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The purpose of this study is to explore alternative models of substitutes for leadership. These alternative models are a leadership-only model, substitutes for the leadership-only model and substitutes for the leadership-mediated-effects model.

Four occupational groups were targeted, namely, PhD faculty of institutions of higher education, medical doctors who work in district headquarters’ hospitals, licensed pharmacists and certified engineers. Also, a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data, and 523 usable responses were received.

Partial least square path modeling was used for data analysis, and the results of structural models revealed that: the dimensions of transformational leadership significantly affected the followers’ outcomes; a few substitutes for leadership also significantly affected the followers’ outcomes; and, in some cases, substitutes for leadership significantly mediated the relationship between dimensions of transformational leadership and followers’ outcomes.

Findings of the study provide useful implications to improve the managerial practices of organizational leaders, work design strategies in organizations and overall organizational policies for effective functioning. Other developing countries with similar socio-economic status may use these findings to improve organizational functioning.

This study makes important contributions to the leadership literature. It tests three alternative models in the domain of substitutes for the leadership theory and tests the separate effects of dimensions of transformational leadership and substitutes for leadership on followers’ work outcomes. Further, it specifies the mediating effects of substitutes for leadership on the dimensions of transformational leadership and followers’ work outcomes. Most important, this study for the first time tests transformational leadership and substitutes for leadership concepts in Pakistani work settings and advances the theoretical and empirical literature in this local context.

The aim of this paper is to address teams as substitutes for leadership. The article makes use of juridical foundations as a normative basis for addressing substitutes for leadership. Together with the means of management and leadership, the juridical foundations constitute the background for defining sufficient and good supervisory work, which is used as an assistant instrument in addressing the research question: can teams act as substitutes for leadership?

In this article, substitutes for leadership theories are used to analyze the status of teams. The article includes a preliminary empirical study in a timber procurement organization and ideas for further investigations are provided.

Teams often do not act as internal supervisors or as sources of feedback and incentives, even though they are expected to do so. Some team members experience feelings of abandonment. Although planned as substitutes or supplements, teams can instead become neutralizers.

This paper contributes to recognizing the status of teams and to research questions concerned with explanations for the problems of teams.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the applicability of transformational leadership and substitutes-for-leadership theories in Malaysia’s and Pakistan’s work settings.

This study employed a survey-based approach using professional employees in both countries as respondents. In total, 215 responses to a web-based survey in Malaysia and 523 responses to a survey administered using personal methods in Pakistan were used for the analysis.

The results revealed that Malaysia’s leaders were rated high on the dimensions of transformational and transactional leadership. The transformational leadership dimensions produced desirable effects on subordinates’ outcomes in both samples, but the contingent punishment dimension of transactional leadership produced especially undesirable effects on subordinates’ outcomes. Substitutes for leadership also independently affected subordinates’ outcomes and produced similar effects on subordinates’ outcomes in both samples. In general, the effects in the Malaysian sample are larger than those in the Pakistani sample.

The results suggest that the transformational leadership style is effective in both cultures, but the transactional leadership style is culturally contingent. While leaders in collectivist cultures like Malaysia and Pakistan should practice more transformational leadership than transactional leadership, leaders in Pakistan should be particularly careful while practicing transactional leadership because of the society’s high level of collectivism and moderately high-power distance orientation.

The results suggest that the transformational leadership style is effective in both cultures, but the transactional leadership style is culturally contingent. While leaders in collectivist cultures like Malaysia and Pakistan should practice more transformational leadership than transactional leadership, leaders in Pakistan should be particularly careful while practicing transactional leadership because of the society’s low power distance orientation.

Since this study is the first to compare the applicability of western theories in collectivist cultures that differ significantly in their power distance orientation, it contributes meaningfully to the cross-culture leadership field.

This paper aims to examine the direct and indirect effects of substitutes for leadership on performance outcomes.

A self‐report questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 177 Australian local council employees. The responses were analysed using ICLUST analysis and hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

The results indicated significant positive effects of some substitutes for leadership on performance outcomes. Furthermore, some substitutes for leadership moderated the effects of transactional leadership behaviours on performance outcomes, whereas another sub‐component of substitutes for leadership moderated the effects of social processes of leadership on performance outcomes. In addition, some substitutes for leadership partially mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and performance outcomes.

The cross‐sectional design of the study reduces the capacity to draw definitive causal inferences.

The current study supports the view that council leaders could have influenced the employees' attitudes, perceptions, and performance by indirectly shaping the environment in which the subordinates worked (i.e. shaping task and organisational characteristics). The study implies the need for leaders in the local councils to understand those substitutes for leadership that mediate the influence of transformational leadership (such as group and work design capacities) and how they can be managed to enhance employee performance outcomes.

This is one of the first Australian studies to comprehensively examine the influence of substitutes for leadership on performance outcomes.

Based on social exchange theory and the substitutes for leadership theory, this paper aims to investigate whether an organization’s high-commitment HRM strategy can substitute for the effect of servant leadership in promoting employees’ affective commitment, psychological empowerment and intent to remain with the organization.

This study’s hypotheses were tested with moderation and mediation analyses conducted on a sample of 172 Chinese employees.

The results show significant negative interaction effects between high-commitment HRM systems and servant leadership, such that high levels of one will reduce the positive effect of the other on affective commitment and psychological empowerment. Further, the effects of high-commitment HRM systems and servant leadership on turnover intentions are mediated through affective commitment and psychological empowerment. Finally, support was found for a mediated moderation model where the negative interaction effect between high-commitment HRM systems and servant leadership on turnover intentions is mediated through affective commitment.

The results of this study can help practitioners identify alternative means to influence employees’ positive attitudes and work motivation when implementing high-commitment HRM systems is not feasible for the organization.

This study contributes to the leadership literature by providing evidence supporting the substitutes for leadership theory and describing the specific conditions under which this theory is valid, as well as contributing to the HRM literature by examining the dynamic interaction of HRM and leadership.

Drawing on the “substitute for leadership” theory, this study investigates the mediating role of employee attitude between supervisory support and employee’s organisational citizenship behaviour for the environment. It also explicates the role of environmental management practices, as substitute for supervisory support in this relationship.

Time-lagged data (n = 235) were collected from middle- and upper-level management employees working in manufacturing and service sector organisations in Pakistan. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling and regression analysis.

The findings reveal that supervisory support enhances employee attitudes towards pro-environmental behaviour, which in turn increases employees’ tendency to involve in organisational citizenship behaviour for the environment. However, the formal environmental management practices of the organisation serve as a substitute for the supervisory support because, if such formal practices are followed, the role of supervisory support becomes less significant.

This study is the maiden attempt to apply the “substitute for leadership” theory to the study of organisation citizenship behaviour for the environment. Moreover, it adds to the largely overlooked dimension of the research area concerning the inter-relationships between employees’, supervisory and organisational level antecedents of organisational citizenship behaviour for the environment.

Planners are expected to leave leadership to elected officials. Yet, they are often asked to do more. Should planners lead? The purpose of this paper is to examine how leadership is seen in the profession and then outline major theories of leadership and planning.

Using content analysis, the major theories of planning and descriptions of what planners do from professional planning organizations’ codes of ethics from around the world are compared.

Results indicate that new ways of thinking about leadership (Group leadership, Servant, Adaptive, Authentic and Followership) can help planners find leadership styles that fit their comfort zones better than old leadership definitions emphasizing heroic individuals.

Existing literature regarding leadership in planning indicates that planners must run for office if they are to lead. This examination of planners’ codes of ethics and newer theories of leadership indicates they can be leaders and operate well within current ethical boundaries.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how employee perceptions of the ethical conduct of their leaders affect their job satisfaction in the context of the workplace in China. The authors posit that guanxi, which is a complex relational phenomenon deeply rooted in Chinese tradition, may act as a substitute for ethical leadership in the Chinese workplace.

A conceptual model which explicitly incorporates guanxi as a moderator in explaining the relationship between ethical leadership and job satisfaction is developed. This model is then tested using data from a sample (n=388) of professional employees in nine organisations in Beijing, China.

The results show that, as expected, self-efficacy positively and strongly mediates the ethical leadership-job satisfaction relationship. However, guanxi negatively moderates the overall effect of ethical leadership on job satisfaction with the effect being larger in Chinese-owned enterprises compared to foreign-owned enterprises. The findings suggest that employee relationship with their leaders may act as a substitute for ethical leadership in the Chinese workplace.

The main question which this research uncovers is whether the Western-based conceptualisation of ethical leadership is applicable in different cultural contexts. The authors’ research shows clearly that in the case of China, guanxi plays a substituting role and reduces the effects of ethical leadership on job satisfaction. Future research could investigate the effects of ethical leadership in different cultural contexts.

The substituting effect of guanxi on the ethical leadership-job satisfaction relationship suggests that Western firms need to consider culture as an integral contextual factor in explaining employee job satisfaction when they operate in a different cultural context.

The explicit consideration of guanxi as an influencing factor of the effects of ethical leadership on job satisfaction in the context of the workplace in China and the testing of this relationship via a moderated-mediation approach is novel.

Based on the high-involvement management model and the Substitutes for Leadership theory, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the moderating role of high-involvement management practices on the relation between managers’ transformational leadership and employees’ affective organizational commitment.

Data were collected from employees of a large Canadian financial firm. Questionnaires were sent out and 219 received, representing a response rate of 63.3 percent. The hypotheses were tested using multiple regressions analysis with moderation effects.

The results show three statistically significant interactions between transformational leadership and high-involvement management practices. More specifically, information sharing and power sharing practices acted as leadership enhancers, while skill development practices served as a leadership substitute.

The results of this research could help immediate supervisors adjust their leadership strategies to their organizations’ HRM practices, and also guide top managers in choosing practices that can support these supervisors.

This study contributes to the literature on leadership by considering how contextual factors may affect the influence of transformational leadership and by integrating HRM practices within the substitutes for leadership framework.

Transformational leaders spark the intrinsic motivation of employees, thereby stimulating their extra-role performance. However, not all employees are lucky enough to have a transformational leader. The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent mindfulness can function as a substitute for transformational leadership. By being attentive to and aware of what is taking place in the present, mindfulness provides employees with a source of intrinsic motivation that lies within the person, thereby possibly making employees less dependent on transformational leadership.

An online survey was used to collect data of 382 employees working in diverse sectors in the Netherlands.

Moderated mediation analyses indicated that mindfulness partly compensates for a low levels of transformational leadership in fostering intrinsic motivation and in turn extra-role performance, thereby providing evidence for the substitutes for leadership theory. Moreover, the findings extend previous research on the contribution of mindfulness to in-role performance by showing its additional value for intrinsic motivation and extra-role performance.

Despite the use of validated measures and the presence of an interaction effect, common-source bias cannot be out ruled completely.

Since mindfulness can be developed, the results suggest a training intervention to make employees less dependent on their leaders for their motivation.

This paper is the first to show that mindful people are more resilient against the absence of transformational leadership. Given the frequent changes in management layers in organizations, knowledge about resources for individual resilience and self-management is sorely needed.