A preliminary study: perceived transformational leadership and work engagement within the South African army

James Dibley, Rian Viviers, Llewellyn E. van Zyl

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The objective of the study is to determine the relationship between the perceivedtransformational leadership styles of officers (as perceived by their followers) andtheir followers’ levels of work engagement. Followers (n=307) were identified inunits of the South African Army. They completed the Utrecht Work EngagementScale (UWES) and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Form 5X) fortheir specific leaders. Correlational analyses indicate significant correlationsbetween the transformational leadership style of officers and their followers’ workengagement. A small amount of the variance in the work engagement outcomescan be predicted by transformational leadership. The findings suggest that there isa relationship between idealised influence (attributed) and vigour and dedication.Furthermore, individualised consideration was shown to relate to absorption withinthe South African sample. Idealised influence was found to predict some variancein vigour and dedication and individual consideration to predict some variance inabsorption
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)53-68
Number of pages16
JournalSouth African Journal of Labour Relations
Volume38
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Absorption
  • Dedication
  • Transformational leadership
  • Engagement

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