Insights Into Leadership: The Role of Political Skill, Social Skill, and Self-Monitoring in Mediating the Relationship Between Transformational Leadership and Job Performance

Abstract

Although there have been numerous studies supporting the correlation between transformational leadership and job performance, very few of these studies have gone as far as to detail how transformational leadership predicts job performance. The goal of this study was to address the lack of mediation research on transformational leadership and job performance. It was hypothesized that political skill, social skill, and self-monitoring would have a positive impact on the job performance ratings of transformational leaders. The deans and department heads of the 420 colleges of business accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) were invited to participate. The various measures used in this study called for input from both deans and department heads of the contributing dean, resulting in two data collections phases: the first to all AACSB deans (119 of the 420 agreed to participate for a phase one response rate of 28%); the second to the department heads of the deans who chose to participate (87 of the 119 agreed to participate for a phase two response rate of 73%). Leadership style was measured by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire-Form 5X (MLQ 5X). Job performance was measured using the Administration Effectiveness in Higher Education (AEHE) survey. Political skill was measured via six items developed by Ferris. Similarly, social skill was measured via seven items developed by Ferris. Finally, self-monitoring was measured using the revised Self-Monitoring Questionnaire developed by Snyder and Gangestad. Transformational leadership was positively correlated with job performance and social skill proved to mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and job performance. While there was an effect size for the mediators political skill (p=.056) and self-monitoring (p=.06), this effect size was not large enough to claim they mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and job performance. Given the increasingly complex, ever-changing, global business environment, research on leadership, job performance, and the factors that potentially affect this process, is both timely and relevant.