8 IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP ON SUBORDINATE’ JOB SATISFACTION
8.1 INTRODUCTION
Leadership effectiveness is a contested area of research. Nonetheless, ³0DLQVWUHDP OHDGHUVKLS
scholars most consistently agree upon one thing: leaders are supposed ³to motivate subordinates to
DFFRPSOLVKRUJDQL]DWLRQDOJRDOV ́(Barker, 2001, p.473). While managers at lower and higher levels in
the organization may have different responsibilities, their roles share one common property. All
managers, regardless of level, have subordinates reporting to them and their effectiveness as managers
is to some degree dependent on the extent to which their leadership style mobilizes the energy of these
subordinates toward the goals of the organization (Jago & Vroom, 1977).
The association between job satisfaction and individual performance is frequently accounted for by
assuming that satisfied subordinates feel obliged to do their supervisor a favor by working hard. This
idea stems IURP $GDP¶V(1963) equity theoU\ SURSRVLQJ WKDW SHRSOH ERWK ³LQYHVW ́ LQ WKHLU
relationships with other actors and receive benefits from that relationship. This reasoning implies that
primarily affective phenomena such as VXERUGLQDWH¶ MRE satisfaction also have activating and
motivational potential; high (or low) levels of satisfaction (or, more generally, well-being) would
trigger high (or low) levels of motivation to perform well. The management literature has provided
accumulating evidence that human resource outcomes (individual-level performance) and
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RUJDQL]DWLRQDOHIIHFWLYHQHVV¶¶(Koys, 2001, p.102). Heskett et al. (2002) examined this relationship in
terms of value profit chain theory. Again, this approach considered job satisfaction as a motivational
force, in that high levels of individual-level satisfaction will lead to higher employee loyalty and
increased effort, thus leading to higher individual productivity and better product quality.
The potential linkage between employee attitudes and organizational performance was considered in
earnest in the 1930s, coinciding with (and as a result of) the Hawthorne studies and the ensuing
human relations movement (Roethlisberger & Dickson, 1939). Together with the Harvard Committee
on Industrial Psychology, Elton Mayo began to explore the relationship between physical conditions
and worker productivity at the Hawthorne plant (Mayo, 1933). They became aware that there was a
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independent of any physical conditions or psychological attributes. The Hawthorne studies led