Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand various antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Transformational leadership and psychological empowerment were two independent variables chosen for the study. Design/methodology/approach – Standard questionnaires were used to collect data. The sample of 319 employees of different five-star hotels formed the source of data. Frontline employees having two to three subordinates and were from hotels which were in operation at least since last two years, took part in the study. Findings – The effect of transformational leadership on OCB has been found to be significant and positive. The moderating effect of psychological empowerment on OCB was also found significant. Research limitations/implications – The theoretical development from this paper will contribute toward understanding the antecedents of OCB. The moderating effect of psychological empowerment will reinforce the importance of psychological empowerment. Practical implications – I...

Transformational leadership and psychological empowerment

More than Twenty-five centuries have passed since that which has been called the Perennial Philosophy was first committed to writing; and in the course of those centuries it has found expression, now partial, now complete, now in this form, now in that, again and again. In Vedanta and Hebrew prophecy, in the Tao, The King, and the Platonic dialogues, in the Gospels according to St. John and Mahayana theology, in the Plotinus and the Areopagite, among the Persian Sufis and the Christian mystics of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance – The Perennial Philosophy has spoken almost all the languages of Asia and Europe and has made use of the terminology and traditions of every one of the higher religions. But under all this confusion of tongues and myths, of local histories and particularist doctrines, there remains a Highest Common Denominator, which is the Perennial Philosophy in what may be called its chemically pure state.

The Perennial Philosophy

Business today is conducted within societies facing complex global challenges and unprecedented demands for effective, ethical, and excellent business leadership that proactively manages its societal impacts. Integrating economic success with service of the common good requires a sound, shared understanding of “positive” executive business leadership to guide executive selection, education and development, and practice. This thesis formulates and theoretically grounds a general theory of positive executive business leadership. Integrative Executive Leadership (“IEL”) addresses the individual, pairs/groups/teams, organizational, and societal levels of business. Within these contexts, IEL exercises positive integrative agency through multi-stakeholder professional stewardship, integrated performance management, and living codes of ethics. This requires the practice of five mutually-reinforcing positive behavioural repertoires: contemplative self-leadership, functional-relational facilitative leadership, full range managerial-leadership, visionary strategic leadership, and transforming-

Integrative Executive Leadership: Towards a General Theory of Positive Business Leadership

Purpose




The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of the use of spiritual intelligence into women academic leadership practices. The study designed to provide a clear understanding of the effectiveness of the use of spiritual intelligence practices within women academic leadership practices. In addition, the study will be an ideal for women in academic environment, considering that more women will have the opportunities to hold leadership positions in higher learning institutions. Understanding the unique skills and attributes of spiritual intelligence could increase their confidence towards taking on leadership positions in future. This study will also provide greater clarification on how spiritual intelligence when translated through leadership practice will contribute to a more balanced and harmonious working environment.




Design/methodology/approach




The study assimilated a qualitative approach guided by phenomenological inquiry to explore the effectiveness of the use of spiritual intelligence practices among the women leaders. Phenomenology best fit the researchers’ assumptions that it is possible to know, define and categorize women academic leader’s experiences in a more structured manner. It is by entering into their field of perception that the researcher pursues to understand spiritual intelligence as the leaders saw it.




Findings




The finding established three main effectiveness of integrating spiritual intelligence into leadership practices: employees inspired by vision; increase credibility and long-term sustainability of institution; and heightened moral values and reduces ethical issues. The authors conclude that bringing the attributions of spiritual intelligence will transform the workplace into a more meaningful and purposeful atmosphere by constructing balanced and harmonious relationship within employees.




Research limitations/implications




The study rely profoundly on women academic leaders as a primary source of data. Due to their higher position, there may be some elements of their works which are similar to each other or different compared with other women leaders who may not have reached the higher position. The responses was mainly based on the self-perception of women academic leaders grounded on their insight of leadership and experience. This experiences probably could not be verified by others to see if their perceptions of leadership were in line with how others perceive them. The study also limited in terms of generalizability as the sample was purposively selected.




Practical implications




The study will be applicable for human resource personnel to develop policies and procedures that are needed to improve the holistic strategies of leading not only in public university but also throughout all the other higher educational institutions. The study assist researcher and the practitioner in the Human Resource Development (HRD) field to understand the issues related to leadership practice in current era. Hence, the information in this study could be used to aid them in advocating employee training programs and formulating HRD intervention remedial programs input for designing and facilitating of intervention for professional academic leaders, academicians and change agent to understand and analyse the characteristics of personal and organizational situation in order to contribute to the long run survival of the higher educational learning institutions.




Originality/value




This paper has provided unique evidence of women leadership particularly in Malaysian higher educational context on their experiences of spiritual intelligence and its effectiveness into their leadership practices.

Effectiveness of the use of spiritual intelligence in women academic leadership practice

Leadership is a critical element in ensuring the sustainability of an organization. Research in the field of leadership has never been saturated with theoretical and conceptual quests for leadership styles that work with any situation and followers’ condition. Bernard Bass, for instance has adopted the political leadership paradigm of transactional and transformational leadership styles introduced by Burn to the social science fields. Efforts by Bass were well accepted by other researchers and enormous studies have been done to test the applicability of the leadership paradigm in many sub-fields of social sciences for the past 30 years. Studies have found that transformational leadership style leads to increased productivity, employee morale, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. The findings also suggest that the latter compliments the transactional leadership style. However, recently scepticism was raised on the ability of the transformational leadership style to effectively fulfil follower’s inner need and with respect to the lack of spiritual element in the ethical conduct of leaders. Hence, this brings interest in research on a new leadership paradigm which takes into account the spiritual element in leadership. In spiritual leadership, questions are raised about what it means to be human, what we really mean by growth and what value and power distributions are needed to enhance both organizations and society as a whole. This paper attempts to investigate further these questions in the context of the various leadership styles mentioned. In due course, the results of a pilot study will be offered to support the argument

Do Transactional, Transformational And Spiritual Leadership Styles Distinct? : A Conceptual Insight

This paper presents both conceptual insights and practical examples about spiritually transformed leadership. The Yoga‐Vedanta spiritual model is its anchor. Some profound Western thinkers, besides Indian realizers, have provided clues relevant to this approach. This paper explores a much wider vista for transformational leadership beyond business success or political strategy. Transformed leaders are the cause, transformation of followers the effect.

Debangshu Chakraborty

Papers

The transformed leader and spiritual psychology: a few insights