Transformational leadership: A poor fit for proactive employees in a quick-commerce context

Abstract

Orientation: As quick-commerce emerges as an evolving extension within the broader e-commerce landscape, it requires a deeper understanding of how to effectively manage employees to sustain continuous innovation. Implementing appropriate leadership practices has been shown to promote the development of employees from varied backgrounds and personalities, thereby enhancing innovation and driving organisational success.

Research purpose: This study explored how transformational leadership influences the relationship between employees with proactive personality and the frequencies of innovative work behaviour (IWB) within a quick-commerce organisation, offering insights for organisations to enhance team performance.

Motivation for the study: Quick-commerce organisations present novel work processes and environments. This research examines how to effectively translate and implement appropriate leadership approaches that sustain IWB in these dynamic settings.

Research approach/design and method: Online questionnaires were utilised for data collection involving 200 employees working at a quick-commerce organisation. This quantitative research approach utilised SEM-PLS (Structural Equation Modelling Partial Least Squares) to conduct moderation analysis on processed data.

Main findings: The analysis indicated that proactive personality had a significant positive effect on IWB, whereas transformational leadership was found to negatively moderate the relationship between proactive personality and IWB.

Practical/managerial implications: The transformational leadership approach is not well-suited for encouraging employees with proactive personalities to engage in innovative behaviour within a quick-commerce environment.

Contribution/value-add: The study shows that transformational leadership is not necessarily the best leadership approach for stimulating IWB in a quick-commerce context, potentially opening the door for further exploration and discussion on this topic.