Leadership Styles and Companies’ Success in Innovation and Job Satisfaction: A Correlational Study

Copyright © 2019 Dr. Israel Agodu.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-7751-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-7752-4 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 06/20/2019

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this book was to understand the effect of leadership style on employee innovation and job satisfaction as indicators of organizational success in companies that have been in business for more than 10 years. And to ascertain if there is a particular leadership style used by leaders of XYZ retail industry organizations that have been in business for more than 10 years by encouraging and promoting employee innovation and job satisfaction. Investigation hinged primarily on information collected via the Statistics Canada’s Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy (SIBS) which measures innovation and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaires (MLQ) that measures leadership styles and job satisfaction was given to 110 managers and human resource personnel who were chosen at random from the XYZ organization. Mind Garden was used to administer the MLQ 5x-Short survey while Survey Monkey was used to administer innovation assessments. Correlational analysis was employed to assess results from two research questions and four hypotheses. Results provided evidence of significant relationships between transformational leadership style and job satisfaction, F (3, 71) =7.627, p <.001, R²= .244, adj. R² = .212. The results also demonstrated a significant positive relationship between transformational leadership style and employee innovation in samples of the companies that have been in business for more than 10 years, f (3, 72) = 77.620, p< .001, R² = 0.764, adjusted R² = 0.754. Recommendations are offered to examine these relationships in big organizations to validate the current study using a qualitative or mixed research method.

DEDICATION

I devote this book to the loving memory of my beloved mother, Eulina Mgbafor Agodu, who gave me encouragement, commitment, and promise to see me through primary and secondary school after losing her beloved husband early in her married life and the arduous task of raising seven children thereafter. You transitioned into eternal life on August 13, 1998 and did not see the completion of this work. Mother, I celebrate the completion of this journey in honor of you and the excellent gift that you were. Your encouragement and words of wisdom continue to guide and motivate me. Your abiding faith in God has taught me many truths and has produced a source of strength to me, particularly during difficult times. I miss you so much; I know deep in my heart that you are watching over me and cheering me on, just as you promised you would. I love you always. And to my beautiful, supportive, and hard-working wife, Evangelist Angela Ije’m Agodu, who supported me emotionally and temporarily suspended her dream of becoming a nurse practitioner to make sure I complete this task. I love you and always will.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The encouragement and support of many who worked behind the scene have enabled me to actualize this amazing dream. I, first, must thank my daughters (Chidera Sandra Agodu and Chinonso Agodu) and my sons (Chimezie Will Agodu and Odinakachukwu Nathan Agodu) who were with me through this entire journey from start to finish. I love you all for the encouragement, inspiration, support, love, and most importantly, your patience! Second, I wish to appreciate my course mates, Simone Arnold, Cheryl Black, and James Rankin, our collaboration, and encouragements to one another were the motor that brought this task to a successful end.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background

Problem Statement

General problem

Specific problem

Purpose Statement

General Study Significance

Significance for Leadership

Nature Of the Study

Population and Sample Size

Data Collection Instruments

Data Analysis Approach

Research Questions and Hypotheses

Theoretical Framework

Definitions Of Terminology

Contributions to Knowledge

Extension Of Theory and Practice

Assumptions

Scope

Limitations

Delimitations

Summary

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Search Strategy/Documentation

Historical Perspective Of Leadership Theory

Germinal and Current Literature

Effects Of Leadership Style

Leadership and Employee Performance

Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

Leadership and Employee Motivation

Organizational Success

Measures Of Organizational Success

Innovation As A Success Measure

Employee Job Satisfaction As A Success Measure

Variables That Affect Organizational Success

Administrative Skills

Non-Technical Skills (Nts)

Cognitive Skills

Summary Of Literature Review

Conclusion

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

Research Design

Study Hypotheses and Variables

Variables

Informed Consent

Confidentiality

Sampling Methods

Population

Data Collection Procedures

Instrumentation

Instrument Reliability and Validity

Data Analysis Procedures

Data Entry

Statistical Assumptions

Summary

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

Research Findings

Test for Outliers

Inferential Analyses Of Research Variables

Linear Regression Analysis Predicting Satisfaction

Linear Regression Analysis Predicting Encourages Innovation Thinking

Findings Related to the Research Questions.

Summary

Conclusion

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND

RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary Of Research Findings

Findings Related to the Research Questions

Recommendations

Recommendation for Future Research

Summary

Conclusion

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.  Theoretical framework

Figure 2.  Characteristics of Transformational Leadership

Figure 3.  Characteristics of Transactional Leadership

Figure 4.  Contributing theories

Figure 5.  Hypotheses and variables operational model

Figure 6.  Q-Q scatterplot testing normality.

Figure 7.  Residuals scatterplot testing homoscedasticity.

Figure 8.  Q-Q scatterplot testing normality.

Figure 9.  Residuals scatterplot testing homoscedasticity.

LIST OF TABLE

Table 1.   Operational Variables

Table 2.   Sources Consulted for the Literature Review

Table 3.   Organizational Success Survey Instrument Alignment

Table 4.   Descriptive Demographic Statistics

Table 5.   Variance Inflation Factors for Laissez-faire-Avoids Involvement LF, Five I’s of transformational leadership, and transactional leadership

Table 6.   Regression Predicting Satisfaction F Test Output

Table 7.   Results for Linear Regression with Laissez-faire LF, Five I’s of transformational Leadership, and transactional leadership predicting generates satisfaction SAT

Table 8.   Variance Inflation Factors for Laissez-faire-Avoids Involvement LF, Five I’s of Transformational Leadership, and Transactional leadership

Table 9.   Regression Predicting Encourages Innovative Thinking F Test Output

Table 10. Results for Linear Regression with Laissez-faire-LF, Five I’s of transformational leadership, and transactional leadership predicting Encourages Innovative Thinking-IS

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Leadership and innovation are essential elements for the development and maintenance of strong and competitive organization (Bowonder, Dambal, Kumar, & Shirodkar, 2010). Leadership is paramount to human existence (Wren, 1995). Leadership is not a fetish, but a practice that is both prehistoric and contemporary (Wren, 1995). Hogan and Kaiser (2005) determined that leadership is significant and crucial for organizational performance. Leadership is an adaptive tool for individual and group survival; it primarily concerns building and maintaining effective teams: persuading people to give up, for a while, their selfish pursuits and pursue a common goal (Hogan & Kaiser, 2005, p.170).

Today’s business world is intensely competitive; therefore, maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage is crucial to the longevity and success of companies, corporations, and organizations. For this reason, successful business leaders endeavor to epitomize features that create or enhance success and growth. Thus, most business leaders today understand the significance of effective leadership and its influence on productivity and employee loyalty and retention. A strong or weak leader has a tremendous impact on organizational outcomes (Schommer-Aikins & Hutter, 2002).

In this quantitative correlational study, the focal point of the investigation is leadership style, innovation and job satisfaction to ascertain if there is a particular leadership style employed by leaders of XYZ retail industry organizations that have thrived in companies that have been in business for more than 10 years. The aim is to investigate if a correlation exists between leadership style, and innovation and job satisfaction as indicators of success in companies that have been in business for more than 10 years.

One of the enormous challenges confronting CEOs is the ability to bridge the gap between leadership practice and results (Eklund, 2015). Shareholders are less tolerant to failure now than in the past (Eklund, 2015). Between 1997 and 2006, the average term in office for chief executive officers (CEOs) in the United States dropped from ten to eight years; 40% of chief executive officers with the shortest term in office had less than two years in that position due to lack of tolerance for failure (Eklund, 2015).

BACKGROUND

Leadership is one of the major factors that determines the success or failure of any organization (Ojukuku, Odetayo, & Sajuvigbe, 2012). Leadership style drives success, accountability, and organizational performance (Bowonder et al., 2010). Top executives are held responsible for the success or failure of organizations, as well as for designing conditions that guarantee organization’s future survival (Ojukuku et al., 2012). Businesses need leaders who understand how to tackle organizational issues and how to work with culturally diverse employees and customers. Strategic decisions often fail due to top executives’ mistakes. Top executives fail when: (a) their personal interests interfere with their vision for the organization; (b) they are involved in, or accept, unethical behavior; (c) they have disregard for quality, innovation and productivity, depending too much on intuition to the detriment of logical analysis; or(d) they allocate money and time injudiciously or irresponsibly (Gurdjian, Halbeisen, & Lane, 2014). Gurdjian et al. (2014) forecasted that one-fifth of chief executive officers will resign or be displaced from their position in the next five years. A critical need exists to understand the type of leadership employed by successful chief executive officers and its effect on organizational success. Such knowledge may bring about strong employee benefits such as innovation and job satisfaction, as well as an increase in productivity, growth, expansion, and corporate longevity.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Presently, limited empirical evidence is available delineating the dominant leadership style used in companies that have been in