High Performance Expectations: Concept and Causes. Issue 2 (25th January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jacobsen, Christian Bøtcher; Andersen, Lotte Bøgh
• Is Part Of: International journal of public administration. Volume 42:Issue 2(2019)
• Page Start: 108
• Page End: 118
• Publication Date: 2019-01-25
• Subjects: Transformational leadership -- transactional leadership -- high performance expectations -- leadership training -- field experiment; Public administration -- Periodicals; 351.05
• DOI: 10.1080/01900692.2017.1405443
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0190-0692

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Employees contribute more when they are aware of their leaders' high performance expectations (HPE), but how can leaders successfully convey HPE? Here it is argued that both transformational and transactional leadership behaviors involve goal-setting, which can affect employee-perceived HPE. Using a leadership training field experiment with 3, 730 employees nested in 471 organizations, the findings support that training in transformational, transactional and combination leadership training significantly increased employees' HPE relative to a control group. Furthermore, transformational leadership and pecuniary rewards seem to be important mechanisms. This implies that public leaders can affect HPE through leadership and thus potentially organizational performance.