Transformational Leadership

Literature review

Transformational leadership and intrinsic motivation

Envisioning visions and motivating are two core jobs of effective leadership. According to traditional transformational leadership literature, transformational leaders guide and encourage employee mindfulness by enunciating a vision that escalates employees' consciousness and consideration for the significance of organizational values, goals, and performances. Thusly, fundamental to the theory on transformational leadership is a strong accentuation on the part of a combined vision; that is, an idealized arrangement of objectives that the organization seeks to accomplish one day. Transformational leaders, through clear enunciation, have their utmost influence on the followers' sentiments by cultivating a feeling of success and proficiency in them. Transformational leaders are much capable to improve organizational outcomes according to the market requirements by developing human resources and creating justified modifications. The reason to acquire specific knowledge is associated with the degree that what is the level of intrinsic motivation of a person and how he is keen to get knowledge by developing particular competencies and meaningful learning. Transformational leadership has power to enhance the ability of psychological empowerment which is referred as intrinsic motivation. The idea of motivation is known as "the set of reasons why people behave in the ways they do", for example, intrinsic motivation is "the motivational state in which the employees are driven by their interests in the work rather than a contract-for-rewards approach to completing a task". A study by Koh et al. identified that intrinsic motivation is highly influenced by the transformational leadership, as the transformational leader guides and supports effectively, self-motivation to be an effective and beneficial part of an organization increases as well.

Transformational leadership comprises four interconnected behavioral dimensions including "idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration". All behavioral dimensions can influence employees' intrinsic motivation. First, transformational leaders utilize idealized influence and offer inspirational motivation through communicating an alluring collective vision. This collective vision provides a meaningful idea of team's tasks by a leader which increase the intrinsic motivation of employees. Transformational leadership can develop positive outcomes such as optimism and high self-interests in all members of team which ultimately increase the pleasure and job satisfaction relevant to the task. Second, the intellectual stimulation of transformational leaders boosts team members' confidence to develop more effective emotional and situational stability and resolving their problems by their own selves. They are also motivated to understand and encourage the basic knowledge and skills of other coworkers to share new ideologies. Third, transformational leaders differentiate individuals' ideas and interests, promote their ideas to describe their uniqueness, and consider them through individualized consideration. When employees observe the behaviors of their leaders, all of them feel motivated and try to construct one another's ideas and competencies to create innovative solutions of problems. Therefore, in this article, we expect that all dimensions of transformational leadership encourage employees to invest higher willingness and energy in their work and tasks which exhibit their higher intrinsic motivation. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that:

H ₁

Transformational leadership relates positively to intrinsic motivation.

Transformational leadership, intrinsic motivation and work performance

Intrinsic motivation is highly associated with the work performance. Intrinsic motivation may be defined as "the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfactions rather than for some separable consequence but it is rare for employees to experience intrinsic motivation in all of their tasks". Intrinsic motivation is generated for self-developing attributes that refers to make an individual ready to be the part of learning procedure without having interests of extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic motivation is basically the degree of an individual's interest in a task completion and how he engages himself in work. It describes the psychological development process with an employee's performance.

According to recent operational settings, enhancing the employees' motivation has become one of most impactful human resources strategy. Most of the organizations are tending to build up, sustain and grow their HR strategies, just to motivate their employees so that short-term and long-term goals and objectives can be achieved. In recent researches, there are numerous variables which can be influenced by employees' intrinsic motivation like performance, creativity, and relevant outcomes. For example, it has been stated that behavior of an individual influences the work outcomes which are performance and quality as well. It is strongly evidenced that motivation has a most important role between cognitive abilities and work performance. Gist suggested that short term goals can be achieved through self-interest of an individual. Also, a research indicates that there is a significant and direct relationship of intrinsic motivation and job performance. Furthermore, an employee's intrinsic motivation illustrates an important contribution in organizational progress and growth. The work performance indices are constructed for the degree of performance, not only for the individual level always; it also includes group and organizational performances. In most employment situations, where intrinsic motivation of an employee is supposed to be high, the employee usually tries to acquire continual employment,and he/she develops interpersonal associations with his subordinates, perform better at job as they take pleasure in the process of finishing their tasks effectively. Conversely, if the worker feels de-motivated, it can be resulted in low performance of work. Thus intrinsic motivation may be concluded with better performance of work while meeting organizational targets and goals.

As we propose the direct relationship of intrinsic motivation and performance, it may be stated that the intrinsic motivation can actively influence the performance of work as a significant workplace outcome. Therefore, we hypothesize that:

H ₂

Intrinsic motivation relates positively to employee work performance.

In current research, we posit that intrinsic motivation is one of the main mechanisms by which transformational leaders influence employees' job performance. Transformational leaders may help to ensure individual's inner motivation to perform a task efficiently which in turn increases their work performance .These leadership approaches are advantageous for both individual and organizational growth. In fact, it is justified to examine how leaders motivate their employees and this motivation enhances their performance. In line with the previous literature, we expect that transformational leadership enhances individuals' intrinsic motivation which in turn will significantly predict employee job performance. Intrinsic motivation is known as self-directed type of motivation and represents the highest commitment and stability with the self. A variety of researches indicate that higher intrinsic motivation result in better performance as intrinsic motivation inspires and encourages employees to work more efficiently. Therefore, it can be hypothesized:

H ₃

Intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and work performance.

Transformational leadership, intrinsic motivation and employee's working burnout

Intrinsically motivated employees persistently focus on their tasks and jobs because they find themselves more focused, attentive and exert their best efforts while being a part of an organization and in achieving the goals of their employing organization. Burnout is a psychological and mental condition which happens in response to high stress level at job; it is a multi-dimensional concept which covers the following three aspects: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased personal focus for accomplishment of goals. Burnout affects the interpersonal relationship of employees too.

Prior research indicates that there is contrary effect of intrinsic motivation on employee's working burnout. Intrinsically motivated employees find their jobs more interesting, are more optimistic, put more effort in their work, and have higher perseverance level because they gain contentment and fulfillment from performing a task itself. Vallerand in his study exhibit that "employees with high intrinsic motivation have higher level of vitality, positive effect, self-esteem, absorption, concentration, effort, and persistence" and when such employees went through the felling of burnout, they have more personal resources to surmount this situation. Such employees feel less exhausted, less stressed and more focused toward contributing in organization's progress. Intrinsically motivated employees feel less pressure and low stress level rather than the employees who are low in motivation. Intrinsic motivation of employees' can be negatively associated with their burnout. Therefore; the employees who are high in intrinsic motivation can decrease their burnout at workplace. Thus, it can be hypothesized that:

H ₄

Intrinsic motivation is negatively associated to employee's working burnout.

In current research, we propose that intrinsic motivation plays a mediating role between transformational leadership and burnout. Burnout is the major concern for organizations as it influences the relevant outcomes. It results in low productivity and commitment. Hence, it causes the high turnover and absenteeism in employees. Studies indicate that leaders highly contribute to employees' health and welfare as well. But the relationship between leadership behaviors and employee burnout is less studied yet. As mentioned earlier, there exists a positive relationship between transformational leadership and intrinsic motivation which in turn make them more competent, teach them how to handle and manage stressful conditions and reduce their burnout. Therefore, we hypothesize that:

H ₅

Intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship of transformational leadership and employee's working burnout.

Transformational leadership, intrinsic motivation and social loafing

Social loafing is defined as the tendency of individuals who exert less effort and their productivity decreases when working in groups than working individually. It is a negative employee behavior and is particularly shown by individuals with lower motivation. These kinds of behaviors can be resulted in low productivity and poor commitment toward a task and organization as well.

Social loafing is common practice and can be observed in every organizational setting, across age and gender and in different professions and various cultures. This is more alarming that it can be seen at every single workplace and considered as misconduct. The variety of factors is studied in influence of social loafing, but there is still an insufficiency of individual inherent factors such as intrinsic motivation which is part of this research framework.

"Intrinsic motivation which describes an inherent tendency that individuals engage in activities due to their inner interests, pleasure and satisfaction" is negatively linked to Social loafing. George established in his study on 221 salespeople that intrinsic task involvement is negatively linked to social loafing. He further exerted that intrinsically motivated individuals may have self realization that their efforts are vital for the success of their team/group and for organization as well and therefore they are less likely to be engaged in social loafing. He/she would try his/her own best to exert extra effort to accomplish the goals and tasks assigned by the leader.

Therefore, we hypothesize that:

H ₆

Intrinsic motivation is negatively linked to social loafing.

Intrinsic motivation may be described as the inherent process that initiates attributes, behaviors and what defines people to moves or act. Self-determination theory indicates that there are different levels of motivation. Intrinsic motivation is at the most independent end of the scale because an individual opts to get engaged in any conduct according to his own choice. A leader motivates his employees by incorporated strategies which results in better achievement of goals and objectives of a firm or organization. Gilbert et al.. Social loafing is defined as a reduced amount of effort and motivation while being a part of group or working in a team as compared to working individually. Social loafing is well-known phenomena and can be found in all of the organizations, across gender, and age and in various occupations and different cultures.

Social loafing is considered as a big hindrance in organizational growth as well. It causes low potential, low productivity, and low motivation of other team members too. It decreases the overall efficiency, productivity and performance of the team. Social loafing is widely spread term which is also known as social disease.

In line with this connection, social loafing is a big moral and social issue since it is an option that "involves modifying the life plan of another individual or group of individuals". On contrast, if a transformational leader motivates his employees and encourages their performance on individual basis, then through individualized considerations and inspirational motivation, social loafing can be decreased. Therefore, it can be hypothesized:

H ₇

Intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship of transformational leadership and social loafing.

Mediating role of intrinsic motivation between transformational leadership and social loafing

Fig. 1 Theoretical framework