The impact of leadership style on organizational citizenship behavior: does leaders' emotional intelligence play a moderating role?

Abstract

PurposeThe study investigates the effect of autocratic, democratic and transformational leadership styles on employees' organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The study further examines the moderating role of leaders' emotional intelligence between leadership styles and OCB.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaires were used to collect data from 618 small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) employees in Ghana. For this study, both simple random and convenient sampling were adopted in selecting respondents. Regression was used to test the hypotheses in the research model using IBM–Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).FindingsThe results show that democratic and transformational leadership styles both positively predicted the OCB of SME employees, although transformational leadership has a more significant influence. On the contrary, autocratic leadership style was found to have an insignificant relationship with OCB of SME employees when the interactive effect of the various leadership styles and emotional intelligence were introduced into the model. The results also show that whereas leaders' emotional intelligence positively moderate the relationship between autocratic leadership style and OCB, the relationships between democratic leadership style and OCB and between transformational leadership style and OCB are not significantly moderated by leaders' emotional intelligence.Research limitations/implicationsAn examination of other prominent leadership styles (for example, the transactional leadership style and the laissez faire leadership style) could be key areas for future research as it is a potential limitation of this study. Similarly, the use of a Western leadership instrument could also be a potential limitation in the Ghanaian context, although these instruments and scales may be applicable. Future studies could also consider a longitudinal approach to give a more holistic picture of the effect of the leadership styles on OCB.Practical implicationsIn general, the findings of the study support the idea that the autocratic leadership style affects SME employees' OCB both directly and indirectly through leaders' emotional intelligence. This study recommends that leaders of SMEs should focus on leadership styles that combine both result-oriented and people-centric behaviors to encourage SMEs' employees to engage in OCB.Originality/valueThis study provides firsthand information on the impact of autocratic leadership style, democratic leadership style and transformational leadership style on an employee's OCB from the Ghanaian SME perspective.

Does small and medium enterprise differential leadership increase subordinate knowledge hiding? Evidences from job insecurity, territorial consciousness and leadership performance expectation

“…Banwo and Du (2019) pointed out that perceived control from leadership can promote employee pro-environmental behaviors by establishing social norms within SMEs. Abdullahi et al (2020) confirmed that SME employees' organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is inspired by democratic and transformational leadership, which both refer to supportive leadership styles and entail the followings: authorization and creativity, respectively.…”

“…Researchers have applied conservation of resource theory to analyze the influences of different types of SME leadership on personal behavior outcomes (Özer and Tınaztepe, 2014;Bojadziev et al, 2019;Cortes and Herrmann, 2020). To unpack the underlying mechanisms, scholars, furthermore, have focused on the mediating roles of individual psychological mechanisms, such as perception (Abdullahi et al, 2020) as well as consciousness (Banagou et al, 2021). In this paper, we select job insecurity and territorial consciousness as two aspects of individual mental characteristics to explain the underlying mechanisms of the "black box" between SME differential leadership and knowledge hiding.…”

Full Range Leadership Theory: Cultural and Racial Implications

“…Thereby, this article's results provide that the actual accomplishment of the FRLD theory is in establishing an approach and framework that allows for a complete examination of leadership development. However, the theory does not guarantee success as mitigating factors include culture, race, communication, and elements of the exalted transformational leadership (Abdullahi, Anarfo, & Anyigba, 2020). Nevertheless, the approach does provide ample opportunity for the full range of leadership development.…”

Promoting Citizenship Education through Collaborative Groups of School Leaders

“…In particular, Oguz's (2010) research shows a positive correlation between teachers' organizational citizenship behaviors and transformational forms of leadership, where the leader teacher views the teacher as part of the organization. The research of Abdullahi, Anarfo, & Anyigba, (2020), argues that the implementation of a democratic transformative leadership has a positive effect on the organizational behavior of teachers' citizenship, as opposed to the results of the implementation of an authoritarian leadership model. Lian, & Tui's (2012) research argues that the implementation of transformational leadership can be positively related to state organizational citizenship behavior, while on the contrary results have resulted in the implementation of transactional leadership.…”