Successful Leadership – impact on Organizational Commitment and the effectiveness of employees: Evidence from German SMEs

Mark Nikolai Billstein

Doctoral thesis

Abstract:

German small and medium-sized organizations will face problems in the future in retaining qualified employees and remaining competitive. Transformational leader-ship combined with empowerment seems to provide an opportunity to increase em-ployee retention and effectiveness in the long term. However, there are not enough studies in the literature that allow a generally valid statement for any type of organ-ization and geographic region about the effect of transformational leadership and empowerment on employee behavior. The results of this dissertation should pave the way for future research and enable German SMEs to better prepare themselves for the future challenges of long-term employee retention and the resulting shortage of skilled workers. Using a systematic literature analysis and the statistical evalua-tion of 434 data sets, from German SMEs, both the theoretical and practical perspec-tives were merged. The consolidation of both perspectives should increase the awareness of German SMEs about the impact of the leadership culture on the organ-izational commitment and employee effectiveness. Employee empowerment was examined as an essential moderator between transformational leadership and em-ployee behavior in this context. The results show that transformational leadership and employee empowerment, each as an independent variable, have a positive effect on organizational commitment and employee effectiveness. These findings, for the German region, are consistent with the literature. Only the examined moderation effect of empowerment on the relationship among transformational leadership and employee effectiveness could be confirmed in the context of the dissertation. Re-garding the effect of empowerment on the relationship among transformational leadership and organizational commitment, no significant relationship could be proven. Considering these findings, this dissertation provides German SMEs with the knowledge of controllable influencing factors, transformational leadership and employee empowerment, to react to the imminent shortage of skilled labour and to remain competitive in the long term

Abstract:

German small and medium-sized organizations will face problems in the future in retaining qualified employees and remaining competitive. Transformational leader-ship combined with empowerment seems to provide an opportunity to increase em-ployee retention and effectiveness in the long term. However, there are not enough studies in the literature that allow a generally valid statement for any type of organ-ization and geographic region about the effect of transformational leadership and empowerment on employee behavior. The results of this dissertation should pave the way for future research and enable German SMEs to better prepare themselves for the future challenges of long-term employee retention and the resulting shortage of skilled workers. Using a systematic literature analysis and the statistical evalua-tion of 434 data sets, from German SMEs, both the theoretical and practical perspec-tives were merged. The consolidation of both perspectives should increase the awareness of German SMEs about the impact of the leadership culture on the organ-izational commitment and employee effectiveness. Employee empowerment was examined as an essential moderator between transformational leadership and em-ployee behavior in this context. The results show that transformational leadership and employee empowerment, each as an independent variable, have a positive effect on organizational commitment and employee effectiveness. These findings, for the German region, are consistent with the literature. Only the examined moderation effect of empowerment on the relationship among transformational leadership and employee effectiveness could be confirmed in the context of the dissertation. Re-garding the effect of empowerment on the relationship among transformational leadership and organizational commitment, no significant relationship could be proven. Considering these findings, this dissertation provides German SMEs with the knowledge of controllable influencing factors, transformational leadership and employee empowerment, to react to the imminent shortage of skilled labour and to remain competitive in the long term.

Keywords

empowerment, organizational commitment, Transformational leadership, employee effectiveness

Keywords

employee effectiveness, empowerment, organizational commitment, Transformational leadership

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 16. 12. 2020

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Ing. Gabriela Chmelíková, Ph.D.
• Reader: Ivana Blažková, Ph.D., doc. Ing., Milan Palát, externi, Zdeňka Konečná, externi

Mendel University in Brno

Faculty of Business and Economics

Doctoral programme / field:
Economics and Management / Business Management and Economics