Dissertation
for BA (Hons) BMa
"The Impact of Transformational & Transactional Leadership Styles on Employee Performance in the Retail Industry of Liverpool ONE and The BID Area"
Summary
In my dissertation, I investigated the impact of transformational and transactional leadership styles on employee performance and organisational productivity within the retail sector of Liverpool's BID Area and Liverpool ONE shopping centre (BID-ONE). I adopted a quantitative approach, collecting data through Likert scale surveys administered to retail employees and managers in BID-ONE. The findings showed that transformational leadership strongly correlates with positive employee performance, while transactional leadership had a mixed or neutral effect overall – proving effective in specific contexts but negative in others. Notably, traits associated with transformational leadership were perceived to significantly enhance performance, whereas those linked to transactional leadership were viewed as detrimental. I concluded that transformational leadership is generally more effective for improving employee performance in this sector, highlighting the importance of adaptive, people-focused approaches and the development of soft skills (i.e. those rooted in a person's outlook or mentality) among retail leaders in BID-ONE.
Literature review
List of in-text citations for sources evaluated in my dissertation's literature review.
- Adnan, et al, 2022
- Alliger, DeVader and Lord, 1986
- Bader, Kemp and Zaccaro, 2017
- Bass, 1990
- Blanchard and Hersey, 1977
- Burns, 1978
- Galton, 1869
- Kirkpatrick and Locke, 1991
- Mann, 1959
- Northouse, 2019
- Shaw and Williams, 2019
- Stogdill, 1948
- Stogdill, 1974
Empirical research
The primary research I conducted for my dissertation.
- Dependent variable – employee performance
- Independent variables – transformational leadership, transactional leadership and 11× specific leadership traits (identified in the Literature Review)
- Philosophy – positivist
- Approach – deductive
- Strategy – quantitative
- Time-horizon – cross-sectional
- Context – the retail industry in Liverpool ONE and The BID Area
- Participants – low-level employees and their managers
- Method – 2× online surveys (1× survey for employees, 1× survey for managers; employee responses were the main data, manager responses were used for corroboration-based aggregate weighting)
- Sampling – convenience
- Analysis – operationalisation of a construct (aggregation with mean deviation proxying reliability)
Data analysis
My empirical data analysis is split into two 'levels' of operationalising a construct:
- 1st Level of Operationalisation – (steps 1-3) aggregates responses per workplace
- 2nd Level of Operationalisation – (steps 4-5) aggregates responses overall
Steps
- Calculate the workplace mean of responses to part A of each survey question, weighting the manager's response by 1.5
- Calculate each part A response's mean deviation (Z-score) using the mean from step 1, proxying this as response reliability
- Calculate the workplace aggregate of responses to part B of each survey question by extrapolating the perceived reliability of each's respective part A response: again weighting the manager's response by 1.5 while additionally weighting each by its Z-score from step 2
- Convert the mean from step 1 to a percentage, proxying this as aggregate reliability
- Calculate the overall aggregate of workplace aggregates: weighting each by its perceived reliability from step 4
Findings
The findings of my empirical research, post-analysis.
- The managers of workplaces A and C are transactional leaders, while the manager of workplace B is a transformational leader
- Workplaces A, B and C report that transformational leadership has a positive impact on employee performance, with workplace A also reporting a positive impact for transactional leadership; while workplaces B and C report that transactional leadership has a negative impact on employee performance
- Overall – transactional leadership neutrally impacts employee performance, while transformational leadership positively impacts employee performance