Remote Transformational Leadership
The purpose of the research studies were to determine whether or not participants were able to accurately identify and perceive different leadership styles, such as management-by-exception and laissez-faire, by means of email, and if those messages were received as a positive, or negative influence. Furthermore, the studies continued to broaden understandings of intellectual stimulation and charisma in remote leadership contexts (Kelloway, Barling, Kelley, Comtois, & Gatien, 2003).
In the first study, it was suggested that both styles, management-by-exception, and laissez-faire, were especially relevant to the remote leadership style environment, and that leaders of this style would be both physically and psychologically 'remote' from their subordinates (Kelloway et al., 2003). Furthermore, it was hypothesized that continuance commitment would not be significant across the leadership context. Whereas, in the second study, it was hypothesized that emails received with a charismatic, and, or an intellectually stimulating message, would provoke higher levels of motivation, as well as performance from those individuals. Based on previous experiments, it was suggested that main effects would conclude both intellectual stimulation and charisma, but nothing more than (Kelloway et al., 2003).
The research methods used were three vignettes with manipulation checks using graduate students as part of a pilot study leading to a final manipulation check utilizing 12 MBA students prior to the main experiment, and a laboratory-based investigation where data was collected from 105 undergraduate psychology students (Kelloway et al., 2003).
The first study, the vignettes proved to be the perfect experimental playground to indeed support the hypotheses that it was possible to determine the differences between leadership styles that were presented as email messages. In addition, the expectations of Kelloway et al. (2003) were met when emails containing transformational leadership messages were associated with greater interpersonal justice and satisfaction compared to messages based on the management-exception and laissez-faire styles (Kelloway et al., 2003).
Results from the second study supported expectations within the first study, suggesting that individuals can detect and respond to different leadership styles over an electronically mediated channel of communication. The results of testing whether charismatic leadership messages would effect individual motivation did not support Kelloway's et al., (2003) expectations.
Overall, the research conducted was enlightening and supportive of previous research conducted, as well as another support base for future research in this area. While there were variant manipulations made, as well as specific messages and vignettes used, outcomes and conclusions yielded new considerations for different variables that would be within allowable limits of remote transformational leadership through electronically mediated communications (Kelloway et al., 2003). While results concluded that individuals were able to differentiate between messages from different leadership styles, certain expectations with respect to remote charismatic leadership were not met, showing that charisma alone was missing elements of motivation and intellectual stimulation, even through emails.
References
Kelloway, E. K., Barling, J., Kelley, E., Comtois, J., & Gatien, B., (2003). Remote transformational leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 24, 3, 163-171. DOI 10.1108/01437730310469589.
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