Relationship between transformational leadership behaviors and manufacturing strategy

Abstract

Purpose – It is widely agreed that top management's leadership behavior is a source for achieving and sustaining competitive advantage. Very few research studies analyzed the prevalence of transformational leadership style in the manufacturing environment, and importantly, the associations between transformational behaviors and manufacturing strategies in connection with flexibility, quality, delivery, and cost are not yet deeply explored in the literature. In this direction, efforts are initiated to explain the relationships between transformational leadership behaviors and manufacturing strategies in this study. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – A systematic literature review was conducted by analyzing all traditional and contemporary research studies in the fields of leadership and operations management in order to examine the link between transformational leadership and manufacturing strategies comprising of flexibility, quality, delivery, and cost strategy. Findings – It was found from the review that top-level leaders exhibit transformational leadership behaviors while implementing manufacturing strategies in their firms. In particular, transformational leaders are capable to transform the production system into flexible system, and in addition, they develop new production processes for manufacturing both new and old products. Such leaders ensure quality in all the levels of production process and support to speed up order delivery process with the help of technology. Finally, they also concentrate on reducing cost growth. Research limitations/implications – This study is bounded by its focus on Bass and Avolio's transformational leadership behaviors and Ward and Duray's manufacturing strategies comprising of flexibility, quality, delivery, and cost strategy. Originality/value – This study shows that transformational leaders, in the manufacturing environment, use manufacturing strategy as a tool to improve operational performance. Thus, they have potential to achieve and sustain competitive advantage through formulation of manufacturing strategy.

Moderating Effect of CSR on Transformational Leadership and Organizational Performance of State Corporations in Kenya

“…If the AVE for each construct exceeds the square correlation between that construct and any other constructs then discriminant validity is occurred (Fronell and Larcker, 1981). As shown in Table 5, this study showed that the AVEs of all the constructs were above the suggested level of 0.50, implying that all the constructs that ranged from 0.54 to 0.71 were responsible for more than 50 percent of the variance in their respected measurement items, which met the recommendation that AVE values should be at least 0.50 for each construct (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988;Holmes-Smith, 2001). Furthermore, as shown in Table 6, discriminant validity was confirmed as the AVE values were more than the squared correlations for each set of constructs.…”

“…Table 5 indicates that all Cronbach Alpha values for the eight variables exceeded the recommended value of 0.60 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988) demonstrating that the instrument is reliable. Furthermore, as shown in Table 5, composite reliability values ranged from 0.85 to 0.96, and were all greater than the recommended value of more than 0.60 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988) or greater than 0.70 as suggested by Holmes-Smith (2001). Consequently, according to the above two tests, all the research constructs in this study are considered reliable.…”

The mediation effect of TQM practices on the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and organizational performance of SMEs in Kuwait

“…Even when taking into account the combined leadership styles, the results of these studies are still inconclusive with respect to which styles are effective for entrepreneurs and which styles have positive effect on TQM practices. Birasnav (2014) investigated the link between transformational leadership behaviors and manufacturing strategies and found that transformational leaders ensure quality at all stages of production process and support and delivery process. Although some of the previous studies focused on a single leadership style, particularly transformational leadership, as pertinent in the implementation of TQM, these studies were not able to give a comprehensive answer to the question of how entrepreneurial leadership style impact TQM practices.…”

The Effect of Leadership Types on Organizational Performance and the Mediating Role of Management Style

“…VonKrogh et al, (2012), indicated that transactional leadership focuses on leader-follower exchanges, rewards and exceptions, on the other hand, focuses on inspiration, stimulation and motivation. Birasnav (2014), suggest that transformational leadership is superior to transactional leadership. Whereas, Yukl (2012) claims that different leadership styles are useful in different environments and organizations; situational variables can determine the relevant behaviors.…”