Leadership and Job Satisfaction: Addressing Endogeneity With Panel Data From a Field Experiment

Seung Ho An*, Kenneth J. Meier, Jacob Ladenburg, Niels Westergård-Nielsen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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Abstract

The interaction between leaders and employees plays a key role in determining organizational outcomes and performance. Although the human resources management literature posits positive effects of leadership behaviors on employee job satisfaction, the causal path between the two is unclear due to potential endogeneity issues inherent in this relationship. To address the issue, we first provide theoretical explanations about why and how transformational and transactional leadership behaviors would enhance employee job satisfaction. Second, we test the relationship between leadership behaviors and employee job satisfaction using panel data from a year-long randomized field experiment that engaged leaders and employees from hundreds of public and private organizations in Denmark. Primary findings suggest that although leadership training does not have direct effects on changes in employee job satisfaction, leadership-training-induced changes in leadership behaviors (transformational leadership and verbal rewards) are positively related to changes in job satisfaction.

Original languageEnglish
JournalReview of Public Personnel Administration
Volume40
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)589-612
Number of pages24
ISSN0734-371X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2020

Bibliographical note

Published online: April 4, 2019

Keywords

  • Employee job satisfaction
  • Field experiment
  • Leadership training
  • Panel data
  • Transactional leadership
  • Transformational leadership

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