Transformational leadership and follower risk-taking: Examining the effects of psychological safety and power distance orientation

Risk-taking is a necessary part of business, yet little is known about how leaders might impact follower risk-taking. A theoretical model is developed in which transformational leaders are hypothesized to indirectly affect follower risk-taking through follower psychological safety. Additionally, thi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: KANG, Josephine Poh Tin
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/246
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1246&context=etd_coll
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Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
Description
Summary:Risk-taking is a necessary part of business, yet little is known about how leaders might impact follower risk-taking. A theoretical model is developed in which transformational leaders are hypothesized to indirectly affect follower risk-taking through follower psychological safety. Additionally, this partially mediated effect is theorised to be moderated by follower power distance orientation. Data were collected over two time periods from followers (N = 331) to test the hypothesized model. Results provided limited support for the hypothesized model. Specifically, results indicated that transformational leadership positively affected psychological safety, but psychological safety did not predict follower risk-taking. Power distance orientation did not moderate either stage of the hypothesized partially mediated model although power distance orientation did directly and negatively predict follower risk-taking. Contrary to expectations, transformational leadership was negatively related to follower risk-taking.