DO INDIVIDUAL PERCEPTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE MODERATE THE TFL-HELPING BEHAVIOR AND THE TFL-PERFORMANCE LINKAGES? EVIDENCE FROM A KOREAN PUBLIC EMPLOYEE SURVEY.

• Author: Lim, Jae Young

1. Introduction

   Public organizations have been under enormous pressure to perform. Common themes that have denigrated the public sector have included neoliberalism, new public management movement and reinventing government, the Great Recession and fiscal austerity, and conservative rise around the world in recent years (Goodman, 2019; Hetherington and Rudolph, 2015). In this era of organizational survival, doing more with less has become a mantra for public officials, with a renewed focus on enhancing individual and organizational performance and identifying ways to facilitate employees' extra-role behaviors.

   Scholars, in turn, have paid their attention to the potential of transformational leadership (TFL) to transform public organizations. Emerged as a study of political and social leaders (Burns, 1978), TFL studies have formed a major scholarly field in organizational management studies (Bass and Riggio, 2006). Despite facing a multitude of legal, political, and administrative constraints, TFL is also an element in the organizational life that is congruent with public-oriented goals and missions in the public sector (Wright et al., 2012).

   Transformational leaders elevate followers to go beyond their self-interests and capabilities by engaging them with idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized attention (Conger and Kanungo, 1998; Bass and Riggio, 2006). Because of its attributes, TFL positively influences many individual and organizational variables, including employee empowerment, employee innovative behavior, and individual as well as organizational performance (Bass and Riggio, 2006). Nevertheless, an increasing number of scholars have brought up a need to examine TFL's influences in organizational contexts. They point to a wide array of contingencies that can facilitate or derail TFL's impact on followers (Bass and Riggio, 2006; Walter and Bruch, 2010).

   As one of such contingencies, this article focuses on organizational culture. Because organizational culture is one of the most important dimensions that determine organizational effectiveness (Cameron and Quinn, 2011), the type of organizational culture that exists in a given organization can profoundly affect TFL's manifestations to followers. In particular, the study explores the moderation of organizational culture--relying on the Competing Values Framework (CVF) developed by Quinn and his colleagues (Cameron et al., 2006; Cameron and Quinn, 2011)--on the TFL-helping and TFL-performance linkages. Thereby, the study helps enrich the research on TFL in the public sector by bringing a contextual element to TFL studies and demonstrating results based on a Korean survey.

   This study proceeds as follows. First, the study explores the concepts of TFL and theoretical bases for TFL's influences on employees' perceptions of helping and performance. Second, the study examines why organizational culture might moderate TFL's influences on the studied dependent variables. Next, the study examines the data and variables used for the model. Finally, the study demonstrates the results with implications for public officials and organizations.

2. Theory and hypotheses

   2.1. TFL and employees' perceptions of helping and performance

   This study focuses on employees' perceptions of individual helping and performance as variables that TFL can influence. Employees' helping behavior is synonymous with altruistic behavior, one of the five sub-dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), including courtesy, sportsmanship, conscientiousness, and civic virtue (Organ, 1988). OCB connotes employees' extra dedication to their organization, knowing that such behavior is not mandated nor recognized by the organization for pecuniary purposes (Organ, 1988). Expressed as employees' voluntary behavior for the sake of their co-workers and the organization, OCB has emerged as an essential element that sustains the organization and makes it flourish (Katz and Kahn, 1978). Helping simply means helping co-workers and offering them needed assistance (Organ, 1988). For instance, employees with helping behavior are oriented toward assisting co-workers who might be overburdened or absent from work (Christensen et al., 2013). In engaging with other employees, employees realize their higher-level psychological needs (Bottomley et al., 2016). Performance is also a crucial variable for organization survival. It is particularly relevant for public organizations, as they have faced increasing political and citizen scrutiny in fiscally challenged environments across countries (Goodman, 2019). While individual perceptions of performance are not ideal compared to hard performance data, scholars have considered subjective performance measurement as a proxy for objective performance (Leisink and Steijn, 2009).

   Of the many potential factors producing enhanced employees' helping behavior and performance, this study points to TFL. Its concept emerged as part of studying leaders in political and social movements (Burns, 1978), and was subsequently crystallized through a series of leadership studies in the 1980s (Bass, 1988). TFL refers to leaders' behaviors that elicit extraordinary efforts and achievements from followers. Through their attributes, transformational leaders help followers overcome their narrow, self-centered interests toward collective interests in their organizations (House and Shamir, 1993). These attributes are commonly specified in four dimensions: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual motivation, and individualized attention (Bass, 1988; Bass and Riggio, 2006). The first two dimensions make up charismatic leadership, which is commonly interchanged with TFL (Conger and Kanungo, 1998). Idealized influence is forged through leaders' display of courage, sacrifice, humility, or exceptional capabilities often in adverse conditions facing the organization. Through idealized influence, transformational leaders exhibit characteristics that make followers see them as role models (Bass and Riggio, 2006). Leaders also inspirationally motivate followers through the display of speeches, symbols, and articulation of a vision. Influenced by leaders' extraordinary passion and blueprint, followers are facilitated to exhibit uncommon efforts for the leader and the organization (Bass and Riggio, 2006). Transformational leaders also impart followers with intellectual stimulation. Hence, followers are encouraged to explore new ideas and methods to solve new challenges facing the organization and be an active participant in critical organizational decision-making (Bass and Riggio, 2006). Finally, transformational leaders indulge followers with individualized attention and care. By meeting one-onone with followers, conversing with them, and asking them concerning their work and family needs, transformational leaders suffuse followers with positivity and affection (Howell and Hall-Merenda, 1999; Bass and Riggio, 2006).

   The mechanism by which these components of TFL positively influence employees' perceptions of helping and performance can be explained by social exchange theory (SET). Originating in sociology and anthropology, SET posits that social interactions among individuals result in mutual obligations (Blau, 1964; Dansereau et al., 1975; Cropanzano and Mitchell, 2005). Interdependent exchanges engender 'feelings of personal obligations, gratitude, and trust' (Blau, 1964, p. 94). By engaging with followers as a role model (idealized influence) and a mentor (individualized attention), transformational leaders help spark interactions with followers. They also challenge and inspire followers to search for new ideas and go the extra mile for the organization. Thus, social exchanges will help followers fulfill their higher-order needs and followers are more likely to devote themselves to perform better and assist colleagues as good soldiers.

   Several studies also confirm the close, positive link between TFL and employees' perceptions of helping and performance; studies confirm TFL's positive influences on employees' performance and extra-role behaviors in both private and public sectors (Lopez-Dominguez et al., 2013; Kim, 2012, 2014; Vigoda-Gadot and Beeri, 2012; Bottomley et al., 2016; Moon, 2016). As such, the theoretical reasoning and previous empirical findings render the following hypothesis for an empirical investigation.

   Hypothesis 1: TFL will be positively associated with employees' perceptions of helping and performance.

   2.2. Perceived organizational culture as moderator of the TFL-helping behavior and the TFL-performance relationships

   Despite TFL's direct relationship with employees' in-role and extra-role behaviors, scholars began to question the effectiveness of leadership without considering contingencies surrounding the organization (Fiedler, 1964; Katz and Kahn, 1978; Yukl et al., 2002; Bass and Riggio, 2006; Walter and Bruch, 2010; Dust et al., 2014). At the heart of their argument is the premise that the effectiveness of leadership does not take place in a vacuum. Rather, TFL's influences can be thwarted or amplified by a diverse set of contingency factors. Thus, some studied how TFL behaviors can be facilitated in organic vis-a-vis mechanistic organizations (Shamir and Howell, 1999; Kark and Van Dijk, 2007; Dust et al., 2014). Others noted the likely emergence of transformational leaders in emerging or turbulent environments (Shamir and Howell, 1999). Employees' psychological traits also influence TFL's effectiveness (de Vries et al., 2002); employees with a stronger need for autonomy and growth are more receptive to transformational leaders than those less motivated (Wofford et al., 2001). The effectiveness of TFL is also contingent upon employees' perceptions of organizational justice (Wolfe et al., 2018). Finally, TFL's reach is also moderated by the centralization and formalization of the organization...