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ทรานแซคชันเทียบกับภาวะผู้นำ 2 3effort, and to have higher performing work groups and receive higher ratings of effec-tiveness and performance (see, for example, Bass, 1985; Bryman, 1992; Hater & Bass, 1988; Yammarino & Bass, 1990; Yammarino et al., 1993). Although Bass has demon-strated that transformational leadership is a useful concept which can be operationalized in the context of organizations, there are several problems which make careful examina-tion of the results obtained with the MLQ necessary. One problem with the concepts in the MLQ and their operationalization is the distinction made between passive manage-ment-by-exception and laissez-faire leadership. Hater & Bass (1988) state: 'passive man-agement-by-exception is not the same as laissez-faire leadership. The status quo is guarded and respected in passive management-by-exception; the status quo is ignored by the laissez-faire leader who essentially avoids decision making and supervisory responsi-bilities' (p. 697). This distinction between laissez-faire and passive management-by-exception is not clear when the empirical data are examined. As shown in Bass (1985) passive management-by-exception and laissez-faire leadership form a higher order factor in Bass' data. Also, in a study by Yammarino & Bass (1990), passive management-by-exception and laissez-faire correlate positively with each other and negatively with the other leadership dimensions. Especially interesting was the slightly negative correlation they found between active and passive management-by-exception, supposedly related concepts. When regarding the items in the MLQ, the distinction between the two types seems hard to make, both are extremely passive leaders, avoiding rather than tackling problems.Another problem with (operationalization of) the concepts in the MLQ is pointed out by Bryman (1992). One of the items that measures inspiration is concerned with whether the leader has a vision which urges the subordinate on. In view of the centrality of this notion of vision to charismatic leadership Bryman finds it strange to disentangle vision from charisma and treat it as indicating inspiration even though, as stated earlier, Bass holds that the behaviours implied are different. These two issues indicate that refining the three concepts in the MLQ into eight separate dimensions is not without problems.Three questions are addressed in this study. The first is whether the three main leader-ship concepts as defined by Bass (transformational, transactional and laissez-faire) can be found in the collected MLQ data. The second is whether the four transformational and three transactional dimensions can clearly be distinguished. The third is whether the data support combining passive management-by-exception and laissez-faire leadership in one factor for passive leadership.MethodSample and procedureThe sample in this study consisted of approximately 1200 employees from eight organizations. The organi-zations and institutions contributing to the sample are very diverse in their core business activities and size: Two commercial businesses (catering, fast food), two welfare institutions, two health-care organizations (nurs-ing home, psychiatric hospital), one local government organization and two departments of air traffic control. Samples within each organization were created by randomly dividing the employees of participating depart-ments in the organization into two groups. One of the two groups in each department received the MLQ, rat-ing their supervisor. Respondents either received the questionnaire with a reference letter in person at work or the questionnaire was mailed to the respondent s home address. Respondents were requested to send the questionnaire back after completion. The researchers were present in the organizations at various prearranged24 Deanne N. Den Hartog, JaapJ. Van Muijen and Paul L Koopmantimes to answer questions or could be contacted by telephone. The response was approximately 60 per cent for the total sample (787 questionnaires were returned, not all questionnaires could be used in data analysis due to missing values). There were considerable differences in response for individual organizations. The low-est response was 29 per cent (in one of the organizations where the survey was done by mail); the highest response was 80 per cent (in one of the organizations where respondents were handed the questionnaire in per-son at work); 55.7 per cent of the respondents were male. The average age of the respondents was 36, ages ranging from 16 years old to 64 years old. On average the respondents had worked for the organization for five years. The range in the level and type of education was large, both respondents with a university degree and respondents with hardly any secondary education are found in the sample.QuestionnaireIn this study a Dutch translation of the MLQ, version 8Y, was used to assess transformatidnal, transactional and laissez-faire leadership (following Bass & Avolio, 1989). The questionnaire was first translated from English to Dutch by a Dutch native speaker then backtranslated by an English native speaker, both experts in the field of organizational psychology. The questionnaire instructs respondents to judge how often their manager displays 40 items of behaviour (see Fig. 1 for sample items), using a five-point scale (from 'fre-quently, if not always' to not at all).Data analysisThe first point of interest was the internal consistency of the MLQ scales for transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership as empirically derived by Bass. Often only Cronbach's a (Cronbach, 1951) is given as an indication of internal consistency. This, however, has two problems. First, Ct is affected by the number of items in a scale. In the literature (Nunally, 1967) a >.7O has been declared an adequate a. However, the a of a scale with many items can be high with a relatively low average inter-item correlation. In a unidi-mensional scale a relatively high average inter-item correlation would be expected. Secondly, a is affected by dimensionality within a scale. Although a decreases as a function of multidimensionality, a can be reason-ably high even when items are somewhat interrelated but multidimensional (Cortina, 1993). Therefore, not only was the Cronbach a calculated but also the average and range of inter-item correlations. Next, the cor-
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