Relationships Between Leadership Styles and Subordinates'' Work Outcomes in Taiwan''s Insurance Industry

• Main Authors: Li-hsiang Huang, 黃梨香
• Other Authors: Hsin-hsiung Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2002
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/99181030333924023054

碩士 === 大同大學 === 事業經營研究所在職專班 === 90 === ABSTRACT The exploration of this study mainly focuses on the leadership styles of managers and the work outcomes of life insurance agents in the area of Taiwan’s life insurance industry. The study intends to achieve the objectives as follows: first, to discuss the work outcomes of life insurance agents under the influence of superiors with laissez-faire leadership style; second, to discuss the work outcomes of life insurance agents under the influence of superiors with transactional leadership style; third, to discuss the work outcomes of life insurance agents under the influence of superiors with transformational leadership style; fourth, to discuss whether the work outcomes of the agents under the superiors with transformational leadership style are better than those of the agents under the superiors with transactional leadership style; finally, to explore whether gender differences make any difference in the choice of styles of leadership. In this study, we chose N Life Insurance Company in Taipei as a research target and sent questionnaires through intracompany mail. The study used correlation analysis, hierarchical regression analysis, and one-way ANOVA to explore the relationships involved. The major findings of the research are summarized as follows: 1.This study reveals that life insurance managers’ transformational leadership has a mild correlation with transactional leadership. According to the regression analysis, we found that transformational leadership has no clear augmentation effect on transactional leadership. That is to say, the sales managers’ transformational leadership is not superior to the sales managers’ transactional leadership in terms of the agents’ outcomes. 2.This study shows that role ambiguity has a significant positive relationship with transformational as well as transactional leadership. In other words, when the agents perceive that their leaders adopt transformational leadership or transactional leadership styles, they become more ambiguous with their roles. 3.The results of this study confirm that job satisfaction and commitment both have significant positive relations with transformational as well as transactional leadership. That is to say, when the agents perceive that their leaders adopt transformational or transactional leadership styles, they become more satisfied with as well as committed to their jobs. 4.The study also found that there is a significant negative relationship between laissez-faire leadership and job stress; namely, the sales manager adopting the laissez-faire leadership style tries to avoid making suggestions to his/her subordinates so that they can have greater flexibility on their jobs, while reducing their job stress at the same time. 5.The results of this study confirm that commitment has a significant negative relationship with laissez-faire leadership; namely, the higher the agent’s job commitment, the weaker the laissez-faire leadership. 6.This study shows that gender differences influence sales managers’ choice of leadership styles. In the life insurance industry, male managers tend to orient more to laissez-faire leadership, while female managers become more transformational leadership oriented. In this study, the sample size is not big and only one insurance company in Taipei was chosen as a survey target. The larger the sample size, the greater the power and the more sensitive the research in detecting the relationships under investigation. Subsequent studies could include samples of manager/agent in Taiwan area or other service industries than those surveyed here.