Transformational leader attributes: interpersonal skills, engagement, and well-being

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of interpersonal skills (emotional and political skills) and work engagement on transformational leadership and leader well-being at work. Design/methodology/approach – Emotional control, emotional sensitivity, political skills, work engagement, transformational leadership behaviors, and job satisfaction were assessed in an empirical study of 278 employees. The relationships between emotional skills, political skills, work engagement, and transformational leadership were evaluated using participants in managerial positions (n=159). The combined influence of interpersonal skills and work engagement on job satisfaction was examined as a comparison between managers and non-managers (n=119). Findings – In addition to the positive effects of work engagement on outcome measures, results showed political skill is an important capability contributing to transformational leadership and leaders’ job satisfaction. Findings also showed the interaction of emotional skill, political skill, and work engagement contributed to job satisfaction among managers. Practical implications – Organizations must provide managers with opportunities to develop political skills or modify selection processes to identify candidates who possess political skills for management positions. Organizations will also benefit from implementing ways to engage managers in their work to facilitate transformational leader behaviors and promote their well-being. In addition, organizations can work to identify and develop managers’ emotional control and sensitivity skills specific to individual needs. Originality/value – Research investigating personal attributes that influence transformational leadership as an outcome is limited. This study contributes to the leadership literature and sheds light on the literature on the microfoundations of management competencies by examining managers’ skills and engagement on their leader behaviors and job satisfaction. Insights are discovered regarding the combination of emotional skills, political skills, and work engagement that indicate interpersonal skills and engagement have supplementary effects on transformational leader behaviors and leader well-being.

Managers’ social support: Facilitators and hindrances for seeking support at work

“…Previous research has found that managers thought it was hard to ask for support from people they worked with, particularly when it was concerned with feeling stressed and exhausted or having too much to do [45,[51][52]. Maintaining an image of being a competent and able manager is important for being accepted as an authority, maintain the trust of the organization and for the managers to be able to carry out their work [53][54][55][56][57][58][59]. Managers' perceived threats to their image have been shown to have consequences for their willingness to propose changes to top managers [60][61][62].…”

“…This in turn allowed the managers to build or maintain their managerial image of being competent, which was important to maintain the confidence of the closest organization [e.g. [53][54][55][56][57][58][59].…”

“…They kept the confidence of sources within the workplace and kept the sources outside the workplace remote. The practice of such political skills, or impression management, has been shown to be an important part of keeping the confidence of subordinates and thereby being able to perform one's work [53][54][55][56][57][58][59]. Sometimes there were exceptions to this pattern of distinguishing between supportive sources and arenas; for example, when they received support they had not asked for.…”

“…It has also been described as an important part of building and maintaining managers' authority [e.g. [53][54][55][56][57][58][59]. Since House's [7] typology does not include confidence as a type of support, previous research has overlooked one of the reasons as to why managers' seek different types of support from different sources.…”

Power, Politics, and Political Skill in Job Stress

“…Hence, the immersion into work achieved by engagement is more holistic and all-encompassing than job involvement. For the politically oriented, such high engagement directed at "winning the game" is bound to be challenging, leading to heightened job satisfaction (Mencl, Wefald, & van Ittersum, 2016).…”