Transformational leadership and its relationship to trust and behavioral integrity

Access restricted to the OSU CommunityTo thrive in a global environment, companies need effective leaders who can motivate followers to achieve organizational goals. Transformational leadership may provide the means to achieve these goals. A transformational leader demonstrates behavioral integrity, which allows for the development of trust with followers. Although researchers have proposed a relationship between behavioral integrity and transformational leadership, as well as trust and transformational leadership, none has established a correlation between the two. As such, this study examined two research hypotheses: (a) behavioral integrity is positively associated with transformational leadership and (b) trust is positively associated with transformational leadership. The study utilized a cross-sectional quantitative survey of 10 hotels within the greater Anchorage, Alaska area and employed three questionnaires: Simon and Parks' (2002) Trust Scale, Simon and Parks' (2002) Behavioral Integrity Scale, and Bass and Avolio's (1995) Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire-Form 6S. Data were collected from 84 employees at 10 hotel properties. Pearson correlations tested the relationship between transformational leadership and trust as well as between transformational leadership and behavioral integrity. The Pearson correlations between the variables indicated that transformational leadership was significantly and positively correlated with trust (r = .49, p < .001). Accordingly, the first research hypothesis--that transformational leadership is positively associated with trust--was supported The data also indicated that transformational leadership was significantly and positively correlated with behavioral integrity (r = .72, p < .001), thereby supporting the second research hypothesis--that transformational leadership is positively associated with behavioral integrity. This research points to the importance of identifying potential transformational leaders. The finding of a correlation between transformational leadership, trust, and behavioral integrity can be used to inform a management development training program that identifies potential leaders who have the ability to motivate people to achieve and set goals, are competent and confident in their decisions, are willing to listen to followers' advice, and are willing to be honest and consistent in their communication with organizational stakeholders. Additionally, individual performance evaluations might include a rating system on how well the individual has demonstrated transformational leadership. Based on this rating system, it might be possible to reward certain supervisors