Abstract of a Quantitative Research Article Overview: The term abstract? is a homophone which can mean one of two scholarly

1 DSRT 8 7: 2.1 SCHOLARLY ABRSTRACT ASSIGNMENT #1 – QUANTITATIVE

Relati nship Between Female Leadership Styles and Empl yee Engagement

Bibli graphic Citati n

Ghani, F. A., Derani, N. E. S., Aznam, N., Mohamad, N., Zakaria, S. A. A., & Toolib, S. N. (2018). An empirical investigation of the relationship between transformational, transactional female leadership styles and employee engagement. Global usiness and Management Research, 10( ), 724.

Auth r Qualificati ns

Fadhilah Abdul Ghani, Nor Emmy Shuhada Derani, Neezlin Aznam, Norfatihah Mohamad, Siti Aimi Athirah Zakaria, Siti Norhidayah Toolib

Research C ncern

Most studies concerning leadership styles focus on male leaders, while there has been little research involving female leadership styles and their impacts on employee engagement within organizations. Female leaders have to overcome stereotypes of being poor leaders, and the research will provide ideologies of whether transformational or transactional leadership styles of female leaders affect employee engagement.

Research Purp se Statement AND Research Questi ns r Hyp theses

The purpose of this research was to highlight the transformational and transactional leadership styles of female leaders and the respective impact on employee engagement. Specifically, the focus was on whether there was a correlation between transformational and transactional female leader styles (independent variables) and employee engagement (dependent variable) within Government Linked Companies in Malaysia.

Precedent Literature

A lack of research has been conducted that looks at female leadership styles and their corresponding impact on employee engagement. Most research on leadership styles and employee engagement has been conducted from a general leadership view and not focused on female leadership styles. There are perceptions that male leaders are better leaders and have more positive impacts on employee engagement. The research will identify a direct correlation between transformational and transactional leadership styles, their impact on employee engagement, and if the research supports those female leaders are as influential as male leaders.

Research Meth d l gy

175 research questionnaires were distributed to Government Link Companies (GLC) employees in Kuala Lumpur, and 11 questionnaires were returned. Due to limited resources, an actual number of female leaders within GLC could not be identified.

Instrumentati n

Statistically Package of Social Science (SPSS) version 2 was used to analyze the 11 questionnaires in this research.

Approaches Expectations

2 DSRT 8 7: 2.1 SCHOLARLY ABRSTRACT ASSIGNMENT #1 – QUANTITATIVE

Findings

Overall, the study results show a strong positive correlation between female transformational and transactional leadership styles (independent variables) and employee engagement (dependent variable).

Tables and statistical measures were used to identify the findings of the research. Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient was used to compute the Variables Reliability Results. The Pearson Correlation was used to analyze the correlation summary of leadership styles and employee engagement.

The study results overcome the issue of female leaders being perceived as poor leaders and are just as successful as male leaders. The research method supports that employees are engaged whether female leaders possess transformational or transactional leadership styles. The research methods tested that female leaders effectively engage their employees and are just as successful at leading as male leaders.

2 Running Head: 2.1 Week 2

Quantitative Abstract

Bibliographic Citation

Darko, J., Zakaria, A. A., &Uzonwanne, G. C. (2016). Corporate governance: The impact of

director and board structure, ownership structure and corporate control on the

performance of listed companies on theghana stock exchange. Corporate Governance, 16(2), 259-277. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/CG-11-2014-0133

Authors

JosephineDarko, Zakaria AliAribi PhD, and Godfrey C. Uzonwanne PhD

Research Concern

It is evident that good corporate governance provides the ability to improve the competitive

advantage, efficiency, and effectiveness of companies (Maher &Anderson, 2000). There is little

research that has looked at corporate governance in developing countries such as Ghana. Previous

studies also provide mixed findings on thedirections of causality between corporate governance

and firmperformance. This paper explores seven hypotheses. H1: A positive association exists

between the number of non-executive directors and firm performance. H2: A negative association

exists between the number of directors and firmperformance. H3: Apositive association exists

between the presenceof females on the board of directors and firm performance. H4: A positive

association exists between block-holder ownership and firmperformance. H5: Anegative

association exists between state ownership and firm performance. H6: A negative association

exists between audit committee size and firm performance. H7: A positive relationship exists

between the frequency of audit committee meetings and firm performance.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between corporate governance and firm

performance of listed Ghanaian companies.

Precedent Literature

A number of previous studies investigated the role of governance mechanisms in resolving

conflicts of interest between shareholder and manager in improving performance (Cubbin &

Leech, 1983). The indecisive nature of the literature as it relates to whether there is a relationship

between firm performance and corporate governance is the purposeof this paper. Previous studies

find a relationship between board composition and theprofitability of firms in the sense that as the

number of independent directors increases, the level of the firm performance also increases (Arbor

& Biekpe, 2007). However, Agrawal& Knoeber (1996);Hermalin & Weisbach (2001) and Azeez

(2015) conclude that outsiders on the board does not help performance. Previous studies have

investigated the association between board size and firm performance (Kiel &Nicholson, 2003;

Adams & Mehran, 2005;Dalton &Dalton, 2005). Earlier works have been attributed to Lipton &

Lorsch (1992) and Jensen (1993). Gender diversity on boards is a highly debated topic, which has

received a tremendous amount of attention of policymakers, researchers, and shareholders

Exceeds Expectations

3 Running Head: 2.1 Week 2

(Chapple &Humphrey, 2014). Davis (2011) has offered abusiness case for increasing the number

of women on corporate boards. The level of concentration of ownership structure has implications

(Kuznetsov & Muravyev, 2001). Companies with concentrated ownership have less agency

problems (Zhuang, 1999; Al-Najjar &Abed, 2014). Empirical studies for the relationship between

firm performance and state ownership have mixed results (Bos, 1991; Jiang et al., 2008; Liao &

Young, 2012). Other studies present a negative effect (Chen et al., 2005;Wei, 2007; Mahmood et

al., 2011). There are anumber of studies that reported a positive relationship between board size

and firmperformance (Dalton et al., 1999). On the other hand, Vafeas (1999), Mohd Saleh et al.

(2007) and ElMir & Seboui (2008) suggest that larger audit committee size can lead to inefficient

governance. It has been argued that inactive audit committees are unlikely to monitor management

effectively (Menon & Williams, 1994). Mohd Saleh et al.(2007) argued that audit committees

with a small number of meetings are less likely to havegood monitoring. A positive relationship

was established between the frequency of audit committee meetings and firmperformance

(Raghunandan &Rama, 2007; Sharma et al., 2009).

Research Methodology

This study focuses on 20 of the 34 listed companies on the Ghana Stock Exchange across a five-

year period (2008-2012). Variables such as return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA), net

profit margin (NPM), and Tobin’s Q (TBQ) were adopted. A pool panel regression and an

ANOVA analysis were used to establish the presence of a significant relationship between the

dependent and independent variables. In this study, corporate governance structurewas the

independent variable, while corporate performance was thedependent variable. The research

adopts a model similar to that adopted by Abor &Biekpe (2007), who used firm performance as a

function of board and ownership structure. The general panel regression model for analyzing

cross-sectional and time series data is adopted and further expanded to include all the indices

covered in the study.

Instrumentation

The data set for the research was primarily secondary data consisting of longitudinal and cross-

sectional data. The sources of data include annual reports and financial statements of the listed

companies. Director information and board structure, board gender, ownership and corporate

control information was acquired from web sites, and annual reports of the various companies.

Findings

A multicollinearity test was conducted that showed the independent variables did not have a strong

correlation among themselves. The regression results showed that smaller boards are more

efficient than larger boards. Companies with a relatively lower number of non-executive directors

tend to perform better in terms of ROA than companies with a larger percentage of non-executive

directors. The number of times audit meetings wereheld in a firmnegatively affected ROA. An

increase in thenumber of non-executives on the board negatively impacted ROE. Board gender

was shown to have apositive and significant influence on NPM. The ANOVA Analysis found that

companies with smaller boards performed better on NPM, but there was no significant impact on

ROE, ROA, or TBQ. Asmaller number of non-executive directors led to better financial

performance in ROE and NPM, but there was no significant impact on ROA or TBQ. An increase

4 Running Head: 2.1 Week 2

in performance was identified for ROA, NPM and TBQ, as the number of females on the board

became greater than two. The proportion of outstanding shares owned by the top 20 %

shareholders did have a significant impact on NPM. There was a significant reduction in ROA as

state ownership is increased. Companies with a larger audit committee size had an increased ROA.

The same impact on ROA was found with increasing audit committee meeting frequency, but also

improved ROE, NPM and TBQ. The age of the firm was found to have a significant impact on

ROA, NPM, and TBQ. H1, H2, H5, H6, and H7 are rejected. H3 and H4 are supported.

Conclusions

This study examined the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance of listed

firms in Ghana. The corporate governance indictors used wereboard size, the number of non-

executive members of the board, board gender, ownership structure, audit committee size and

frequency of meetings. The study demonstrated mixed results in terms of the impact of corporate

governance on firm performance. This demonstrates theneed for a uniform corporate governance

code for companies operating in emerging markets and for company-specific approaches based on

good governance practices. Across all the indicators used, the results demonstrated overwhelming

support for the positive impact of good corporate governance on firm performance.

Suggestions for FurtherResearch

A major limitation of the study is that the data used was collected from annual reports and may not

have been a true reflection of the state of affairs of the company. A study covering awider period

could improve thequality of the results generated. Future studies could provide deeper insight into

the specific impact corporate governance has on various industries based on their peculiar

characteristics and operations. Increasing the number of variables explored by studying the impact

of CEO tenure, duality, board equity ownership, executive compensation, and remuneration

committees on performance would increase the validity of the relationship between good corporate

governance and firmperformance.

Abstra t Assignment 2.1

Abstra t 2.1:

Bibliog aphic Citation

Kelloway, K. E., Turner, N., Barling, J., & Loughlin, C. (2012). Transformational leadership and employee psy hologi al well-bing: The mediating role of employee trust in leadership. Work & tress, 26(1), 39-55. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2012.660774

Autho s

Kevin E. Kelloway, Ni k Turner, Julian Barling, Catherine Loughlin

Resea ch Conce n

The theory of transformational leadership has been one of the most resear hed theories out of all the leadership theories out there. Other resear h has suggested that low-quality leadership has negative effe ts on employees; however, it is important to look into how high-quality leadership an impa t employees. Not only should the effe ts of high-quality, or transformational leadership, be explored as having positive effe ts on employees, but also if there are other fa tors in play. Therefore, the resear hers in this arti le are primarily fo used on whether or not there is a orrelation between trust in leadership and employee well-being.

Pu pose

The main purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between employees’ per eptions of their managers’ transformational leadership style and those employees’ psy hologi al well-being, as well as whether or not trust in leadership plays a mediating role.

P ecedent Lite atu e

There has been mu h resear h attention given to transformational leadership theory; in fa t, more than all of the other leadership theories ombined. The transformational leadership theory has been dubbed superior in terms of leadership performan e. Resear h has been ondu ted and linked low- quality leadership to that of negatively impa ting employee’s well-being with in reased levels of stress and distress, anxiety, depression, and psy hosomati symptoms among others. The omponents of transformational leadership that were proposed by bass and Avolio (also referred to as full range leadership theory) are extremely relevant to positive employee psy hologi al well- being. Most of the previous resear h has fo used on on eptualizing leadership behaviors that in orporate both leadership and management instead of the spe ifi omponents of transformational leadership. Nielsen and olleagues began to look into the indire t relationships between transformational leadership and employee well-being, and also how long the positive effe ts might last. The parti ular study of Kelloway, Turner, Barling, and Loughlin repli ated and expanded on previous resear h in two separate studies.

Resea ch Methodology

For Study 1, a sample of 436 fieldworkers (71% male) in a large Canadian tele ommuni ations organization, rated their first line supervisors to gather information regarding three measures: transformational leadership, trust in leadership, and psy hologi al well-being.

MEETS EXPECTATIONS

Transformational leadership was measured through 20 items that were taken from the Multifa torial Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X) and ombined to form a unidimensional reliable measure. Trust in leadership was measured with four items from Cook and Wall’s six-item measure. Psy hologi al well-being was measured using the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ).

Variabl M SD 1 2 3 1. Transformational l ad rship (individual) 10.423.14 2. Transformational l ad rship (aggr gat d) 10.442.04.66** 3. Trust in l ad rship 4.95 0.86.46** .30** 4. GHQ 22.303.94−.14*−.09 −.24** Not : GHQ = G n ral H alth Qu stionnair . *p<.05; **p<.01.

For Study 2, advertisements were sent to 1000 employed parti ipants through an on-line servi e that is designed to onne t resear hers to a roster of potential parti ipants. There were 328 employed respondents, and of those, 269 of them fit the riteria for the study and ompleted the survey. The average age of the parti ipants (151 men, 173 women) was approximately 38 years, and the estimated age of their supervisors was 43.5 years. The level of edu ation for the parti ipants was 15% attending and/or ompleting high s hool as highest level of edu ation; 57% had attended and/or ompleted ollege; and 27% attended and/or ompleted graduate edu ation.

The data being olle ted was that of transformational leadership, transa tional leadership, trust in leadership, employee psy hologi al well-being, liking of the leader, and personality.

Pr dictor W ll-b ingTrust W ll-b ing Group-l v l transformational l ad rship .03 −.01 .03 Individual-l v l transformational l ad rship −.19* −.13**−.05 Trust in l ad rship –– –– 1.03** *p<.05; **p<.01.

Inst umentation

For Study 1, simple paper-and-pen il surveys were sent through regular mail to the leaders, who were then asked to give out the surveys to up to eight of their employees. The employees then filled them out and returned them to the senior author with the use of a postage-paid envelope. All parti ipants were assured that the surveys were kept onfidential.

For Study 2, an advertisement was sent to 1000 employed parti ipants through Study Response, an on-line servi e designed to onne t resear hers to a roster of potential parti ipants. On e parti ipants were se ured, they were sent a se ure link in whi h they were able to omplete the survey.

Findings

The results of Study 1 isolated the dire t role transformational leadership has on employee well- being and identifying trust as a path through whi h this o urs. Study 2 showed that transa tional leadership wielded the opposite effe ts on employees’ well-being ompared to those of transformational leadership.

Conclusions

These studies were able to repli ate and extend findings from previous resear h that demonstrated the positive relationship between transformational leadership and employee psy hologi al well- being. What this does is advan es our understanding of employee- entered out omes. These studies also provided insight into how high quality and poor-quality leadership an both impa t employees well-being. Finally, the resear hers were able to ex lude plausible onfounds su h as liking of the leader and respondent personality. This resear h will be able to help promote future resear h and development into transformational leadership as an intervention to enhan e psy hologi al well-being in the workpla e.

Suggestions fo Fu the Resea ch

Based off the findings of this resear h, it would be interesting for future resear h to look into whether or not transformational leadership would indire tly influen e the leaders’ own well-being, and not just that of the employees. Another plausible thought for future resear h would be whether transformational leadership effe ts an be transmitted through other leader behaviors. The world of resear h surrounding leaderships ability to affe t the well-being of those around them is vast, and we are just getting started.