Organizational leadership: How much does it matter?

Haile, Getinet Astatike

Abstract

I study the influence of leadership on organizational performance and worker wellbeing using data from the 2004 and 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS). Our most conservative estimates from fixed effects regressions on a panel of organizations reveal that virtuous leadership is significantly and positively linked to an upbeat assessment of organizational performance, and an increase in worker wellbeing. Specifically, the estimates reveal that an increase in leadership quality by one standard deviation increases organizational performance and worker job satisfaction by 0.27 and 0.73 standard deviations, respectively, while it leads to a fall in worker job anxiety by 0.13 standard deviations. The results support the hypothesis that good leadership is vital for the success of business, including worker wellbeing, which organizational policymakers ought to heed. There is a dearth of empirical evidence on organizational leadership as an institution and its influence on organizational outcomes, which this article aims to address.

Citation

Haile, G. A. (2022). Organizational leadership: How much does it matter?. British Journal of Industrial Relations, https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12711

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 2, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Sep 26, 2022
• Publication Date: Sep 26, 2022
• Deposit Date: Sep 29, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 27, 2024
• Journal: British Journal of Industrial Relations
• Print ISSN: 0007-1080
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-8543
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12711
• Keywords: Management of Technology and Innovation; Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management; General Business, Management and Accounting
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/11752168
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjir.12711