The Impact Of Transformational Leadership On The Job Satisfaction Of .

Escortell et al., Cogent Business & Management (2020), 7: 60challenges for followers. Intellectual stimulation is based on motivating followers to share ideas,innovation, and creativity. Finally, individualized consideration involves two-way communicationand delegating when followers improve their skills.Empirical analysis was conducted to compare the relationships of internal hotel employees withthose of workers from an outsourced company. Outsourced workers were responsible for thehousekeeping and entertainment departments. Internal hotel employees ran the reception,kitchen, and bar-restaurant departments.The analysis was performed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), which issuitable for small or medium-sized samples (Fiss, 2011). This methodological approach contributesto the hotel leadership literature. The fsQCA model is shown to be a valid way of explaining higherjob satisfaction in three of the four transformational leadership dimensions proposed by Bass andAvolio (1994). The optimal combinations of dimensions are as follows: individualized consideration,intellectual stimulation, and idealized influence; individualized consideration, inspirational motiva tion, and idealized influence; and intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and idealizedinfluence. There are differences between outsourced workers and internal employees. Outsourcedworkers need all four subscales to have high job satisfaction. In contrast, internal employees canachieve high job satisfaction without individualized consideration.Valuable contributions are made through the analysis method and the research context ofSpanish hotels. These two characteristics of the study provide valuable insight into leadershipand job satisfaction. The study also contributes to the literature on hotel service outsourcing.Finally, this study is of empirical value to service industry companies and hotel business managers.2. Theoretical framework and development of propositions2.1. Transformational leadership and job satisfactionIn the 1980s, Bass (1985) started building on the model proposed by Burns (1978) and thediscussion of charisma in organizations presented by Weber (1964). Bass focused on the needsof collaborators rather than on the needs of leaders. Bass proposed a more detailed theory todescribe transformational processes in organizations. This theory recognizes that the same leadercan use both transactional processes and transformational processes depending on the situation.The vast majority of previous leadership theories focused on transactional processes in the form oftransactions between leaders and followers to reach previous statements. Although transactionalleaders acknowledge that they need their followers, they are rewarded depending on theirperformance (Rothfelder et al., 2012).Transformational leadership has proved to be an important tool for managers. Hermosilla et al.(2016) studied data on 47 managers and 107 subordinates in different organizations in Spain. Theyfound that transformational leadership is positively correlated with the perceived effectiveness ofthe manager, efforts by subordinates who are willing to complete tasks set by their managers, andsatisfaction with work. Jauhari et al. (2016) studied a sample of 225 service sector workers in India,showing that affective commitment and psychological empowerment mediate the relationshipbetween transformational leadership and proactive service. After evaluating 300 employees ofa “Contact Center” in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Aghashahi et al. (2013) revealed that transforma tional leadership is correlated with organizational commitment.In the search to ensure employees’ job satisfaction, managing human resources in organizationsis becoming increasingly complex and challenging. Currently, management of these areas requiresmajor innovation, especially considering that the hallmark of today’s world is competitiveness andglobalization. It has been shown that as companies abandon bureaucratic and hierarchical orga nizational structures and adopt more organic and flexible ones, the essential skills for employeejob performance change (Oliva Abusleme & Molina Fuentes, 2016).Page 3 of 15

Escortell et al., Cogent Business & Management (2020), 7: 60Romero-Fernández and Chávez-Yepez (2015) highlighted that the factors that Ecuadorianworkers value most in relation to their job satisfaction are salary, personal relations, workingconditions, communication, and leadership. These findings have been confirmed by other studies.For example, after evaluating the satisfaction of 45 employees of the Aquamare Beach Hotel inItaly, Masouras (2015) found that satisfaction is mediated by the leadership orientation of workers.Proposition 1: High levels of transformational leadership increase job satisfaction.2.2. Idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualizedconsideration, and job satisfactionBass and Avolio (1994) established the foundations for improving organizational effectivenessthrough transformational leadership, which they defined in terms of four dimensions: idealizedinfluence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. TheMultifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) consists of Likert-type response items that identify thecharacteristics of a transformational leader. It was developed by Bass and Avolio (1994) but waslater modified (Bass & Avolio, 1997) to create the model that has been widely used for many years.This version consists of 45 items. It is referred to as the MLQ-5X. It is presented in two formats: oneaimed at employees, who evaluate their leaders, and another for self-evaluation by leaders, whoevaluate their own style of leadership (Molero et al., 2010). The most recent model is the MLQ-6S,proposed by Northouse (2010) based on the work of Bass and Avolio (1994, 1997).The questionnaire has been tested by Vinger and Cilliers (2006) with a sample of 190 humanresources department workers in South Africa. Likewise, Bagheri et al. (2015) validated the ques tionnaire with 210 Iranian workers, demonstrating the suitability of the questionnaire. In thesetwo studies, the consistency scores ranged from 0.62 to 0.90.In relation to job satisfaction, Párraga-Zambrano et al. (2017) reported that it is advisable toprovide workers with fair, ethical, and decent treatment; motivate them to improve their skills; andpromote an organizational culture and environment that encourages effective communication,general well-being, synergy, empathy, teamwork, and productivity. According to those authors,this approach is the best strategy to achieve a positive effect on hotel performance and strengthenorganizational development over time.The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) was developed by Weiss et al. (1967) tomeasure job satisfaction. It evaluates intrinsic, extrinsic, and overall satisfaction. Intrinsic jobsatisfaction stems from the opportunity to assist or instruct colleagues, the pride of doinga good job, and the opportunity to perform different tasks. Extrinsic job satisfaction comes fromopportunities for promotion, a better salary, and recognition. It also refers to the competence ofsuperiors. Overall evaluation refers to the entire set of items. Initially, the questionnaire had 100items across different five-item scales. However, the same authors later developed an abbreviatedversion with 20 items.Proposition 2: High levels of the dimensions of transformational leadership (idealized influence,inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration) increaseemployee job satisfaction.2.3. Outsourced servicesAccording to Promsivapallop et al. (2015) outsourcing is when independent providers perform all orsome of a company’s internal activities that were or could have been previously performed by thecompany. Outsourcing services has changed attitudes toward work and employment, givingflexibility to service industries such as the hotel industry (Allen & Chandrashekar, 2000). ThePage 4 of 15

Escortell et al., Cogent Business & Management (2020), 7: 60hotel industry has to deal with high and low seasons in resorts and high occupancy on weekdaysbut low occupancy on weekends in business hotels. Therefore, outsourcing can provide the flex ibility needed to deal with this volatility (Lamminmaki, 2009).Outsourced staff work for a service company that is contracted out by a hotel. Therefore,outsourced staff are not hired directly by the hotel. Outsourcing has generated a debate overwhether workers may feel a low level of involvement and organizational commitment to the hotelwhere they work because of their relationships with their direct superiors at the service companyand because of differences with non-outsourced employees at their place of work (Baquero et al.,2019).Hodari et al. (2014) reported that the managers of outsourced spas at hotels are morestressed than colleagues who are employed directly by these hotels. The main reason is theexistence of conflicting interests between hotel managers, external companies, and the hotel.The situation was somewhat different in the case of the sample used for this study. Here, themanagers of the outsourced departments (housekeeping and entertainment) reported directly tothe hotel general manager. They received the same daily operational briefing, chaired by the hotelgeneral manager, as the rest of the hotel middle management. Therefore, the job satisfaction ofthese workers may be affected by the hotel manager’s leadership in the same way as the jobsatisfaction of internal employees.Proposition 3: High levels of transformational leadership in outsourced departments increases jobsatisfaction in the same way as in internally staffed departments.3. MethodThe data for this study came from a sample of 60 staff at 12 hotels in the Canary Islands, Spain.The hotels are located on four islands: Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife. Thehotels have either a four- or a five-star rating. They are part of a Spanish hotel chain that operateson a global scale. The sample comprises five heads of department (HODs) at each of the 12 hotels.These HODs are the reception manager, director of food and beverages (restaurant and bar), chef,housekeeping manager, and entertainment manager. They have daily contact with the hotelgeneral manager. The data were gathered in January 2019. The HODs completed two question naires: for job satisfaction, they completed the MSQ, and for transformational leadership, theycompleted the MLQ. They completed the questionnaires individually. One member of the researchteam was responsible for visiting the 12 hotels and giving the members of the sample thenecessary background and instructions to complete the questionnaires.Transformational leadership ratings were obtained using the MLQ-6S (Bass & Avolio, 1997). Thisinstrument consists of four Likert-type items for each of the four subscales. They were rated ona five-point scale ranging from 0 (totally disagree) to 4 (totally agree). Sample items are “Mymanager makes me feel good to be around him/her,” “My manager helps me to find meaning inmy work,” “My manager enables me to think about old problems in new ways,” and “My managerhelps me to develop.”Job satisfaction scores were obtained using the MSQ (Weiss et al., 1967). The version used in thisstudy had 20 Likert-type items scored on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5(very satisfied). This instrument assesses intrinsic, extrinsic, and overall satisfaction based onseveral characteristics. A sample item is “In my present job, this is how I feel about the way myboss handles his or her workers.”The MLQ-6S (Bass & Avolio, 1997) is available online for a fee. The MSQ (Weiss et al., 1967) isaccessible online free of charge. Of the 60 completed questionnaires, two were discarded.Page 5 of 15

Escortell et al., Cogent Business & Management (2020), 7: 60Therefore, the final sample consisted of 58 HODs (96.7% of the initial sample). Of these respon dents, 53.4% were men and 46.6% were women. Regarding age, 63.8% were aged from 35 to49 years, 22.4% were aged from 50 to 64 years, and 13.8% were aged from 25 to 34 years. Interms of direct employment versus outsourcing, 58.6% were internal, and 41.4% were outsourced.4. ResultsFsQCA was used to analyze the data. FsQCA is based on Boolean algebra. It is a useful method forsmall or medium-sized samples (Fiss, 2011). It is used to perform configurational analysis of thecausal relationships that link several antecedent conditions to an outcome of interest (Ragin, 1989,2000). Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) methods have been successfully employed innumerous social science studies (Lassala et al., 2017; Lückenbach et al., 2019; Ribes-Giner et al.,2018). It is not necessary for the measurement scales to have been specifically designed for fsQCA.Calibration of the original variables allows any continuous variable to be transformed into anothercontinuous variable ranging from 0 to 1. Each calibrated value then represents the degree of setmembership. A value of 0 indicates full non-membership, whereas 1 denotes full membership.FS/QCA 3.0 software was used for the analysis. The model describes the influence of theconditions (four dimensions of transformational leadership) on the outcome (job satisfaction) fora sample of hotel workers in Spain. The aim was to ascertain whether leaders (in this case,managers) should center on all four dimensions or whether any individual dimension is particularlyrelevant. To help understand the method, the descriptive statistics for the initial data for the fourconditions and the outcome are displayed in Table 1. These values are based on the scores thatrespondents assigned on the original five-point Likert-type scale (i.e., 0–4 or 1–5).Empirical analysis was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the model for the subsample ofoutsourced workers (housekeeping and entertainment) and the subsample of internal employees(reception, bar-restaurant, and kitchen). The empirical results are valuable to hotel businessmanagers and companies in this sector. Before the fsQCA model was developed, the scales anddimensions used in this study were validated. First, Cronbach’s alpha was used to measure theinternal consistency and thus verify the reliability of each of the scale’s dimensions. Cronbach’salpha was used to confirm that the reflective indicators of the scale were homogeneous. Ittherefore indicated whether these indicators measured the same latent variable. Acceptablevalues were greater than or equal to 0.7 (Nunnally, 1978). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) wasthen conducted to check the unidimensionality of the dimensions. Finally, the variables werecalibrated to define the extent to which each case belonged to the condition and outcome sets.This degree of membership varies according to the level of job satisfaction and each dimension oftransformational leadership. Five factors were analyzed in this study. The four dimensions oftransformational leadership (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation,Table 1. Descriptive data for the conditions and outcomeOutcome orconditionValid NMeanStandarddeviationMinimumMaximumJob dividualizedconsideration583.040.841.004.00Page 6 of 15

Escortell et al., Cogent Business & Management (2020), 7: 60and individualized consideration) were used as antecedent conditions, and job satisfaction wasused as the outcome (Table 2).Next, each variable was calibrated to define the extent of membership to the condition andoutcome sets. The key conceptual dimensions were defined. They were then interpreted as sets inwhich each case has a certain degree of membership. In fsQCA, continuous variables are cali brated into categorical variables to indicate the degree of membership to that set for each case.Membership to a set is denoted as a score ranging from 0 (full non-membership) to 1 (fullmembership). In calibration, researchers can also set membership scores based on the existingtheory. The sets are shown in Table 3.Analysis of sufficiency was conducted. The first step was to calibrate the outcome and condi tions. The suffix “fz” indicates calibration of the outcome and conditions. Next, the truth table wasproduced. This table lists all logically possible configurations. The truth table has 2 k rows, wherek is the number of conditions (Ragin & Sonnett, 2004). In this study, there were four conditions.Therefore, the truth table had 16 rows, each showing a different possible configuration of condi tions. Following the approach described by Ragin and Sonnett (2004), a value of 1 indicates thatthe score of the calibrated configuration is greater than or equal to 0.5, whereas 0 indicates thatthe score of the calibrated configuration is lower than 0.5. The number of real empirical cases forTable 2. Definitions of conditions and outcomeCondition/outcomeCodeItemsOutcomeJob satisfactionEmploJobSatPositive emotional statederived from theevaluation of one’s ownworkAntecedent conditionIdealized influenceidea inflThe leader inspiresemployee loyaltyAntecedent conditionInspirational motivationinsp motThe leader engages inways that inspire theintegration andmobilization of teamsAntecedent conditionIntellectual stimulationintel stimThe leader enablesemployees to think aboutold problems in new waysAntecedent conditionIndividualizedconsiderationindiv consThe leader takes intoaccount the feelings ofsubordinates beforeactingTable 3. Definitions of setsCondition/outcomeSet membershipOutcomeJob satisfactionWorkers with high job satisfactionAntecedent conditionIdealized influenceWorkers whose managers havehigh charisma when relating toothersAntecedent conditionInspirational motivationWorkers whose managers engagewith and motivate othersAntecedent conditionIntellectual stimulationWorkers whose managers enableother ways of thinking and provideintellectual stimulationAntecedent conditionIndividualized considerationWorkers whose managers considertheir employees on an individuallevelPage 7 of 15

Escortell et al., Cogent Business & Management (2020), 7: 60each configuration is shown in the “Number” column, with the cumulative percentage shown inparentheses. The consistency of each configuration is based on the subset relation with theoutcome (Table 4).Configurations that are not reflected by any empirical cases are known as remainders. Theseremainders were eliminated. Because the sample was small, configurations reflected by only onecase were also eliminated. The remaining configurations had to have a coverage of at least 75% or80% of cases (in this case, the coverage was 93%). Next, a consistency threshold was establishedto identify causal configurations that were subsets of the outcome as opposed to those that werenot. According to Ragin (2008), consistency values of less than 0.75 generally indicate inconsis tency. The consistency threshold was set at 0.867. A value of 1 was assigned to the outcome (jobsatisfaction) if the consistency of a given configuration was greater than 0.867. Otherwise, thevalue 0 was assigned (Table 5).5. DiscussionThe resulting intermediate solution consists of two combinations that are sufficient to increaseemployee job satisfaction. The complex and parsimonious solutions may be thought of as the twoextremes of a complexity–parsimony continuum (Ragin & Sonnett, 2004). “An optimal intermedi ate solution can be obtained by removing individual causal conditions that are inconsistent withexisting knowledge from combinations in the complex solution, while maintaining the subsetrelation with the most parsimonious solution” (Ragin & Sonnett, 2004). These intermediate solu tions use only a subset of the simplifying assumptions that are used in the most parsimonioussolution (Table 6).The final solution can be expressed as follows:ind consfz intel stimfz idea inflfz þind consfz insp motfz idea inflfz þintel stimfz insp motfz idea inflfzThe three combinations shown in Table 6 are sufficient to increase job satisfaction in 83.9% ofcases and cover 73.1% of cases. The combination of high individualized consideration, highintellectual stimulation, and high idealized influence leads to increased job satisfaction. Similarly,the combination of high individualized consideration, high inspirational motivation, and highidealized influence also leads to increased job satisfaction. Finally, the combination of highintellectual stimulation, high inspirational motivation and high idealized influence also leads toincreased job satisfaction. Idealized influence is present in all three combinations, suggesting thatthis dime

Theoretical framework and development of propositions 2.1. Transformational leadership and job satisfaction In the 1980s, Bass (1985) started building on the model proposed by Burns (1978) and the . Transformational leadership has proved to be an important tool for managers. Hermosilla et al. (2016) studied data on 47 managers and 107 .