Review of Public Administration and Management

Transformational Leadership: Antidote to Employee Counterproductive Work Behaviour (CWB)

Richard Sae Brenyah^* Department of Public Health, Methodist University Ghana, Accra, Ghana
^*Correspondence: Richard Sae Brenyah, Department of Public Health, Methodist University Ghana, Accra, Ghana, Email:

Received: 13-Aug-2019, Manuscript No. RPAM-24-1163; Editor assigned: 16-Aug-2019, Pre QC No. RPAM-24-1163 (PQ); Reviewed: 30-Aug-2019, QC No. RPAM-24-1163; Revised: 15-Jul-2024, Manuscript No. RPAM-24-1163 (R); Published: 12-Aug-2024, DOI: 10.35248/2315-7844.24.12.469

Introduction

There is a growing interest in research on Counterproductive Work Behaviour (CWB) by both academicians and nonacademicians in recent past perhaps due to the effect employees who put up behaviours such as theft, absenteeism, hoarding of information among others have on the organisation's performance. There are several factors that influence the way employees behave in an organisation and one of them is leadership style. Leadership style refers to a leader's characteristic behavioural patterns he adopts to direct, motivate, guide, influence and manage his followers. Leadership style has been theoretically and empirically linked to employee behaviour in organisations and several studies confirm this relationship. Different leadership styles exist. These include servant leadership, authentic leadership, democratic leadership, transactional and transformational leadership styles and each of these has a different impact on their followers. Thus, leadership style, which determines the type and quality of the relationship between the leader and his followers has direct effect on the subordinate's behaviour. The study focused on the transformational leader as it has been cited as one of the best leadership styles [1].

Research has shown that transformational leadership style has a great impact on the behaviour of employees in the organisation and as such numerous research have been conducted on this relationship. For example, a review of the literature shows that a number of researchers have carried out studies on the effect transformational leaders have on employee CWB in developed countries and argued that there exists a negative relationship between transformational leader and employee CWB. However, there is limited empirical studies examining this relationship in the developing countries and more so, with focus on the specific characteristics of the transformational leader on employees' CWB which centres on public sector organisation, specifically, civil servants. In addition, while most of the researches carried out where within the developed countries not much has been done within the developing countries which has different characteristics such as low levels of standard of living, low incomes, high inequality, poor health and inadequate education; low levels of productivity; high rates of population growth and dependency burdens; high and rising levels of unemployment and underemployment; significant dependence on agricultural production and primary product exports and dominance, dependence and vulnerability in international relations and therefore the relationship is still unclear. This paper attempted to bridge this knowledge gap.

The attitudes and behavioural characteristics of an effective civil servant as suggested by Jan-Hinrik, Christian and Kim include job satisfaction, a commitment to remain in the public sector, work motivation, public service motivation and individual job performance as have integrity-including (lower) corruption and nepotism. However, there exists a perception that, some of these are lacking in the Ghanaian civil servant. For instance research shows that some corrupt practices such as conflict of interest, bribery, embezzlement, kickbacks, tender manipulation and fraud exist [2].

The transformational leader according to Hogg, Martin and Weeden is characterized by idealised behaviour, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, which influence followers to work for group goals that transcend immediate self-interest. It is in view of this that this study using the Leader Member Exchange (LMX) theory as the theoretical foundation aims at identifying the extent to which these specific dimensions of the transformational leader impact on CWB of employees in PSO in a developing country like Ghana. The study hopes to add to the existing literature on transformational leadership and CWB in developing countries.

This study covered only the civil service and not other public organisations nor local government institutions. The civil service was of interest due to its major function of advising the government on national development. The civil service, a microcosm of the public service, was of interest due to its important role as implementer of the government's policies, supporting and advising ministers, implementing projects embarked upon by the ruling government and other administrative responsibilities. This requires the civil servant to behave well and put in their best, carry out their duties with dedication, honesty, impartial and committed. It is through their positive attitude to work and behaviour that, to a large extent, governments can be successful. It is therefore imperative that all efforts and strategies should be identified and implemented to ensure the success of the government [3].

The civil service comprises all servants of the state other than holders of political or judicial offices, who are employed in a civil capacity and whose remunerations are paid wholly and directly out of moneys voted by parliament.

In order to have a better picture of the situation, data was gathered from civil servants in the capital city of Ghana, the greater Accra region who were not in leadership position at the time of data collection. The next sections of the paper describe the theoretical and empirical literature, methodology, results and discussions.

Leader-member exchange theory

Organisations are made up of different categories of people, some are leaders while others are subordinates and these two categories of people relate with one another. The Leader- Member Exchange (LMX) theory focuses on the exchange of social relationships between leaders and their subordinates. A unique characteristic of this LMX theory is the differential relationship that exists between leaders and their subordinates. Two extreme relationships which are low leader-member exchange relationship and high leader-member exchange relationship exist. A good quality relationship where there exist high leader-member exchange relationship between the leader and his followers manifests in innovativeness, positive attitudes and higher performance, enhances employee job satisfaction, commitment and loyalty to the organization and prevents employee counterproductive behaviours such as absenteeism and turnover intension. This division is as a result of how the leader and the members are personally compatible and also the level of competence of the followers [4].

Current mind set of individuals and professionals therefore suggests that a leader should attempt to create special relationships with all their followers, regardless of their compatibility and competence and when this is done it will lead to the leaders exerting positive influence on the behaviour of their followers. The LMX theory indicates that, the formation of the relationship occurs over a series of phases which have been conceptualised as a life cycle component of developing highexchange leader-follower relationship. The first phase marks the beginning of the life cycle where the leaders and followers test each other in trying to establish a mutual role expectation which is representative of transactional leaders. In the second phase, the content of the exchange is well defined and the leader and followers continue to develop their trust for each other. Finally, the exchange relationship between the two parties moves to a level where the leader influences positively the interests, values, attitudes and behaviours of the followers which corresponds with that of a transformational leader.

Counterproductive work behaviour

Counterproductive Work Behaviour (CWB), one of the three dimension of individual work performance in recent times has gained much attention by researchers because of the tremendous cost to both individuals and organisation. CWB is defined as behaviour that harms the well-being of the organisation or its members. It is a voluntary behaviour that violates significant organisational norms and in so doing threatens the well-being of an organisation, its members or both. It is an intentional behaviour of individuals in the organisation that is detrimental to employees or the organisation as a whole. CWB includes behaviours like absenteeism, off-task behaviours, theft and substance abuse, gossiping or spending time on personal issues, sabotage and all kinds of abuse.

Several reasons have been suggested as antecedents to such behaviours. Fine, Horowitz, Weigler and Basis classified antecedents to CWB into three categories; personal variables, job attributes and organisational norms. Other researchers like Bowling and Eschleman believe CWB can be attributed to stress as well as negative perceived work environment, while Fine, Horowitz, Weigler and Basis think employees with low level of integrity are involved in CWB. Integrity is the authentication of a person who displays a strong moral and ethical principles at work. Thus, people with high integrity can be trusted and relied upon to perform and ensure the goals of the organisation are achieved and therefore will not be involved in CWB. In addition to these, CWB can be as a result of unmet expectation of the individual, low conscientiousness and a high need for stimulation to cope, work stressors like role and interpersonal conflict, difficult work conditions and role ambiguity and lastly, the quality of relationship between the leader and the employees [5].

Leadership and employee counterproductive work behaviour

Leadership as a concept has been widely discussed by researchers from different parts of the world. Leadership plays an important role towards the success or failure of an organisation. Thus, when an organisation looks for means to be more efficient so they are able to perform better than its competitors, one way is to focus on leadership. This is due to their ability to influence their followers as a result of their unique relationship with them. Thus, the extent to which employees are willing to offer and contribute towards the organisation's success depends to a large extent on how managers, that is leaders, identify and adopt the appropriate behaviour in relating with his followers as a leader. Even though there exist different leadership styles, focus of this study is on the transformational leader who are described as exhibiting one of the best leadership styles.

Transformational leadership is part of a new leadership paradigm which emphasizes on charismatic and effective leadership aimed at motivating and stimulating subordinates towards desired behaviours aimed at achieving higher organizational outcomes. According to Burns and Bass and Riggio, a transformational leader moves beyond just the exchange of relationships and places emphasis on followers’ intrinsic motivation, personal development and seeks to align followers’ aspirations and needs with desired organisational outcomes. The transformational leader, for instance, tries to link himself with his followers which result in the creation of a cooperative and transforming environment which cause employees to perform. Thus, such leaders are seen as change agents who are able to transform their followers' thinking, beliefs, motivation and attitudes in such a way that, they adopt the vision of the organisation as if that vision was theirs. The transformational leader is therefore able to develop emotional relationship with their subordinates and also increase their consciousness and beliefs in goals of the organisation. When this happens, it causes employees to be committed and engaged and therefore give their all towards the success of the organisation. This implies transformational leaders will be negatively linked to employees CWB [6].

Burns, indicates four dimensions of the transformational leader as idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual considerations. These dimensions of the transformational leader have varied effects on the behaviour of their subordinates. The next section reviews the literature on how each of these dimensions of the transformational leader impacts on CWB of employee.

Idealized influence and employee counterproductive work behaviour

Idealized Influence (II) is sometimes referred to as charisma and is characterized by the leader’s ability to convince their subordinates towards the achievement of set goals. The transformational leader sells their ideas to their subordinates in ways that they will understand and also agree to work together to bring their ideas into fruition. They share achievements and failures with subordinates and put their subordinate's needs before theirs. The idealized influence dimension of transformational leaders thus, causes them to be willing to sacrifice their own gains and interest for the good of their teams and organisation. As a result of leaders' readiness to sacrifice for the wellbeing of their followers, they reciprocate by putting up acceptable behaviours which ensure organisational success. Based on the above discussions, it is hypothesised that idealised influence will be negatively related to CWB [7].

Inspirational motivation and employee counterproductive work behaviour

Inspirational Motivation (IM) involves the leader’s ability to inspire and motivate their subordinates towards the achievement of set goals. Such leaders state clearly what they expect and challenge subordinates to achieve higher than they think they can. This dimension of the transformational leader causes him to envision an attractive future and provide the resources required to work towards the vision which motivate employees. Again, leaders with high inspirational motivation, encourage their subordinate to achieve high levels of performance above what is expected. This result in their followers' willingness to invest more effort in performing their task and believing in their abilities. Based on these unique characteristics of a transformational (inspirational motivation) and how it causes employees to behave we hypothesize that inspirational motivation is negatively related to CWB.

Intellectual stimulation and employee counterproductive work behaviour

Intellectual Stimulation (IS) concerns the degree to which the leader challenges assumptions among his followers to think independently. Leaders with such characteristics see unexpected situations as opportunities to learn and therefore support and encourage their followers to explore new ways of doing things and be creative in their thoughts. When employees receive support from supervisors and given the opportunity to develop their carrier, it cause them to be committed. The benefits of having committed employees include increased job performance and reduced turnover. In relation to the above discussions, we hypothesize that intellectual stimulation will be negatively related to CWB.

Individualized consideration and employee counterproductive work behaviour

Individualised Consideration (IC) reflects the extent to which leaders focus on their subordinates' individual needs, acts as mentors and listens to their concerns. Such leaders provide support and ensure effective communication by keeping communication open and as a result subordinates are able to approach them with their needs and encourage them to develop. Such effective communication between the leader and his followers cause them to be committed and engaged and therefore not get involved in CWB. This is because engaged employees are ambassadors of their organisation and are therefore willing to go the extra mile to ensure the organisation's success. Based on this we hypothesise that: Individual consideration will be negatively related to CWB.

Materials and Methods

The study adopts the quantitative approach using the correlational survey design. A correlation research design involves the measurement of two or more factors to determine or estimate the extent to which the values for the factors are related or change in an identifiable pattern. Leedy and Ormrod also maintain that a correlational study examines the extent to which differences in one characteristic or variable are related to differences in one or more other characteristics or variables and helps to gather data about two or more characteristics in a natural setting for specific measurement of the characteristics in question without necessarily determining cause and effect or manipulation of variables [8].

The study used a sample of 170 civil servants. The human resource department for the various ministries were contacted and a letter detailing the purpose of the study submitted. After accepting to assist, the questionnaires were left with them. The simple random sampling was used to distribute the questionnaires within the different ministries. Simple random sampling is a method used to select a sample where every sample of size n (from a population of size N) has an equal chance of being selected. This method was used because of ease of use and accuracy of representation. Most of the questionnaires were collected after two weeks of submission. In some few cases, some questionnaires were not ready so one more week was added.

Four hundred (400) questionnaire were distributed and one hundred and eighty (180) were received, giving a return rate of 45%. Out of the one hundred and eighty (180), one hundred and seventy (170) were useful since in some of the questionnaire, a number of the questions were not answered among other reasons.

The questionnaire used consisted of three (3) main sections. As part of the introduction to the questions respondents were assured of anonymity. The first section focused on the demographic characteristics of respondents. Section two was for information on leadership style using MLQ, while the last section contained the CWB part of Individual Work Performance Questionnaire (IWPQ). The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) developed and reformulated by Avolio and others has been used by both academicians and non-academicians who researched into the area of leadership. The MLQ measures transformational, transactional and laissezfaire (passive/avoidance) leadership styles in an organization. It consists of 45 items that cover what is known as the “full-range” leadership model, with each item relating to a specific leadership factor. For this research the transformational part of the MLQ was used. Respondents were followers rather than leaders and are made to judge the frequency of the behaviour or style described by the items on a 5-point Likert scale. Employee CWB was measured using the CWB section of the IWPQ version 1.0 by Koopmans, et al. The IWPQ 1.0 has three subscales: Task performance, contextual performance and counterproductive work behaviour with a total of 18 items. All items have a recall period of three months on a 5-point Likert rating scale from 0 (seldom) to 4(always). A mean score is calculated by adding the items score and dividing the sum by the number of items in the subscale. Hence a mean score that range between 0 and 4 with the higher scores reflecting high CWB.

Data analyses

Data obtained from the respondents were analysed using quantitative methods in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Prior to the analyses, the items on the questionnaire were separated into five (5) variablescounterproductive work behaviour as the outcome variable and the four (4) styles of transformational leadership (idealised influence, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation and individualised consideration) as predictor variables. Based on this, the study used correlation and multiple regression technique to estimate the effect each of the predictor variables has on the outcome variable. According to Walliman, multiple regression analysis enables researchers to estimate a linear model with at least two predictor variables and an outcome variable such that the effect of each predictor variable on the outcome variable can be determined in the model [9].

Results

Prior to the multiple regression analysis, the descriptive statistics of the major constructs and the correlations between each pair of the major constructs were examined and the results are presented in tables 1 and 2 respectively. Table 1 shows the means and standard deviations of the major variables.

Comparing the means, it can be seen that respondents are satisfied with the intellectual stimulation dimension of the transformational leader.

This is shown by the intellectual stimulation characteristic reporting a higher mean value of 2.0833. Standard deviations are at an acceptable level since they are close to 1 [10].

Table 1: Descriptive statistics of key constructs.

Table 2: Correlations matrix showing the non-existence of multicollinearity between the variables.

The correlations matrix as shown in Table 2 indicates the extent to which there exist relationships between pairs of the independent (predictor) variables. It shows that the relationship (correlation) between a variable and itself is 1 as any variable is highly correlated to itself. Besides if the correlation between any other pair of variables is greater than 0.9 t, then the existence of multicollinearity is felt making the results of the multiple regression analysis unreliable. Since the relationships between all pairs of variables in the data set are less than 0.9, it thus validates the multiple regression analysis, thereby making the results of the regression highly reliable. Apart from this, the assumptions of linearity, normality and autocorrelation of the error term were all tested and accepted. Also, a rule of thumb Durbin Watson statistics values of 1.5<d<2.5 shows that there is no autocorrelation in the data. The Durbin Watson statistics in Table 2 is 1.819 and therefore shows that the error terms are not correlated. The results of the multiple regression analyses are therefore presented in Table 3.

Table 3: Multiple regression showing the effect of each of the transformational leader’s characteristics on CWB of employees.

As shown in Table 3, it could be affirmed that the strength of the relationship that exists between the dependent and the independent variables is moderately strong with an ‘R’ value of 520. The value of the R Square (0.270) means that the characteristics of a transformational leader account for 27.0% of the counterproductive work behaviour exhibited by this makes the issue of transformational leadership key in shaping the behaviour of employees.

From Table 3, the parameter estimates of idealised influence (β=-0.171; p>0.05), inspirational motivation (β=-0.117; p<0.05), intellectual stimulation (β=-0.307; p>0.05) and individualised consideration (β=-0.232; p>0.05) show negative and significant relationships with the employees CWB.

The ‘P values’ of the variables indicate the significance level of each variable. Per the rule of thumb, a p value of 0.05 indicates that the variable is statistically significant at 95% confidence level. Therefore since the p values of the variables are less than 0.05, it follows that each is statistically significant at 95% confidence level.

The standardised coefficients of the variables as indicated by the ‘beta’ values show the effect each variable has on CWB. Comparing the ‘beta values’ of the variables however indicate that intellectual stimulation (β=-0.307) has the greatest impact on CWB, followed by individualised consideration (β=-0.232) and then idealised influence (β=-0.171) and lastly, inspirational motivation (β=-0.117) [11].

Discussion

Counterproductive Work Behaviour (CWB) is a big problem for organisations and a major concern for both managers and the general public. Thus, managers try to reduce these. Results showed that the transformational leader is negatively related to CWB. That is, the more the leader exhibits more transformational leadership behaviour, the less frequent the subordinate gets involved in CWB. This may be because, the transformational leader is able to transform his followers into being obedient, committed, goal oriented and effective towards work which enhances the organization. The result is consistent with previous studies.

The negative relationship between the transformational leadership and CWB may be explained from the LMX theory where employees feel a sense of obligation to behave in an 'acceptable' way because of the way the leader relates with them by having passion, inspiring others, good listener and collaborate. Leaders who see and understand persons as unique people, inspire them, model integrity, put up ethical behavior and give clear and timely information as they relate with their subordinates may cause them to feel they are obliged to reciprocate that positive relationship that exists between them by withholding CWBs. Again, transformational leaders are the role models of their subordinates. So as they look on and these leaders are not involved in CWB, the followers too, tend not to do that.

Again, the results from the analysis showed that all the dimensions of the transformational leader is negatively related to CWB as hypothesised and is statistically significant. Among the four dimensions of the transformational leader, it can be observed that intellectual stimulation show the highest, that is, if transformational leaders exhibit more of intellectual stimulation as they relate with the employees, such employees not likely to put up CWBs. Intellectual stimulation heightens awareness of problems and motivates followers to view problems from a novel perspective. This behaviour reflects in the leader's behaviour that stimulates employees to think creatively and find solutions to difficult problems. That is, leaders with high levels of intellectual stimulation tend to give their followers some level of autonomy so they are able to think creatively and come up with unique solutions to problems. Individual creativity has been identified to have a direct and positive link with intellectual stimulation. Grant and Ashford posit that, it is highly probable that when individuals work under conditions of autonomy they are more likely to engage in proactive activities. The Oxford English dictionary defines being proactive as “creating or controlling a situation by taking the initiative and anticipating events or problems, rather than just reacting to them after they have occurred; (hence, more generally) innovative, tending to make things happen”.

The results again showed that individual characteristic behaviour of the transformational leader was the second major dimension of transformational leader that affect employees CWB negatively. Individual Characteristic (IC) component explains that, transformational leaders offer support and encouragement to individual followers, give individualized attention to each employee by identifying their unique needs and provide the needed support. To foster the provision of this support, the transformational leader keeps lines of communication open so that subordinates feel free to share ideas and so that leaders can offer direct recognition of the unique contributions of each subordinate. This characteristic of the leader may explain the result. The individualized consideration aspect of the transformational leader makes him provide support and encourages followers. The literature confirm that when employees perceive the leader to provide support and show interest in their personal needs they tend to stay with the organisation and put in their best. According to a finding of the research by Ogola, Sikalieh and Linge high performance is achieved when the leader recognizes employees’ efforts, creates confidence, encourage self-development practices and ensure effective communication.

Inspirational Motivation (IM) involves the leader’s ability to inspire and motivate their subordinates towards the achievement of set goals. Research indicates that when employees derive inspiration from their leaders, they tend to exhibit behaviours that are in line with group as well as organisational goals. In this study however, although the IM characteristic of the transformational leader relates negatively with CWB, it exerts the least influence among the four characteristics. This could probably be the case because motivation and inspiration are psychological constructs and as such are concerned with the individuals within the group rather than the group as a whole. That is, different people derive motivation from different sources. This could probably be the case with the public service of Ghana where employees exhibit different kinds of behaviour as a result of their perceived motivation derived from their leader. Thus, the leader tends to influence individual behaviour rather than group behaviour.

Contributions of the study

Although there has been research that examined the relationship between transformational leaders and CWB, this study is unique. This is so because, the results contribute to the existing literature on leadership by bringing out the specific characteristics/dimension of the transformational leader that predicts CWBs. Again, the study makes a theoretical contribution. Thus, it supports the inclusion of leadership style, specifically, transformational leadership, as an antecedent of employee CWB. Third, it established a new leader behaviouroutcome link. Employee CWB is a relatively new area of study and thus the establishment of the link between the leader's style and employees' behaviour, which is an outcome.

Implication for research

The results of the study have some implications for future research. First, researchers with interest in studying effects of leader behaviour in organisations should recognise the effect the transformational leader has on CWB. These researchers also found that transformational leader behaviour is negatively related to CWB of employees. This effect may stem from the fact that the transformational shows interest in individual employees' needs and desires, inspire, motivate and encourage them. Again, the transformational leader is consistent, inspiring followers and employees' wanting to identify with the leader and therefore the leader exemplify moral standards within the organization and serving as a role model for followers to emulate. Within the literature on leader behaviour, future researchers may want to compare the transformational and transactional leader behaviour on employee CWB.

Second, our study adds another outcome to the list of variables that influence CWB. Our results indicate that specific dimensions of the transformational leader influence CWB more than others within the public sector of Ghana. It will be of interest to carry out a comparative study between the private and public sector to know if there will be similarities or differences in the results. This will be interesting because the characteristics of the public sector, like public organizations being more bureaucratic and public managers being less materialistic and have weaker organizational commitment is different from that of the private sector.

Third, studies can be carried out to examine the role of subordinates' individual differences in the relationship between transformational leader behavior and employee CWB. The literature indicates that the effect of leader behaviour on employee outcomes may not be same for all subordinates, hence a call to pay attention to subordinates in research that focus on leadership. Two major individual differences variables are age and gender, both of which have shown different effects in research. For example, older managers are known to consult widely and favour more participation within the organisation as compared to younger managers. Again, while citizenship is the “core” organisational behaviour for women, counter-productivity is for men. Hence, it is possible that older transformational leader may affect followers CWB differently and also the existence of differences of leaders of different gender on employees CWB. Hence, a study looking at age difference and gender of leaders and employee CWB will be of interest and therefore suggested.

Implication for practice

The results have brought to bear the importance of transformational leadership on employees CWB. Different leadership styles like authentic, democratic, charismatic styles exist.

However, due to the negative effect CWB has on employee performance, thus organisational success, it will be prudent that leaders adopt the transformational leadership style to curb an increase in CWB within the public sector. Again, the analysis revealed that the dimension of the transformational leader which has the most impact on CWB, intellectual stimulation. Thus if leaders want to reduce CWB of their employees, it is prudent to exhibit more of this characteristics of the transformational leader than the others. Thus, leaders should arouse their followers’ efforts to be innovative and creative by reframing problems they encounter, involving them in the process of addressing problem and encourage their subordinates to try new ideas and not criticized because they have different ideas from his ideas [12].

Conclusion

The study revealed that transformational leader, which is rooted in going above personal interest for the betterment of followers, is negatively related to CWB. Transformational leaders develop emotional relationship and try to link himself with his followers which result in the creation of a cooperative environment which cause employees to put up behaviour that ensure organisational success. Intellectual stimulation turn to help reduce employees CWB. These outcomes are very relevant in maintaining high employee and organisational performance because as leaders relate well with employees and exhibit intellectual stimulation, employees tend not to exhibit CWB like absenteeism, theft, sabotage, bullying and the like which lead to improved performance. Our findings meshes with those of other researchers and support the proposition that when leaders appreciates employees contribution, shows interest in their individual needs and inspire and motivate them and involve and consider their views in making decisions it improves the quality relationship between themselves and their followers. When this happens, the leader will have a positive impact on the followers' behaviour, thus reducing CWB within the organisation. It is therefore suggested that leaders in the PSO in Ghana should adopt the transformational leader style to help manage and reduce employee CWB.

Limitations

There are potential limitations of our study which need to be acknowledged. First data were gathered using self-report questionnaire. The results therefore may have been influenced by common-method variance. CMV is ‘‘variance that is attributable to the measurement method rather than to the constructs the measures represent’’. The likelihood of this occurring was reduced by mixing the order of the questions as suggested by. Again, Spector indicated that the problem of common-method variance is generally overstated and so appears not to be a serious problem.

Thus, this does not make this research irrelevant. Additionally, in measuring the variables using a self-report questionnaire the study might have missed the opportunities for further clarification, so that additional and relevant data is captured and also enable them to speak in their own voice and express their thoughts and feelings thereby, empowering them. However, the focus of the study was to develop hypothesis and text to identify relationship between the variables and therefore the use of questionnaire.

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