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Transformational Leadership Practices An PDF
Transformational Leadership Practices An PDF
Zubair Hassan
FTMS College, Malaysia
Zubai7@gmail.com, Zubair@ftms.edu.my
Sagir Yau
FTMS College, Malaysia
Yausagir@yahoo.com
Abstract
The purpose of this study is identifying the transformational leadership practices in an educational
setting in Malaysia and its impact on students satisfaction. A sample size of 250 full-time students
was randomly chosen from various faculties of the educational institution. A multi-factor
leadership questionnaire with a Likert-Scale from 1-5 was used to collected the data to determine
students perception of transformational leadership practices or behaviour displayed by lecturers
and its influences on satisfaction. To ensure reliability and validity of the data set, sample size only
includes students who have been with the educational institution for minimum one semester. The
correlation analysis shows that all the TL behaviour including IA, IB, IS, IM and IC were significant
and highly correlated with student satisfaction. However, multiple regression analysis shows only
that TL behaviour of inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulations, and individual
consideration were significant and positively influence student satisfaction level. We found that
idealised attributes and behaviour were not significant. The current study contributes to the body
of research by investigating the combined impacts of TL on student satisfaction using one
instrument, in one area setting. This research shows that TL is crucial in improving student
satisfaction. Future research should be undertaken on different context or by increasing the
sample size by widening the research context to ensure validity and reliability of the results.
1. Introduction
In the recent years, there has been plenty of research conducted on leadership style and
its impact on individuals and their commitment to achieve the desired goal (Timothy et al,
2011). However, research began to study leadership as an important element at the beginning
of the twentieth century (Robbins and Coulter, 2009). Various leadership theories were
introduced such as Kurt Lewin (1939) leadership style includes autocratic, democratic, and
lasses-fair fair. Some argues that a leader is a coach, a teacher and a facilitator (Brown and
Harvey, 2006). Some defines leadership as a process of exercising influence on individual
behaviour in the form of persuading effective interaction or achievement of the set goal or
agreed goal (Randall. 2011). As there is no universally accepted definition of leadership, this
research will not emphasis on discussing the relevance of each definition. However this
research will focus mainly on transformational leadership and its impact on student
satisfaction.
foreign students (Larsen, and Vincent, 2006). Foreign students in Malaysia represents an
important source of foreign income, although creates challenging teaching environment due to
the different learning styles, different cultural backgrounds and attitude differences causes
many leadership issues for lecturers (Salvarajah, 2006).
Many research has been conducted on Transformational leadership (TL) and its impact
on job performance, employee satisfaction, and job stress or innovations (Niehoff,1990; Berson,
and Linton, 2005; Dubinsky, 1998; Tracy and Hinkin, 1994; Gill, Fleaschner and Shachar, 2006).
However, few studies or handful of research endeavour in examining the impact of TL and its
impact on students satisfaction in the developed and developing world. It seems no studies have
been done so far on examining the impact of TL behaviour of lecturers or teachers on students
satisfaction.
This paper is divided into four sections: first, it discussed the existing literature
regarding TL and students satisfaction. Second, it described a methodology employed for this
study. Third, it presents the results and findings of the research and discussion. Finally the
conclusion and future research.
2. Literature Review
The concepts and definition of transformational leadership (TL) was first coined by
Burns (1978) and then extended and operationalized by Bass (1985). It was argued that TL
encourages followers to do more than expected or go beyond the expectation (Sosik et al, 2002),
are proactive and help followers to achieve the goal (Antokonaksi et al, 2003) and TL moved the
followers beyond immediate requirement( Bass, 1999). The TL engaged in a behaviour that
displays integrity and fairness, set clear goals, have high expectations, provide support and
recognition, stire the emotion, and passion of people , and get people to look beyond their self-
interest to reach for the impossible (Pierce and Newstorm, 2008; Sadeghi and Pihie, 2012, p.187).
Also it has been argued that TL can create significant changes in organisational setting and can
act as a change agent, foster high level of intrinsic motivation, and loyal among followers,
introduce a new image or view of the future and create commitment (Kinicki and Kreitner,
2008; Noorshahi & Sharkhabi, 2008). Transformational leadership (TL) is comprised of 4
elements includes intellectual stimulations, idealised behaviour, idealised attributes,
inspirational motivation and individual consideration (Bass, 1999).
Intellectual stimulation (IS) described the extent that leaders/lecturers stimulate their
students to be innovative and creative (Limsila and Ogunlana, 2008) and consider old problems
with a new perspective (Moss and Ritossa, 2007). Idealised influenced attributes (IA) consists
of trusts, and respects whereas idealised influenced behaviour (IB) exhibits excellent behaviour
and might sacrifice their own needs to improve the objectives of their students (Mosses and
Ritossa, 2007). Inspirational motivation (IM) described the extent that a lecture as a leader
states the vision that is attractive and encouraging to students (Judge and Piccolo, 2004).
Lecturers as leaders strengthen students by viewing the future by optimism (Antoonakis et al,
2003) and act in ways that motivate those around them by providing meaningful and challenge
to their students work (Bass et al, 2003). Individual consideration (IC) is the degree in which
lectures/leaders providing support, encouragement, and couching to students (Yulk, 2006).
Lectures as leaders listen carefully individual needs of students and may encourage self-
learning to help students to grow through personal challenges (Bass et al, 2003; Judge &
Piccolo, 2004).Mutford and Silirs (2003, cited in Harission, 2011) argued that transformational
lecturers focus on individual students by providing moral support showing appreciations for
the wok of individual students and considering their opinion.
Studies found that lecturers/teachers who have displayed idealised influences (IA and
IB) intellectual stimulations, individualised considerations and inspirational motivations were
significant and positively associated with student behaviour, perceptions and learning outcomes
and building trust (Bolkan and Goodboy, 2009). Many studies show that inspirational
motivation and other dimensions of TL are important for student cognitive affective and
motivational outcomes in class room settings (Bolkan and Goodboy, 2009; Goodty, Gavin
Johnson, Farazier and Snow, 2009; Hardy et al, 2010, Hoehl, 2008; Ingram, 1997). Knowledge
management and students evaluation of lecturers credibility are positively associated with TL
dimensions who demonstrate intellectual stimulations and charisma (Bolkan and Goodboy,
2009; Grifth , 2004; , Kuchinke, 1999; Politis, 2001). Another study found that tutors TL
behaviour such as intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation and extra effort from
students increases student satisfaction and increased student participation for tutors
effectiveness (Pounder, 2008). Also Bolkan and Goodboy (2009) found a strong correlation
between intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation with student communication
satisfaction. A study conducted on virtual environment shows that intellectual stimulation,
individual consideration and inspirational motivation is positively associated with students
outcomes of increased performance and satisfaction (Eom, 2009). More specifically, Noland
(2005) found a positive relationship between teachers TL behaviour and student
empowerment, motivation and student satisfaction. This result is consistent with the finding of
Pounder (2003). Also more recently, Gill et al (2010) found a positive relationship between each
of the dimensions of TL with student satisfaction and level stress.
Subjects
A total of 350 questionnaires were distributed and a total of 287 questionnaires were
returned (response rate 82%). However, some of these returned questionnaires were excluded
from the sample as some students were new students who join in the current semester. This
means the study only used 250 completed questionnaires, where 127 respondents were male
(50.8%) and 123 respondents of the sample of 250 were female (49.2%). 13.6% of the
respondents were studying at diploma level, 2.8% of the respondents were studying Higher
National Diploma, 2.8% of students were from foundation levels, 60% of the
respondents/students are studying at degree level, and 17.2% of the respondents were
studying at master degree in the chosen educational institution. These respondents were
distributed to various programs such as 33.6% of respondents are IT students, 64.8% of
respondents were business related degree students, 1.2% of the respondents were perusing
CIMA and 0.4% of the respondents belong to ACCA program.
Procedure
The researchers independently contacted the students using a random sample based on
the approximate numbers of students studying in the chosen educational establishment (2500
students were studying currently). Additionally, permission from the educational institutions
was obtained to meet the students in the hallway, break hours in the canteen and also during
the class hours with the help of lecturers. A time period of 6 hours were spent for three weeks
were spent on data collection process. The completed questionnaires were collected by the
researchers and a follow up were made on the following week during the same hours before the
classes were started and during the break-hours.
Measures
The questionnaires content was administered through various sources which relates
with the suitability of instruments (Gill et al, 2010; Bass, 1985; Careless, 1998; Bass and Avolio,
1995). Further more, these instruments have been extensively used in examining the
relationship between TL and its impact on employee satisfaction, students outcomes and
behaviour (Gill et al, 2009; Bolkan and Goodbody, 2009; Gill et al, 2010; Amin, Yusnito, Ibrahim
and Muda, 2013).
Dependent variable
This is five (5) item scales which reflect various aspects of students satisfaction. The
dependent variable of this study incorporate measures of the expected sources of student
satisfaction (SS), namely desire to attend classes, students liking with lecturers, punctual to the
class or getting late for classes, and perceived trust or quality of the lectures provided by
respective lecturers. The measurements in student satisfaction dimensions provide a single
overall score, with a Cronbachs alpha reliability coefficient of 0.901. Therefore all items are
retained in the construct as it above 0.7 (Hair et al, 2010).
Independent variables
Independent variables of this study were included to measure the idealised attributes
(IA), idealised behaviour (IB), intellectual stimulation (IS), and inspirational motivation (IM)
and individualised considerations (IC). All items were rated on five-point Likert-type scale.
Idealised Attributes (IA): This is five (5) item scales where it measures the degree that TL of
lecturers displays idealised attributes in the class room and outside class room when dealing
with students. This dimension provides information about the TL attributes displayed by
lecturers in terms of instills pride, going beyond self-interest to satisfy students, personal
sacrifices and level of trust. For this study, the Cronbachs alpha for this scale is 0.856
suggesting that all items in the scale are reliable.
Idealised Behaviour (IB): This is five(5) item scale where it measures TL practices in terms of
lecturers displayed behaviour in terms of discussing important values of students, having strong
sense of purpose, considering moral and ethical consequences of decisions, and go beyond the
limits to satisfy students. For this study, overall score of the Cronbachs alpha is 0.844 indicating
high reliability of the items in the scale.
Inspirational Motivation (IM): This is also five (5) item scale where it measure TL practices
displayed by lecturers in terms of enthusiastically talk about what to achieve, express
confidence in students, talk optimistically about future, and motivates students by providing
new challenges. For this study, overall reliability of the scale is measured using Cronbachs
alpha with a score of 0.875, which is above 0.7 therefore all items are retained (Hair et al, 2010).
Intellectual Stimulation (IS): This is also five (5) item scale where it measure TL practices
displayed by lecturers in terms of re-examining critical assumptions, seeking different point of
views, enable students to look problem in different angles, suggest new ways to complete
assignments and inspire to be innovative scored an overall Cronbachs alpha of 0.829 suggesting
high reliability of the scale.
Individualised Consideration (IC): This dimension also has five (5) item scale where it
measure TL practices displayed by lecturers in terms of time spend on teaching and coaching,
treating students as individuals, considers differences in needs, abilities and inspire others,
helps to build strengths, and listen individual needs carefully. For this study, overall score of the
Cronbachs alpha is 0.869 suggesting high reliability of the scale.
Due to the data available, it was possible to examine a variety of sub samples; however
for this current paper, only the main finding from the frequency analysis based on the
respondents feedback, statistical means and standard deviations, and regression analysis are
presented.
In this first instance, data were analysed to explore the means, the standard deviation,
skewness and kurtosis to measure the degree of TL practices displayed by lecturers in the
chosen educational institution and normality of the data that was being analysed.
The table 2 above shows the statistical mean and standard deviation for each TL
dimension in the measurement construct. Results shows that among the five dimensions of TL
practices, the most often displayed TL behavior among the lecturers are inspirational
motivation (IM) with mean value of 3.4944 (SD=0.79681), followed by idealized attributed (IA),
intellectual stimulation (IS), followed by idealized behavior (IB) and lastly individual
consideration with mean value of 0.3944, 3.4112, 3.880 and 3.3616 respectively in an
educational setting.
In the second stage of analysis, stepwise a correlation analysis was done on all
constructs to determine Pearsons Correlation Coefficients with a Two-tailed significance test.
Transformational leadership dimensions such as idealized attributes, idealized behavior,
intellectual stimulations, inspirational motivations and individual considerations are considered
as independent variables and student satisfaction is considered as dependent variable.
With reference to the above table 3, the result shows that intellectual stimulations,
inspirational motivations, individual considerations and idealized behavior has a strong relation
with the value of correlation of coefficient of student satisfaction , where R=0.817, 0.764, 0.760,
and 0.728 respectively. It is also found that the correlation coefficient values of TL dimensions
associated with student satisfaction is significant (where P<0.05). As all dimensions of TL
scored an average score of more than 0.7 suggesting that TL has a significant and positive
relationship with student satisfaction in the chosen educational institution. However, the result
indicated that idealized influences (idealized attributes and idealized behavior) has the weakest
relationship with student satisfaction among the all the five dimensions investigated in this
study. Overall all the dimensions of TL have strong relations with the results obtained
significant for all dimensions or factors as P value is equal to 0.000.
For this study, regression analysis was performed to predict the level of student
satisfaction based on five independent factors. The five independent factors/dimensions of TL
are idealized attributes, idealized behavior, intellectual stimulations, inspirational motivation
and individual consideration.
Unstandardized Standardized
Model Coefficients Coefficients t Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) -0.109 0.149 -0.730 0.466
IA 0.103 0.066 0.090 1.563 0.119
IB 0.070 0.072 0.062 0.981 0.328
1
IM 0.166 0.069 0.157 2.399 0.017
IS 0.479 0.079 0.413 6.039 0.000
IC 0.221 0.066 0.204 3.338 0.001
a. Dependent Variable: SS
The Table 4 summary in predicting the student satisfaction level shows R is 0.85, R
square is 0.722 and adjusted R square is 0.716, meaning that 71.6% of the variance in student
satisfaction level can be predicted by independent variables of TL (idealised attributes, idealised
behavior, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual considerations).
The result of regression analysis shows that out of the five indicators of TL in
influencing student satisfactions, only three are significant as shown in Table 5. The three
significant factors are inspirational motivation with P value =0.017 (P<0.05), intellectual
stimulations with a P value=0.000 (P<0.05), and individual consideration with P value=0.001
(P<0.05).
Student Satisfaction level = 0.157 (IM) + 0.413 (IS) + 0.204 (IC) -0.109.
This model suggest that when the most significant three factors of TL is not displayed,
student satisfaction is negative (dissatisfaction exist) and by displaying any of the three
behaviors in the empirical model can increase the level of satisfaction when other things remain
constant. The model above suggested that the changes in perceived practices of intellectual
stimulation can have the biggest influence on level of student satisfaction as its Beta coefficient
is the most significant and highest.
However, because of the small sample size and due to the limited coverage (one
educational institution) of educational providers in Kuala Lumpur itself, it will be appropriate to
repeat this research with a large sample size covering the whole Malaysia, especially all the key
education providers including public universities. By conducting research on these areas, we
can re-examine the impact of TL on student satisfaction to ensure the validity and reliability of
the results. Moreover, future research should continue to address specific business sectors
(private vs. public) as each educational institution may have different range of students from
different countries and may face different challenges in satisfying and retaining students. As this
study attempted to cover some of the demographic factors, a future study could examine how
each of these factors could affect the way they perceive TL displayed by the lecturers in their
respective educational institution.
Overall, we found that this research fulfilled its purposes by identifying the degree of TL
behavior displayed among the lecturers and to assess the extent which TL influences student
satisfaction. In short the conclusions are:
Inspirational motivations, idealised attributes and intellectual stimulation were the
most often displayed TL behavior among the lecturers in educational institutions in
Malaysia. Therefore it is important to practices other aspects of transformational
leadership to ensure student satisfaction and retention.
Student satisfaction in Malaysian education institutions were mostly influenced by
intellectual stimulations, inspirational motivations followed by individual
considerations of transformational leadership. As these factors are crucial, it
requires lots of effort and skills on the part of transformational leadership in
improving student satisfaction.
Idealised influences such as idealised attributes and behavior displayed by lecturers
were not significant in influencing student satisfaction.
Based on the findings, it is evident that improving three key aspects of TL practices can
maintain and improves student satisfaction. This means firms in education industry in Malaysia
can sustain its market position through TL practices. The significant findings of this study about
students satisfaction has implications for education management policies rather than just
teaching and delivering lectures about the subject, and must focus on improve on lecturers
leadership behavior displayed in the class room and while interacting with students.
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