Role tension and perceived leadership influence on middle managers’ transformational leadership

Objectives & Literature
Middle managers in the nuclear sector, as in other organizations, are key players in implementing policies and strategy. They are frequently exposed to paradoxical leadership styles and demands (Berti et Simpson, 2021). It gives rise to role tensions (i.e., role conflict, organizational cynicism, or cognitive dissonance) for middle managers (Razouk et Quéméner, 2021), that impact their own leadership styles (He et Yun, 2022). Our research is grounded in double-bind injunction (Fleming & Spicer, 2014) and signal theory (Bandura, 1991). It explores how top managers’ leadership style and middle managers’ role tensions interact to affect middle managers’ ability to implement transformational leadership.
Methodology
A survey was conducted among 78 French middle managers in a nuclear organization. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, using the R software, was employed to identify configurations of the relationship between independent variables (i.e., perceived transformational leadership style, role conflict, organizational cynicism, and cognitive dissonance) and the dependent variable (middle manager’s self-reported transformational leadership). To gain further insight into the observed configurations and their effects, 18 interviews were conducted with middle managers.
Results
The results indicated the existence of two compatible configurations leading to high levels of middle managers’ transformational leadership use. In contrast, three configurations with low levels of transformational leadership were observed. The results of interviews are in alignment with and reinforce these findings.
Conclusions
This research represents one of the first configurational approach analysis of the relationship between transformational leadership perception and role tension for transformational leadership self-use. It contributes to literature by proposing that leadership is determined by the holistic effect of different interdependent configurations. Further research would be beneficial, employing a larger sample size, employing a longitudinal approach, and exploring sectors beyond the nuclear industry.