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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 195 (2015) 278 282

World Conference on Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Effects of Leader Behavior on Job Satisfaction: A Research on

Technology Fast50 Turkey Companies

Buket Akdola *, F. Sebnem Arikbogaa

a
Faculty of Economics, Department of Business Administration, Istanbul University, Istanbul, 34452, Turkey

Abstract

Advances in technology, intense competition, and changes in the form and function of the organizations in the last decades have elevated the
importance of innovation, and the workers creativity as a survival mechanism for corporations in the marketplace. The personal characteristics
of employees, and organizational climate have a significant effect on innovation and workers creativity. High job satisfaction is a key factor
for innovative work environment, and also correlates with positive attitude and high performance at workplace. One of the most important
positive job attitudes is job satisfaction. Researches show that leadership is an important variable that enable high job satisfaction. In this
study, we focus on the effect of leaders behavior on job satisfaction. Empowerment, accountability, standing back, humility, authenticity,
courage, and forgiveness are used in this study as important dimensions of contemporary leadership theories. Not only overall job satisfaction
but also creativity facet of job satisfaction was considered. Survey method was used to collect data from Technology Fast50 Turkey
companies. Multidimensional measure for leadership, developed by Van Dierendonck, Nuijten (2011), and short form of Minnesota Job
Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) developed by Weiss, Davis, et al. (1967) were used as assessment tools in the survey. Results show there is a
significant and positive effect of empowerment, accountability, standing back, humility, authenticity and courage on both overall job
satisfaction and creativity facet of job satisfaction.

2015 The
2015 The Authors.
Authors.Published
Publishedby
byElsevier
ElsevierLtd.
Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Istanbul University.
Peer-review under responsibility of Istanbul Univeristy.
Keywords: Leader behavior; job satisfaction; technology companies; creativity; Deloitte Fast50 Turkey companies

1. Introduction

Technological changes after 1950s transformed the traditional organizations of the previous century. Innovation, and
creativity have become significant source of competitive advantage for technology companies (Garcia-Morales et.al., 2008). The
job satisfaction is key to aligning the creativity of the employee with the interest of the human capital driven organizations.

Job satisfaction is associated with organizational variables such as organizational citizenship behavior, turnover, and
absenteeism; and is effected by organizational culture, climate and leadership style. The role of leadership on positive employee

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +90-212-440 0000 - 11698.

E-mail address: bakdol@istanbul.edu.tr & buketakdol@gmail.com

1877-0428 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Istanbul Univeristy.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.06.159
 Buket Akdol and F. Sebnem Arikboga / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 195 (2015) 278 282 279

attitudes such as satisfaction in innovative organizations has also been researched in the last decade (Luthans, 2002; Hebert,
2003; Adler et.al, 2008; Amadeo, 2008; Garcia-Morales et.al., 2008; Madlock, 2008; Long et.al., 2010; Bushra et.al, 2011).
These studies conclude that leadership has a significant effect on job satisfaction.

Leaders behavior can effect job satisfaction by showing humility, authenticity and courage; forgiving employees for their
mistakes; standing back and giving credit to others; making them responsible for the outcomes that are under their control;
developing their potential, and empowering them.

In this study we are focusing on the effect of leader behavior on job satisfaction at fast-growing technology companies from a
developing country, Turkey.

2. Literature Review And Hypotheses

2.1. Leader Behavior

In this study we are focusing on the seven dimensions (empowerment, accountability, standing back, humility, authenticity,
courage, forgiveness) used by contemporary leadership styles.

Empowerment is about sharing power and authority to make decisions. Empowering leader helps followers solve problems
on their own instead of prescribing solutions, encourages the followers to use their talents and to come up with new ideas, offers
opportunities to learn new skills and develop themselves (Konczak et.al., 2000; Van Dierendonck, 2011). Empowering leader
behavior enables the organization to replace hierarchical structures with semi-autonomous or self-managing work teams and
improve flexibility, efficiency and creativity of an organization (Arnold et.al., 2000, p.249).

Accountability is about holding individuals and teams responsible for the work they carry out, for the outcomes that are under
their control, and for the specific ways they handle tasks (Van Dierendonck & Nuijten, 2011; Page & Wong 2000).

Standing back is about a leader who keeps herself in the background while giving credit to others, without chasing recognition
or rewards for the things she does for others (Van Dierendonck & Nuijten, 2011).

Humility in leadership starts with the acceptance of the fact that everybody can be wrong and can make mistakes. Leaders
acknowledge their limitations and ask for help of others to overcome those limitations. Humility is about the leaders ability to
admit her/his own mistakes and shortcomings, and to accept criticism with the intention to learn from it (Dennis & Bocarneo,
2005). Authenticity is about self-expression, and accurately representing leaders intentions and feelings regardless of the
professional roles (Luthans & Avolio, 2003).

Courage is about a leaders willingness to take risks to bring solutions consistent with her own values and convictions, even in
cases where there is uncertainty about upper management support. Within the organizational context, courage is about
challenging conventional models of working behaviors and drives innovation and creativity (Bass, 1985; Burns, 1978).

Forgiveness is about forgetting what went wrong in the past, accepting others mistakes, and staying objective towards a
follower even after an offensive behavior by the follower. The follower is more likely to feel accepted, worry less about making
mistakes, and being rejected. Forgiveness is about helping the followers to achieve their best in what they do (Van Dierendonck
& Nuijten, 2011).

2.2. Job Satisfaction

The job satisfaction is defined as the reaction of an employee against her occupation or organization (Hackman &
Oldham, 1975). Job satisfaction is a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from an appraisal of one's job or job
experiences'' (Locke, 1976).

We are focusing on overall job satisfaction, but the concept can be extended to consider the components for job
satisfaction including the creativity facet of job satisfaction. In this study below hypotheses were developed:

H1: Leader behavior has significant and positive effect on overall job satisfaction.
H2: Leader behavior has significant and positive effect on creativity facet of job satisfaction.
280 Buket Akdol and F. Sebnem Arikboga / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 195 (2015) 278 282

3. Methodology

3.1. Research Goal

The objective of this study is to identify the effects of leader behavior on job satisfaction in fast-growing technology
companies in Turkey.

3.2. Sample and Data Collection

An online questionnaire was used to collect data from Technology Fast50 Turkey companies. The Technology Fast50 is a
program executed by Deloitte Company, and it goes back to 1995 where it was first introduced in Silicon Valley. Today, the
program continues at over 37 regions around the world. It was launched in Turkey in 2006 and over these years Turkey has had
success within the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region where Turkish Fast50 winners were also ranked among the
EMEA Fast500 companies (Deloitte, 2014, p.5).

The questionnaire uses two different assessment tools. The first one is a multidimensional leadership measure developed by
Van Dierendonck, Nuijten in 2011. This assessment tool originally aims to measure servant leadership style and contains eight
different dimensions that refer to different leader behavior. These dimensions are also related to different leadership styles
including transformational, ethic, authentic, empowering, and shared. In order to measure job satisfaction, short form of
Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) developed by Weiss, Davis, et al. (1967) was used as assessment tool in the
online questionnaire.

We sent an email containing a link to the online questionnaire to the employees of Fast50 companies of Turkey and received
269 completed questionnaires. Then we used SPSS statistics tool to analyze the data and tested our hypotheses through
regression analyses.

3.3. Analyses and Results

The demographics of the respondent set shows that;

x Gender: %63 male and %37 female.
x Age: %49 for 18 to 29 years old, % 46 for 30 to 44 years old, %5 for older than 44, concentrating %75 of participants in
the younger than 35 year old limit.
x Academic degree: %6 for high school, %7 for college, %69 for bachelors degree, %19 has a graduate degree.
Sample of the study is mostly male, young and have a bachelors degree.

In terms of employers background:

x Sector: %51 for software, %2 for hardware, %23 for telecommunication and service providers, %13 for system
integrators, and %11 for other sectors.
x Size: %67 large (more than 250 employees), %10 medium (50 to 249 employees), %23 small or micro (less than 50
employees).

Table.1 Reliabilities of Scales

Scale N N of Items Cronbachs Alpha
Empowerment 269 7 ,931
Accountability 269 3 ,716
Courage 269 2 ,741
Authenticity 269 3 ,714
Humility 269 5 ,903
Forgiveness 269 3 ,785
Standing Back 269 3 ,847
Satisfaction 269 20 ,954

Reliability analyses were performed, and the Cronbachs alpha was calculated for every variable. As shown in Table 1, value
of Cronbachs alpha is greater than 0.7 for every variable, and acceptable according to Hair et al. (1998).
 Buket Akdol and F. Sebnem Arikboga / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 195 (2015) 278 282 281

Table.2 The Effects Of Leader Behavior On Overall Job Satisfaction (Regression Analysis Result)
Dependent Variable Independent Variable Standardized Coefficients (Beta) R square t Sig.
Satisfaction Empowerment ,627 ,393 13,146 ,000
Satisfaction Accountability ,392 ,153 6,958 ,000
Satisfaction Standing Back ,580 ,337 11,649 ,000
Satisfaction Forgiveness ,083 ,003 1,368 ,172
Satisfaction Humility ,613 ,376 160,815 ,000
Satisfaction Authenticity ,538 ,289 10,424 ,000
Satisfaction Courage ,486 ,236 9,091 ,000

Table 2 shows the regression results for the effect of leader behavior on overall job satisfaction.

Regression analyses suggest that;

x All leader behaviors, except forgiveness, have significant effect on overall job satisfaction. (p< 0,05)
x Empowerment, humility, and standing back have highly positive effect on overall job satisfaction (Beta>0,50).
x Although authentic behavior has a high effect on overall job satisfaction, explained variance is lower than 0,30.

Table.3 The Effect Of Leader Behavior On Creativity Facet Of Job Satisfaction

Dependent Variable Independent Variable Standardized Coefficients (Beta) R square t Sig.
Creativity Facet Empowerment ,457 ,209 8,399 ,000
Creativity Facet Accountability ,321 ,103 5,534 ,000
Creativity Facet Courage ,365 ,133 6,398 ,000
Creativity Facet Forgiveness ,078 ,006 1,285 ,200
Creativity Facet Humility ,428 ,183 7,740 ,000
Creativity Facet Authenticity ,336 ,113 5,830 ,000
Creativity Facet Standing Back ,379 ,143 6,685 ,000

Table 3 shows the regression results for the effect of leader behavior on creativity facet of job satisfaction.

Creativity facet of job satisfaction is also considered in the analysis. Regression analyses suggest that;
x All leader behaviors except forgiveness have significant and positive effect on creativity facet of job satisfaction.
x Leader behaviors can only explain less than %21 of the change in creativity facet of job satisfaction.
x It is possible to claim that leader behaviors effect creativity facet of job satisfaction, but this effect alone is not
enough to explain the changes on creativity facet of job satisfaction.

4. Conclusion

Regression analyses suggest there is significant and positive effect of certain leader behaviors, namely empowerment,
accountability, standing back, humility, authenticity and courage, on both overall job satisfaction and creativity facet of job
satisfaction. Empowerment, humility and standing back have higher effect on job satisfaction. The effect of forgiveness on job
satisfaction is not significant. On the other hand, leader behaviors cannot explain more than %20 of change on creativity facet of
job satisfaction although there is a significant effect of leader behaviors, except forgiveness, on creativity facet of job satisfaction.

The contribution of this study is to start an academic discussion about the relationship between leadership behavior and job
satisfaction in fast growing technology companies in Turkey. The framework of this study could be used to expand the
investigation into other cultures, and industries in emerging economies.

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