual.

In this study, a leadership effectiveness model was introduced and tested inthe Indian context. In this model job characteristics theory of Hackman and Oldham(1976) was used to test the relationship between leadership effectiveness (throughIndian transformational leadership) and beneficial job behaviors (OCB and taskperformance) that is supplemented by effects on followers’ perception of jobcharacteristics. These perceptions then go on further to predict intrinsic motivationof an employee. Which is related to two beneficial job behaviors (OCB and taskperformance). Therefore this study provided a different integration of the mainvariables in the organizational behavior: transformational leader and jobcharacteristics theory. Results showed a significant relationship betweentransformational leadership and perception of job characteristics. Which meansleaders who are more engaged in personal touch, simple living, loyalty, nurturing,expertize and self-sacrificing are perceived higher levels of five job characteristicsdimensions. It can be said that Indian transformational leadership positively relateto followers creativity, conservation and motivation, which help an employee inperceiving their job more creative and challenging. TLs motivate employee andalso provide intellectual stimulation that encourages follower to challenge the oldways of doing things and searching new solutions to older problems (Smircichand Morgan, 1982 and Shin et al. 2003). As earlier discussed, TLs can also use“management of meaning”. By using different language transformational leaderre-frame follower’s job experience. The relationship between TL and perceptionof job characteristics is important for the organization because a job characteristicis positively related with intrinsic motivation of employees (Fried and Ferris, 1987).And intrinsic motivation is due to some internal and self-generating. So, it wouldbe more useful for the effective functioning of any organization. Moreover, thisstudy is among the first, which find out the relationship between intrinsicmotivation and two beneficial job behaviors (OCB and task performance) at theworkplace. As Organizational citizenship Behavior (OCB) is discretionary behavior.So, internally motivated employees likely to exhibit more OCB at the workplacethan others. Besides transformational leadership is also positively related withtask performance and OCB. TL is very much relevant in eliciting employeecitizenship behavior. It may be due to that employee who works fortransformational leaders are enough motivated to go beyond the required levelfor the organizational effectiveness. Further by allowing employees voice inmanagement decisions, using rewards to enhance beneficial behavior, and

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introducing ethical values in workplace activity, a leader enriches the employee’sperception of job characteristics. This positive sense of job characteristics thentranslates into extra effort and higher levels of the task performance and citizenshipbehavior. Thus these results also broaden the contribution of organizationalleadership effectiveness in job design.

MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS

This study is adding value to the field of Leadership and related variables of study,like job characteristics and beneficial job behaviors at a theoretical as well asoperational level. Firstly, current study is providing insight into the world of Indianleadership effectiveness. In particular, it is illuminating leadership effectiveness’relationships with other variables of the study at work and providing an answerto how a leader can affect employee’s job characteristics perception for effectivefunctioning. In order to enhance organizational performance higher authoritiesshould focus on leadership effectiveness. So, they produce powerful tools for theselection, training and development of leaders, which enhance the employees’perception of job characteristics. Current study also generated knowledge thathow a leader can stretch followers in such a way that more positive perception ofthe core characteristics can be fostered. And finally the role of the leader emergesas a relevant factor in the assessment of employees’ perception of job characteristics.So, this study offers potential insights relevant to job design components, therebypointing toward new directions for development of jobs designs.

LIMITATIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE

The present study has several limitations that should be noted. First, Our samplewas from the Indian public and private sector organizations operating in IT andtelecommunication. So, this setting may not be unique enough to limit the externalvalidity of the results. This study can be replicated in other industries for greatergeneralizability. Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) is not a clear-cutconstruct because the boundary between extra-role and in-role behavior is notdefined properly and varies from employee to employee. So, source rating mayaffect the results. The data that has been collected here are cross sectional in nature.So, it may be possible that alternate explanation exists for the results. There maybe an ambiguous situation, which is worth noting; leaders could not reframe thefollowers’ perception of job characteristics if those followers did not grant theleader such power (leader-member exchange). So, followers in high LMXrelationship may be more often associated with their leaders. Another possiblelimitation is that employees’ some characteristics (self-esteem) may also affect thetransformational leadership process. However, the sample used in the study alsooffers some limitation, the data sample of 82 dyads of managers and theirsupervisors is an area of caution.

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The results of this study provide the platform for a number of future studies.For future research, first and furthermost is that longitudinal design should bedeveloped. Additional effects of job characteristics could be added in futureresearch. Besides, alternate models should be developed and comparing theirgoodness fit with the original one. Lastly, one can also explore leader-memberexchange (LMX) as a boundary condition of leadership effects on job characteristicsperception and beneficial job behaviors.

CONCLUSION

The contribution of the present study lies not in testing relationship betweenleadership effectiveness and beneficial job behaviors, but rather in exploringwhether employee’s job characteristics perception prove one mechanism forexplaining leadership effectiveness. Results also showed the same thattransformational leaders can create an environment productive to knowledge,sharing and exploration for their employees within the organization, whichenhance employee performance. So, this type of open environment beyond jobdescription should be foster so that employees can perform because they are freeto create, tests and share new ideas.

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