Substitutes or complements? Individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership in different organizational structures in new firms
Abstract
Purpose
The significant performance implications of individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership have been documented for established firms, but the issue of whether they are complementary or substitutive still remains a puzzle, and whether their relationship differs in new firms remains unanswered. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership in different organizational structures in new firms.
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws on survey data of 209 questionnaires from 63 teams in 63 new firms in China.
Findings
The results suggest that individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership are substitutive when the organizational structure is mechanistic, and are complementary when the structure is organic.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the debate on the relationship between individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership by comparing organizational structure characteristics and offering a comprehensive understanding of the issue.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the (National Natural Science Foundation of China) under Grant (Number 71672073); (National Natural Science Foundation of China) under Grant (Number 71232011).
Citation
Zhu, X. and Bao, M. (2017), "Substitutes or complements? Individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership in different organizational structures in new firms", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 38 No. 5, pp. 699-718. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-04-2016-0097
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited