IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i12p7408-d840952.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Online Adapted Transformational Leadership and Workforce Innovation within the Software Development Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Ioana Gutu

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza of Iasi, 11 Carol I Boulevard, 700506 Iasi, Romania)

  • Daniela Tatiana Agheorghiesei

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza of Iasi, 11 Carol I Boulevard, 700506 Iasi, Romania)

  • Ionel Ciprian Alecu

    (Romanian Academy Iasi Branch—“Gh. Zane” Institute for Economic and Social Research, Teodor Codrescu 2, 700481 Iasi, Romania)

Abstract

Leadership and workforce innovation are the two most glazed over universal phenomenon across time within the management literature. Despite the status of the buzz words, few researchers studied if there is a link between the online leadership behaviors and the de(in)creasing innovativeness of the followers at work. The current research aimed for offering a viable solution for the online-adapted leadership–workforce innovation equation, by answering to the following research question: is online transformative leadership able, and if so, are its instruments sufficient for increasing followers’ organizational and personal innovativeness within an exclusively online work environment? Research used a two-tailed questionnaire as a research instrument and applied it within the IT&C Industry in Iasi, Romania, namely the software development branch. Results were gathered during the first months of the social lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic; therefore, the ongoing communication and online work procedures implementation were captured via the subjects’ responses. Data was analyzed by using SemPLS (v3.2.5.) software; results show that transformational leadership instruments, once shifted within an exclusively online working environment, suffer from losing in importance and designated effects. Research provides information in regards to four general hypotheses that prove to be partially supported, sending the reader to the idea that an exclusively online-adapted work environment does not show expected results in terms on transformational leadership, nor workforce innovation. Therefore, online-based transformational leadership instruments need to be reshaped and adapted so that followers correctly perceive their leaders’ actions and behaviors on all the five dimensionalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Ioana Gutu & Daniela Tatiana Agheorghiesei & Ionel Ciprian Alecu, 2022. "The Online Adapted Transformational Leadership and Workforce Innovation within the Software Development Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-22, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:12:p:7408-:d:840952
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/12/7408/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/12/7408/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. C. Bryce & P. Ring & S. Ashby & J. K. Wardman, 2020. "Resilience in the face of uncertainty: early lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(7-8), pages 880-887, August.
    2. Gumusluoglu, Lale & Ilsev, Arzu, 2009. "Transformational leadership, creativity, and organizational innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 461-473, April.
    3. Kremer, Hannah & Villamor, Isabel & Aguinis, Herman, 2019. "Innovation leadership: Best-practice recommendations for promoting employee creativity, voice, and knowledge sharing," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 65-74.
    4. Santoro, Gabriele & Quaglia, Roberto & Pellicelli, Anna Claudia & De Bernardi, Paola, 2020. "The interplay among entrepreneur, employees, and firm level factors in explaining SMEs openness: A qualitative micro-foundational approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    5. Byrne, Gabriel J. & Bradley, Frank, 2007. "Culture's influence on leadership efficiency: How personal and national cultures affect leadership style," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 168-175, February.
    6. Hussain Zaid H Alsharif & Tong Shu & Bojan Obrenovic & Danijela Godinic & Ashraf Alhujailli & Alisher Makhmudovich Abdullaev, 2021. "Impact of Entrepreneurial Leadership and Bricolage on Job Security and Sustainable Economic Performance: An Empirical Study of Croatian Companies during COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-19, October.
    7. Furman, Jeffrey L. & Porter, Michael E. & Stern, Scott, 2002. "The determinants of national innovative capacity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 899-933, August.
    8. Cleavenger, Dean J. & Munyon, Timothy P., 2013. "It's how you frame it: Transformational leadership and the meaning of work," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 351-360.
    9. Guinan, Patricia J. & Parise, Salvatore & Langowitz, Nan, 2019. "Creating an innovative digital project team: Levers to enable digital transformation," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 62(6), pages 717-727.
    10. Rachadatip Uppathampracha & Liu Guoxin, 2021. "A Study on the Relationships between Authentic Leadership, Job Crafting, Psychological Capital and Organisational Innovation," International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration, Inovatus Services Ltd., vol. 7(4), pages 14-22, May.
    11. Maira Khan & Mukaram Ali Khan & Syed Sohaib Zubair & Aisha Rizwan, 2022. "How Transformational Leaders Are Engaged in Work Settings During Episode of Covid-19? Exploring Mediating Effects of Structural Empowerment and Process Innovation," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Galvão Meirinhos & António Cardoso & Maria Neves & Rui Silva & Reiville Rêgo, 2023. "Leadership Styles, Motivation, Communication and Reward Systems in Business Performance," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-30, January.
    2. Jarosław Wenancjusz Przybytniowski & Stanisław Borkowski & Andrzej Grzebieniak & Petro Garasyim & Paweł Dziekański & Anna Ciesielska, 2022. "Social, Economic, and Financial Aspects of Modelling Sustainable Growth in the Irresponsible World during COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-16, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mihaela TĂNASE, 2020. "Influence Of Transformational Leadership On Innovation In Organizations," Network Intelligence Studies, Romanian Foundation for Business Intelligence, Editorial Department, issue 15, pages 81-89, June.
    2. Bruning, Patrick F. & Hsin-Chen Lin, & Hsu, Ching-Yi, 2022. "Crafting solutions to leadership demands for well-being and effectiveness," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 65(5), pages 603-615.
    3. Kumar, Sanjesh & Singh, Baljeet, 2019. "Barriers to the international diffusion of technological innovations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 74-86.
    4. Ali Zackery & Joseph Amankwah-Amoah & Zahra Heidari Darani & Shiva Ghasemi, 2022. "COVID-19 Research in Business and Management: A Review and Future Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-32, August.
    5. Giulio Marcucci & Filippo Emanuele Ciarapica & Giovanni Mazzuto & Maurizio Bevilacqua, 2024. "Analysis of ripple effect and its impact on supply chain resilience: a general framework and a case study on agri-food supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 175-200, March.
    6. Arie Y Lewin & Silvia Massini & Carine Peeters, 2020. "Absorptive capacity, socially enabling mechanisms, and the role of learning from trial and error experiments: A tribute to Dan Levinthal’s contribution to international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(9), pages 1568-1579, December.
    7. Anil K. Gupta & Paul E. Tesluk & M. Susan Taylor, 2007. "Innovation At and Across Multiple Levels of Analysis," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(6), pages 885-897, December.
    8. Behrooz Gharleghi & Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Khaled Nawaser, 2018. "The Outcomes of Corporate Social Responsibility to Employees: Empirical Evidence from a Developing Country," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, March.
    9. Hunt, Jennifer & Garant, Jean-Philippe & Herman, Hannah & Munroe, David J., 2012. "Why Don't Women Patent?," IZA Discussion Papers 6886, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. T. Gries & R. Grundmann & I. Palnau & M. Redlin, 2017. "Innovations, growth and participation in advanced economies - a review of major concepts and findings," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 293-351, April.
    11. Lin, Jenny X. & Lincoln, William F., 2017. "Pirate's treasure," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 235-245.
    12. Krammer, Sorin M.S., 2022. "Human resource policies and firm innovation: The moderating effects of economic and institutional context," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    13. Edquist , Charles & Zabala-Iturriagagoitia , Jon Mikel, 2015. "The Innovation Union Scoreboard is flawed: The Case of Sweden – not the innovation leader of the EU – updated version," Papers in Innovation Studies 2015/27, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    14. Ghadah Lafi Alharbi & Monira Essa Aloud, 2024. "The effects of knowledge management processes on service sector performance: evidence from Saudi Arabia," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-19, December.
    15. Sabahattin Cetin & Ayhan Karakas, 2021. "Effects of emotional intelligence on knowledge sharing among employees: A study of HoReCa companies in Turkey," Upravlenets, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 12(3), pages 44-55, July.
    16. Kancs, d’Artis & Siliverstovs, Boriss, 2016. "R&D and non-linear productivity growth," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 634-646.
    17. Zahoor, Nadia & Zopiatis, Anastasios & Adomako, Samuel & Lamprinakos, Grigorios, 2023. "The micro-foundations of digitally transforming SMEs: How digital literacy and technology interact with managerial attributes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    18. Yawei Qi & Wenxiang Peng & Neal N. Xiong, 2020. "The Effects of Fiscal and Tax Incentives on Regional Innovation Capability: Text Extraction Based on Python," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-19, July.
    19. Uyar, Ali & Bani-Mustafa, Ahmed & Nimer, Khalil & Schneider, Friedrich & Hasnaoui, Amir, 2021. "Does innovation capacity reduce tax evasion? Moderating effect of intellectual property rights," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    20. Aaron Chatterji & Edward Glaeser & William Kerr, 2014. "Clusters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(1), pages 129-166.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:12:p:7408-:d:840952. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.