Transformational Leadership & Organizational Identification of Employees : A

Study in the Indian IT Sector

Introduction

The role of leadership in any organization cannot be overempasized.Leadership was primarily seen as
an exchange process (Homans , 1950 ). However, it was James Mcgregor Burns (1978) who
conceptualized leadership into its two present forms: transformational leadership and transactional
leadership. Transformational leaders areleaders who inspire and motivate their followers to achieve
extraordinary outcomes and also in the process improve their own leadership capacity. Transactional
leaders are those who believe in exchange relationship. When subordinates perform well they are
rewarded and when they perform poorly they are punished. Research exemplified by P.M Podskasoff
(1996) and his full range model of leadership showed that contingent reward is more effective under
various circumstances.

Since the past two decades, transformational leadership has emerged as one of the most researched
theories in the organizational behavior domain in understanding of leadership effectiveness.(Piccolo
and Colquitt, 2006; Barling, Christie and Turner, 2008). Researchevidences suggest that
transformational leadership has a positive effect on follower work attitudes and performance at both
the individual as well as at organizational levels (e.g.,Lowe, Kroeck, &Sivasubramaniam, 1996).
Indeed metaanalytic reviews have shown positive associations between transformational leadership
and work outcomes of interest to the organisation such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment
etc (Judge & Piccolo, 2004; Lowe et al., 1996). Despite this, limited attention has been paid to the
organisationalmechanisms underlying theserelationships (Avolio et al., 2004).

Some leadership researchers (e.g., Shamir, House, & Arthur, 1993; Yukl, 2010) however consistently
emphasize that different transformational leader behaviors might involve different influence processes.

Leadership and Influence processes

Research shows that transformational leadership is positively related to organizational learning

(Bhat , 2013; Garcia , 2012 ; Hugo , Vlado& Miha,2009). Organizational learning is a social
phenomenon (Bhat , 2013). An individual’s learning depends on the knowledge that other members of
the organization possess(Figueiredo , 2003). The social interaction not only facilitates coordination
and communication but also learning. In order to leverage knowledge based resources throughout the
organization, the firm should promote organizational learning (Tetrick& Da Silva , 2003). According to
S Ganapathy and Kumar (2000) , Organizational learning occurs at three levels – at the individual
level learning is all about the development of specific skills at the work place, at the group level
members obtain a context for learning and guidance for the future learning through shared
experiences and at the organizational level , learning is more formal and results in the development
and maintenance of procedures to enhance learning outcomes.

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Research evidences also suggest that transformational leadership positively affects organizational
justice (Rokhman&Hassan , 2012 ; Pillai , Schriesheim, Williams,1999 ).According to Greenberg
(1990) organizational justice refers to the employees perception of fairness in organization including
how decisions are made regarding the distribution of outcomes and the perceived fairness of those
outcomes.
Both these constructs of organizational learning and organisational justice are important in
determining work related attitudes and emotions respectively.Thus the employees feel more
emotionally attached to and involved in the organization .They feel a sense of ownership and more
psychologically empowered. According to K.WThomas and Velthouse (1990),psychological
empowerment is defined as the intrinsic motivation manifested in four cognitions reflecting an
individual’s orientation to his or her work role. The four dimensions are meaning,competence ,self
determination and impact. Meaning refers to a fit between one’s work role requirement and one’s
beliefs, values and behaviors. (Brief and Nord , 1990). Competence refers to one’s belief in his
capability to perform work activities with skill. (Gist and Mitchell , 1992). Self determination refers to
the sense of choice in initiating and regulating one’s actions. (Deci and Ryan , 1985). Impact is the
degree to which one can influence strategic , administrative or operating outcomes at work.(Ashforth ,
1989).

Gary Yukl (2010) proposed that leadership enables the process of building commitment to the
organization’s objectives and can empower followers to accomplish these objectives. Followers who
feel more empowered tend to reciprocate by being more committed to their organization (Koberg et
al., 1999; Wang & Lee, 2009), which suggests that followers may be more likely to identify with their
organization. Organizational Identification is defined as the organizational member’s perception of
oneness with the organization (Ashforth&Mael , 1989). Organizational Identification includes cognitive
as well as emotional components ( Zhu , Sosik , Riggio ,2012).. The cognitive component refers to the
common interests that an individual shares with the organization and the calculative benefits that
he/she gains by association with the organisation. The emotional component refers to an individual’s
positive image of one’s organisation.

Theoretical perspectives

According to the self concept based theoretical model proposed by Shamir et al (1993) ,
transformational leaders influence their followers in three ways: by increasing followers’ self-efficacy,
by influencing followers’ value internalization, and by facilitating followers’ social identification with the
group.
R Kark, Shamir, and Chen (2003) further proposed that follower social identification mediates the
effect of transformational leadership on follower psychological states, such as organizational-based
self-esteem and collective efficacy.
However, the underlying processes through which transformational leadership affects follower social
identification is not explained and thus, there is a gap in the literature that is aspired to be filledup
through this study.

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The main purpose of the study is three fold:The first objective is to examine the underlying
organisational processes through which transformational leadership influence employees’
identificationwith the organization. Secondly, to examine the role of organisational learning and
organizational justice as mediators in the relationship between transformational leadership and
psychological empowerment is one of the main purposes of this study. The third objective is to
examine the role of psychological empowerment as a mediating factor between transformational
leadership and employee’s identification with the organization.

Review of Literature

Transformational Leadership can be defined as the way of leadership that aims performance beyond
the subordinate’s expectations by transforming their emotions,thoughts, beliefs and values. (Rafferty
&Griffin, 2004).

According to transformational leadership theory (Bass, 1985) and self-concept-based explanations of

such leadership (Shamir et al., 1993; Sosik& Cameron, 2010), transformational leaders influence
followers’ self-definitions, affect, values, beliefs, and behaviours.

They also empower followers to recognize the importance of their work and develop their knowledge,
skills and abilities to reach their full potential (Bass, 1985). Thus, transformational leaders are likely to
be associated with empowered followers who possess strong identification with their organizations.
Transformational leaders empower their followers and pay attention to their individual needs and
personal development.

In order to leverage knowledge based resources and empower their employees throughout the
organization, the firm should promote organizational learning (Tetrick& Da Silva , 2003).
Transformational leaders emphasize organizational justice, so that followers are more likely to identify
with the leader and the organization.(Zhu , Sosik , Riggio& Yang , 2012)

The following presents the literature review in a concise manner.

Literature Reviewin brief

Studies on Transformational Leadership & Organizational Learning

AuthorName Paper Thrust Findings
&Journal
Correa , Morales , Pozo Leadership and organisational Organizational Learning and Transformational leadership
,Industrial Marketing learning’s role on innovation Transformational Leadership style improves the
Management 36 (2007) , 349- and performance : Lessons factors influence firms to development of learning within
359 from Spain develop and implement an organization and hence
organisational innovation. influence innovation.
Mirkamali ,Thani , Examining the Role of The main purpose of this study The findings suggest that
Alami.Procedia Social and transformational leadership and is to establish a mutual transformational leadership and
Behavioural Sciences 29(2011) job satisfaction in the relationship between organizational learning is
139-148. organizational learning of an transformational leadership and relatively desirable. It also
automative manufacturing organizational learning. shows that work experience
company does not create a difference in
organizational learning but

3
 gender and education play an
important role in risk
receptivity, exploring reasons
for mistakes and taking
advantage of experiences and
risk receptivity components
respectively.
Montes , Moreno , Influence of support leadership The main focus of this paper is Teamwork cohesion ,
Morales.Technovation and teamwork cohesion on on the effects that organizational learning and
25(2005) , 1159-1172. organizational learning , organizational learning and technical and administrative
innovation and performance : teamwork cohesion have on cohesion is enhanced by
an empirical examination organizational’s capacity to use support leadership. Also
innovation so as to meet the teamwork cohesion promotes
changing needs of the organizational learning which
environment. in turn enhances the
organizational performance.
Morales ,Barrionuevo , Transformational leadership This study analyses the Findings suggest that
Guturrez.Journal of Business influence on organizational influences of transformational organizational performance is
Research 65(2012) 1040-1050 performance through leadership on organizational influenced by transformational
organizational learning and performance through the leadership positively through
innovation. dynamic capabilities of organizational learning and
organizational learning and innovation.
innovation.
Hassan , Khalid and Interrelationship among This study analyses the effect The findings shows that strong
ZamirWorld Applied Sciences transformational leadership , of transformational leadership and supportive leadership leads
Journal 27(10):1372-1379 , organizational learning and on the level of organisational towards organizational
2013. organizational innovation : A learning and organizationalinnovation. Organizational
study of Pakistan’s telecom innovation in the telecom learning promotes incessant
sector sector of Pakistan. motivation and avoids
stagnation. Transformational
leadership promotes
organisational learning that
leads to organizational
innovation and high
competitive advantage.
Aruna B Bhat , Santosh Impact of Transformational The main objective of the The findings shows that
Rangnekar , Leadership Style on paper is to explore certain Transformational leaders affect
MukeshBarua.Elite Research Organisational Learning characteristics or factors of significantly negative to
Journal of Education and transformational as well as organizational learning and
Review , Vol 1 (4) pp 24-31 , transactional leadership which contingent reward of
June 2013 significantly affects transactional leadership
organizational learning. however significantly affects
organizational learning. Also
its found that innovation and
experimentation dimensions of
organizational learning has
more effect on transactional
leadership as compared to
transformational.

Studies on Transformational Leadership & Organizational Justice

AuthorName Paper Thrust Findings
&Journal
Storm , Sears , Kelly . Journal Work engagement : The role of The main focus of this study is The findings suggest that the
of Leadership and Organizational Justice and to contribute to the engagement set of results is consistent with
Organizational Studies 2014 Leadership Style in Predicting literature by examining the two the principles of leader fairness
Vol 21(1) 71-82 Engagement among Employees social contextual variables theory. It also suggests that a
preceding engagement , low transactional leadership
specifically organisational style elicits uncertainity about
justice and leadership style. one’s social self in the context
of the workplace and this state
of uncertainty incites an
employees intensified desire to
seek justice related
information.
WahiburRoshman and Transformational Leadership The main focus of this paper is The test of mediation effect of
ArifHassan.World Review of and Work Outcomes : to establish the potential procedural justice on
Business Research Vol 2 No 4 Organizational Justice as the mediating role of transformational leadership and
July 2012 Pp 164-171 Mediator organizational justice in the work outcome revealed no
relationship between significant effect on job
transformational leadership and satisfaction and turnover

4
 work outcomes (ie job intention , however it was
satisfaction ,organizational partially significant with
commitment and turnover organizational commitment.
intention. Organizational
Justice theory has been used as
an useful framework towards
understanding
individuals’attitude towards
work , work behaviour and job
performance.
Piyali Ghosh , AlkaRai and Organizational Justice and The main focus of this study is Findings suggests that
Apsha Sinha .Personnel Employee Engagement- to explore whether the distributive , procedural and
Review Vol 43 No 4 , 2014 pp Exploring the linkages in perceptions of distributive , interactional justice are related
628-652 public sector banks in India procedural and interactional to each other. Also distributive
justice are related to employee and interactional justice take
engagement as an extension of precedence over procedural
the antecedent-consequences justice in determining job
model of Saks(2006), and to engagement while distributive
examining the possibility of justice plays the most
inter relationships between important role in determining
these three dimensions of organisational engagement
justice. followed by procedural and
interactional justice.
ZunnoorainKhan ,Shahzad Moderating Role of Procedural The rationale of the study is to Findings suggest that
Khan , Justice and Empowerment in find out the importance of transformational leadership and
SaibShahzadInternational Transformational Leadership transformational leadership and organizational commitment are
Review of Management and with its impact on its impact on organizational closely intertwined in a
Business Research , Vol 2 Organizational Commitment commitment with the positive relationship. It also
Issue 3 ,September 2013 pp moderating role of procedural shows insignificant results on
847-852. justice and empowerment. the relationship that exists
between procedural justice and
organizational commitment ,
however the relationship is
positive.
Richard J Eberlin , B Charles Making Just Decisions : This study understands the Findings suggest that managers
Tatum . Management Decision Organizational Justice , complex relationships among rated high on social justice
, Vol 46 No 2 , 2008 , pp 310- Decision Making and organizational justice , decision portrayed transformational
329 Leadership making and leadership. leadership . Also managers
Different kinds of leaders adopt rated lower on social justice if
differing decision making they portrayed as restricted in
approaches. their decision making
approach. Justice ratings were
significantly influenced by
leadership style and decision.
Upasna A Agarwal , Personnel Linking Justice , trust and This study examines the Findings depicts that
Review, Vol 43 No 1 , 2014 , innovative work behaviour to antecedents , outcomes and procedural justice ,
pp 41-73 work engagement. psychological experiences that interactional justice and
impact work engagement. It psychological contract
also examines the impact of fulfilment are positively related
justice on employee to work engagement with trust
engagement levels. as the mediating element.
MarzichAlvandi , Hamid The Relationship between the This study attempts to show the Results indicate that
Faroghi , Majid Organizational Justice and relationship between the meaningful and positive
SuleymaniInternational Empowerment of the organizational justice and relationship exists between
Research Journal of Applied Employees of Hamdan Sport empowerment of employees of organizational justice and its
and Basic Sciences. Vol 8 (2) , and Youth Government Offices the Hamadan Sport Youth aspects with the empowerment
pp 146-149, 2014 in Iran. Government Offices. of the employees. However no
relationship was established
between organizational justice
and the feelings of efficacy.
RajnandiniPillai ,Scandura and Leadership and Organizational The main purpose of the study Transformational Leadership is
Williams . Journal of Justice : Similarities and is to explore the possible found to enhance perceptions
International Business Studies Differences Across Cultures differences and similarities of of procedural fairness in all
.Vol 30 No 4 , 1999. leadership and organizational cultures. Transformational
Pp 763-779 justice in each culture. Leadership is found to be
participative and more
effective in influencing job
attitudes in low power distance
countries.
P Krafft , AS Engelbrecht , CC The influence of The focus of this paper is to Findings suggested that
Theron . SA Journal of transformational and investigate the relationship interactional justice played a
Industrial Psychology. transactional leadership on between transformational greater role than procedural
Vol 30 (1) , 2004, pp 10-18 dyadic trust relationships leadership and transactional justice in relationship between
through perceptions of trust. leadership and interpersonal transformational leadership.
trust and whether Distributive justice mediated

5
 organizational justice plays a the relationship between
mediating role. transformational leadership and
trust.

Studies on Transformational Leadership,Organizational Learning, Organizational Justice,

Empowerment & Work Outcomes

AuthorName Paper Thrust Findings

&Journal
Munir ,Rehman , Malik and Relationship between The main focus of this paper is Transformational leadership
Mamor. Procedia Social and Transformational Leaderhsip to understand that plays an important role in
Brhavioural Sciences 65 (2012) and Employee’s Job transformational leadership and influencing job satisfaction.
885-890 , Satisfaction among the job satisfaction are two
academic staff important elements in creating
a healthy organization.
SumitJha ,South Asian Journal Transformational Leadership The focus of the paper is to Positive relationship exists
of Global Business Research and Psychological understand the various between transformational
Vol 3(1) , 18-35. Empowerment: Determinants antecedents of OCB. It also leadership & OCB. The
of OCB studies the relationship moderating effect of
between transformational psychological empowerment
leadership and OCB with on OCB is also found
Psychological empowerment as significant.
the moderating factor.
KhalifSafari ,Haghighi , The Relationshipbetween The mainfocus is to Results indicated that amongst
Rastegar, Jamshidi. Procedia psychological empowerment & investigate the relationship
factors of psychological
Social and Behavioral Organizational Learning. between psychological
empowerment self efficacy,
Sciences, 30(2011). 1147-1152 empowerment and
self determination , impact and
organizational learning. meaningfulness had most
power to predict the
Organizational Learning.
Mohammad Ali Mostafapour, Study of the relationship The study was meant to Results indicate meaningful
Khadije. Journal of Basic between Organizational research the relationship relationship exists between
Applied Sciences & Research. Learning and Empowerment between organizational organizational learning and the
2(12),569-575. Strategy for Staff working at learning and empowerment empowerment of the
Education Administration. strategy for staff working at employees.
education administration.
Kollmann , T Stockmann , Integrating dependency on the The focus of the paper is that Dependence is a negative side
Knell , Peschl , Buchwald. leader and empowerment into creativity is an outcome of effect of transformational
Central European Business transformational leadership- transformational leadership as leadership in terms of the
Review, Volume 2 , Number 1 creative performance a result of follower’s emotional outcome of employee
, March 2013. relationship attachment to the leader and creativity.
the motivational arousal of the Empowerment is a creativity
followers as a consequence of encouraging behaviour which
the leader’s behaviour. can stimulate creativity.
Fabian O Ugwu , Ike E Onjushi Linking organizational trust The present study attempts to The results suggests that
, Alma Sanchez . Personnel with employee engagement : explore the relationships organizational trust and
Review , Vol 43 No 3, 2014, the role of psychological among organizational trust , psychological empowerment
pp 377-400 empowerment psychological empowerment are predictors of work
and work engagement in engagement. It also shows a
Nigeria. More specifically it moderating effect of
aims to investigate the empowerment on the
moderating role of relationship between trust and
psychological empowerment in engagemement.
the relationship between
organizational trust and work
engagement.
MarzichAlvandi , Hamid The Relationship between the This study attempts to show the Results indicate that
Faroghi , Majid Organizational Justice and relationship between the meaningful and positive
SuleymaniInternational Empowerment of the organizational justice and relationship exists between
Research Journal of Applied Employees of Hamdan Sport empowerment of employees of organizational justice and its
and Basic Sciences. Vol 8 (2) , and Youth Government Offices the Hamadan Sport Youth aspects with the empowerment
pp 146-149, 2014 in Iran. Government Offices. of the employees. However no
relationship was established
between organizational justice
and the feelings of efficacy.
Dennis Wat , Margaret A Equity and relationship quality The main purpose of the paper Findings reveal that there is a
Shaffer . Personnel Review , influences on organizational is to develop and test an direct effect of trust in the
Vol 34 , No 4 , 2005 citizenship behaviors-The expanded social exchange supervisor and psychological
Pp 406-422 mediating role of trust in the model of organizational empowerment on all
supervisor and empowerment citizenship behaviour (OCB) dimensions of the OCBs. Trust
that includes characteristics of in supervisor played an

6
 the social context to engage in important mediating role in all
citizenship behaviors. relationships.
Bruce J Avolio ,Weichun Zhu , Transformational Leadership The main thrust of the study is Results shows positive
William Koh and Puja Bhatia and organizational commitment to examine the underlying association of transformational
Journal of Organizational : mediating role of processes through which leadership and organizational
Behavior . Vol 25 , pp 951-968 psychological empowerment transformational leadership commitment. Also empowered
, 2004 and moderating role of influence followers employees reciprocate more
structural distance. organizational commitment by with higher levels of
emphasizing on psychological commitment to their
empowerment and also to organizations.
explore the moderating role of
structural distance on the
relationship between
transformational leadership and
organizational commitment.
Dr. Rashid Saeed ,Arshia The effect of Transformational This paper evaluates the The results of the study reflects
Hashmi , Lodhi , Moeed Leadership on Organizational mediating role of psychological that psychological
Ahmad , Mohammad Arshad , Commitment with a mediating empowerment with causal empowerment positively
Azeem Ahmad . Journal of effect of psychological effect for the relationship of mediate the relationship
Basic and Applied Scientific empowerment. transformational leadership and between transformational
Research organizational commitment. leadership and organizational
Vol 3 (6) , 2013 , pp 38-36 This paper also tries to find the commitment.
impact of transformational
leadership on organizational
commitment.
Rolf Van Dick , Giles Hirst , Relationships between leader The main purpose of the paper The findings suggests that
Michael W Grojean , Jan and follower organizational is to investigate whether leader leaders self construal in terms
Wieseke. Journal of identification and implications organizational identification of the organization is related to
Occupational and for follower attitudes and and whether this relationship in follower organizational
Organizational Psychology behaviour. turn enhances follower job identification and this leads to
Vol 80 , 2007 , pp 133-150 satisfaction and OCB. greater follower satisfaction
and a greater willingness to
exert extra effort on behalf of
the organization.

Research Gaps

After reviewing the literature, the following gaps were found.

1. The underlying processin the organisation through which Transformational Leadership

influences follower’s organizational identification is still not explored.
2. Organizational Learning and Organizational Justice as mediation factors influencing
psychological empowerment of employees needs to be studied as no relevant studies are
there in the Indian Context.
3. To date, little is known about the links between leadership and organizational justice other
than in Western cultures.
4. Further there has been very few research examining the relationship between
transformational leadership and organizational justice in India.
5. Very few studies on Transformational Leadershiphas been focussed on the IT Sector in India

Rationale
In this age of rapid changes in the business environment, a kind of leadership is required that enables
organizations to transform themselves and cope with the continual changes. Leaders should be able
to help the organization to develop a vision; to mobilize the organization to accept and work towards
achieving the new vision; to institutionalize the changes that must last over, and help the employees
to actualise their fullest potential. Such leaders are called transformational leaders as they create

7
something new out of something old. Transformational leaders continually strive towards improving
their leadership qualities and also stimulate their followers to exhibit outstanding performance (Bass,
1985).
Transformational leadership plays a crucial role in an organization. A transformational leader changes
the existing organizational culture with a new vision and a revision of its shared assumptions, values
and norms. In Indian organisations, which functions primarily on the strength of trust and relationship
between its members, the effects of transformational leadership will be more visible (Balaji& Krishnan,
2014). Indian values in organisations are 1.Preference for hierarchy 2.Embeddedness 3.Personalised
rather than contractual relationship 4.Harmony 5.Duty and obligation rather than hedonism(Sinha,
2000). R.V.Krishnan (2001), however,argues that Indian culture is conducive to emergence of
transformational leadership as fundamental beliefs that are unique to Indian worldview, i.e.,
preference for action, potential divinity and goal freedom facilitate the emergence of transformational
leadership. According to B.Bass and Steidlemeier(1999) , the congruence in values between the
leader and follower is the moral foundation of transformational leadership. Followers mould their
beliefs, feelings and behaviour according to those of the leader. According to Brown (1994),
transformational leadership is the need of an evolving technological society. Transformational leaders
must meet market demands faster and better than before, given the increasingly interdependent
economy.

Further, in the IT sector, the organizational belief system plays a very significant role in enhancing an
employee’s commitment (Chandna& Krishnan, 2009).The transformational leader in the IT sector
could enhance the employees work beliefs by increasing their sense of ownership and empowering
them. The leaders also encourage their employees to challenge the old assumptions and drive them
to learn more and hence intellectually stimulate them. Organisational learning mechanism enables
employees to develop these work related attitudes at all levels: individual, team and organisational
level.

Employees feel more emotionally attached to and involved in the organization if steps are taken to
ensure positive emotions as to how their work affects the organization. The employees should feel
that if their work serves the group’s interest it will result in their own success. Hence a reward system
with a transparent performance-reward relationship has to be in place. Therefore, organisational
justice plays an important role in inducing work-related positive emotions. In addition, a sense of
identification with the organisation is thus cultivated within the employees.

Hence, this study is an attempt to examine the constructs of transformational leadership,

organizational learning, organizational justice and psychological empowerment in enhancing the
organisational identification of the employees.

Problem Statement

Leadership management in the organisation is moving towards the trend of Transformational

Leadership (Crawford, 2005).According to Hater and Bass (1988) considerable research has been

8
done on exchange relationship between the leader and subordinate . The concept of transformational
leadership is based on strong personal identification and going beyond a self interested exchange of
rewards between the leader and the subordinate . The question thus arises is how does this
transformational leadership make a difference in the follower’s identification. There are studies which
have explored the relationship between transformationalleadership and follower identification,
however the underlying mechanisms have not been entirely clear. The academia is yet to fully
examine the mediating factors between transformational leadership and follower identification.
Additionally most of the studies have been conducted in the Western Context. There is a need to
examine this leadership construct in other cultural contexts. The present study is based on these
concerns, and takes into account the constructs of Organizational Learning, Organizational Justice
and Psychological Empowerment in establishing the relationship between Transformational
Leadership and Employee’s Organizational Identification.

Research Questions

Thus the following questions need to be answered.

 What are the relevantdimensionsof Transformational Leadership so far as the employees of

IT Sector of India is concerned?
 What are the relevant dimensions of Organizational Identification of the employees?
 What is the impact of manager’s transformational leadership style on the organizational
identification of the employees?
 What are the underlying processes which impact the relationship between Transformational
Leadership and Employee’s Identification with the Organisation?
1. What is the impact of Transformational Leadership on Psychological Empowerment of the
employees? And how it is acting as a mediating factor between Transformational
Leadership and Employee’s OrganizationalIdentification?
2. To what extent transformational leadership affects the level of organizational learning?
3. Does organizational learning mediate the relationship between Transformational
Leadership and Psychological Empowerment?
4. To what extent does transformational leadership affect the level of organizational justice?
5. Does organisational justice mediate the relationship between transformational leadership
and psychological empowerment of the employees?
 What recommendations can be formulated from the results?

Theoretical Framework

According to the self-concept based theoretical model proposed by B Shamir (1993) , transformational
leaders influence their followers in three ways: by increasing followers’ self-efficacy, by influencing
followers’ value internalization, and by facilitating followers’ social identification with the group.

9
Model 1

Followers’ self-
efficacy

Transformational Followers’ value

Leadership internalization

Followers’ social
identification

R Kark, Shamir, and Chen (2003) further proposed that follower social identification mediates the
effect

Of transformational leadership on follower psychological states, such as organizational-based self-

esteem and collective efficacy.

Model 2

Transformational Followers’ social Self Esteem

Leadership identification

Transformational Followers’ social Collective

Leadership identification Efficacy

Hypothesized Causal Model

Based on the review of the literature, the following model has been inferred. Transformational
leadership helps the employees to grow and develop by empowering them and by aligning the
objectives and goals of the individual followers, the leaders, the group and the organization. This
empowerment can be brought about by promoting organizational learning and organizational justice

10
throughout the organization. As a result of the increased empowerment of the followers they would
tend to identify themselves more with the organisation.

Objectives

The present study hasthe following objectives:

1. To examine whether transformational leadership plays a significant role in the organizational

identification of the employees.
2. To examine organizational learning and organizational justice as functions of transformational
leadership.
3. To examine whether transformational leadership significantly affects the level of psychological
empowerment of the employees.
4. To explore whether psychological empowerment of employees varies significantly with varying
levels of organizational justice and also that of organisational learning.
5. To examine the organizational identification as a function of psychological empowerment of
the employees.
6. To explore the structure of relationship between all the variables included in the hypothesized
causal model.

Hypotheses:

 H1: Transformational Leadership will have positive and significant impact on the
organizational identification of the employees.
 H2: Transformational Leadership is positivelyand significantly related to Organisational
Learning.
 H3:Transformational Leadership ispositively and significantly related to Organizational
Justice.
 H4: Psychological Empowerment of employees will vary significantly with varying levels of
Organizational Learning.
 H5: Psychological Empowerment of employees will vary significantly with varying levels of
Organizational Justice.
 H6: Psychological Empowerment of employees leads to Organizational Identification of
employees.

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  H7: Organizational Learning mediates the relationship between transformational leadership
and psychological empowerment of the employees such that transformational leadership will
have stronger positive relationship with the psychological empowerment of the employees.
 H8:Organizational Justice mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and
psychological empowerment of the employees such that transformational leadership will have
stronger positive relationship with the psychological empowerment of the employees.
 H9:Psychological Empowerment positively mediates the relationship between
transformational leadership and Organisational Identification of the Employees.

Method of Study

Sample: The sample of the present research will consist of a total of 400 employees. The study shall
be focussed in the IT sector of India. Simple Random sampling and Stratified Random Sampling will
be used to collect the data of the proposed study. Important demographic variables like gender, age
range, annual income, etc. will also be taken into consideration in the proposed study.

Data Collection: Questionnaires and interview shall be used for the purpose of data collection.

Data Analysis: Multiple Regression and Structural Equation Modelling shall be used for the Analysis
of Data using SPSS Version 20.

Significance of the study

This study may contribute to the growing understanding of effectiveness of transformational

leadership outside of the Western Culture. There are a large number of studies on transformational
leadership in the west. However, as far as India is concerned, the exploration of this topic is still in its
infancy. This study will focus on the IT sector of India which is one of the fastest growing one and also
one of the most prospective sectors that contributes to the country’s GDP.

This study will be focussed on the IT sector in India. IT sector is fast developing and the backbone of
economy. This study will provide additional support for transformational leadership theory by
demonstrating a motivational mechanism through which employees identify with their organizations.
This study would also provide guidance to the managers as to how transformational leadership may
be utilized to the benefit of the organizations in the IT sector in particular and other sectors in general..
This proposed study would also suggest specific measures, techniques and strategies for enhancing
the overall performance and productivity of the employees because it is well believed fact that the
productivity of any organization is dependent on effective leadership. Therefore, HR policy
implications could be the important contributions of this present research.

Limitations

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 1. This study is solely confined to the IT sector. Therefore, thefindings may not be generalizable
to all kinds of organizations. The same study can be replicated in the other sectors to see the
difference in the results.
2. The sample size considered in the study may not be adequate to reflect the actual scenario in
the workplace.
3. This study would be based on the employees’ perception of leadership style and other
variables included in the study. The leaders’ perspectives are not considered for the purpose
of cross validation of data.

Timeline

Total time period required will be 4 years.

Time Duration Distribution of Work

July 2013 to December 2013
January 2014 to June 2014
July 2014 to December 2014
January 2015 to June 2015
July 2015 to December 2015
January 2016 to June 2016
July 2016 to December 2016
January 2017 to June 2017
Course work, deciding on tentative topic. Collection of material
Course work, review of literature, Developing the Research Model
Finalising research proposal, registration seminar, preparing
questionnaire, library visits, attending conferences
Review of literature, Pilot Study, Field work, Data collection, Library
visit
Review of literature, data analysis and interpretation, thesis writing ,
attending conferences
Review of new articles, compiling the results of the analysis and
interpretation, thesis writing and attending conferences
Review of new articles, writing the interpretation of result, thesis
writing, attending conferences
Final corrections and submission of thesis

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