New Research On Leader Approachability
We are constantly on the lookout for new research on leadership, especially studies that relate to the leadership behaviors we teach in our Workshops. Here are 5 recent studies we found interesting. Most of these are behind a paywall, but we’ve linked to them in case you have a special interest.
This article finds that safety-related leader member exchange (LMX – which studies find is highly associated with leaders rated as approachable) has a significant impact on safety compliance and safety participation on construction sites. Employees In the study who were comfortable talking to their leader were 65% more likely to show high safety compliance and high safety participation.
2. Proactive Employee Behavior: Can Leader Humility Spark Employee Proactivity? Leadership & Organization Development Journal: Chen et al. 2018
This study finds that humble leadership is strongly associated with proactive employee behavior (similar to organizational citizenship). Leader approachability is one component of their measure of humble leadership. In this study supervisors rated high in humble leadership were 76% more likely to see employee proactive behavior.
3. Patient Care Outcomes: Effect of Transformational Leadership on Job Satisfaction and Patient Safety Outcomes, Nursing Outlook: Boamah, et al. 2017
Transformational leadership (which research shows is highly associated with leaders rated as approachable) had a strong positive influence on workplace empowerment, which in turn increased nurses’ job satisfaction and decreased the frequency of adverse patient outcomes. The study found that transformational leadership was associated with a nearly 70% reduction in adverse patient outcomes.
4. Employee Performance: The Mediating Role of Leader-Member Exchange in the Effect of Transformational Leadership on Job Performance and Job Satisfaction (Chapter 11 of Business And Economics Researches Book): Hüseyin Aslan 2019
This article finds that leader member exchange (LMX – which studies find is highly associated with leaders rated as approachable) predicts performance of employees. In this study there was an 89% higher correlation of high performance with leaders who had high leader member exchange.
5. Reducing Turnover: The Effect of Job Satisfaction on Turnover Intention with Organizational Justice: A Sample of State University (Chapter 12 of Business And Economics Researches Book): Edip ÖRÜCÜ et al. 2019
This article finds that interaction justice (feeling that the interactions with your leader are comfortable and fair) reduces turnover intention while operational justice (feeling that operational decisions are arrived at fairly) and general job satisfaction do not.
