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Abstract
This research investigated the relationship between leaders' behavior and their support for emerging technology, particularly e-commerce. Branch office leaders, and their personnel, employed by a financial services company, provided the data for the study. Transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leader behaviors were measured using Bass and Avolio's (1995) Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. In addition, leaders were questioned as to their perception of the impact of emerging technology on their leadership style and their belief in the importance of e-commerce to the future of the firm. Data analyses indicated that the behaviors associated with transformational leadership were significantly related to support for emerging technology. In addition, an independent samples T test confirmed that leaders who support e-commerce and emerging technology exhibited transformational leader behavior to a greater degree than did those leaders who did not support e-commerce.
Keywords: Leadership behavior, Emerging technology, E-Commerce, Transformational leadership, Transactional leadership, Laissez-faire leadership
Introduction
Leadership, as a concept, has been with us ever since people have fashioned themselves into groups. Unfortunately, leadership is still often the "most studied and least understood topic in social science" (Bennis, 1989) and leadership research has aptly been described as "the search for the philosopher's stone" (Smith & Peterson, 1988). Clearly, effective leadership is somewhat dependent upon the current context and environment. It's readily apparent that emerging technology has forever changed the management landscape and that many of the current leadership models are simply not adequate at this time in history. "At the center of this evolving drama is the critical need for organizations to adapt to continually fluctuating environments" (Krantz, 1990). Many technological advanced firms have had to alter their hierarchical management systems (Cohen & Bradford, 1989; Kotter, 1985). Emerging technology has clearly eroded the traditional power base of many managers (Kanter, 1989). In addition, today's leaders rarely have the information monopoly that contributed to the foundation of hierarchical power (Zuboff, 1988). "Organizations must now contend with vastly different conditions in which former approaches no longer apply, and which require that they develop the capacity to change, learn, and adapt quickly and decisively" (Krantz, 1990). As technologies emerge and advance, it is simply a business imperative that organizational leadership evolves as well.
Bass (1985) asserts that in this turbulent environment, a new type...