Original Scientific Article • DOI: 10.

2478/rsc-2022-0009 • RSC • 14(1) • 2022 • 121-138

Research in Social Change

IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP ON BUSINESS

PERFORMANCE – LEADERSHIP ANALYTICAL
CONCEPT

Mirko Talajic1, Robert Kopal2, Leo Mršić1

1
Algebra, University College
2
Effectus – Entrepreneurial Studies, University College
Abstract

Leaders have a difficult task as managing employees becomes more and more demanding and complex. Leadership mecha-
nisms that were valid in the past are not valid today. Competition on the market is increasing and there is less and less room for
differentiation. Leadership is an area in which organisations increasingly seek to differentiate themselves. However, to be able to
do this it is necessary to understand all the complexity and breadth of leadership, the elements that need to be considered and
how they affect each other. Many studies examine individual elements, but none offers a single overarching pattern. Therefore, in
the first step of this paper, the goal is to present various studies related to leadership. Based on these studies, a comprehensive
analytical framework is proposed. The framework integrates several areas (Environment, Leadership, People, Performance) and
represents the mechanism of their mutual influence. This is a novelty in the approach to leadership and as such can be a guide
for leaders in making them aware of what they should focus on. Also, this framework could be the basis for future predicative and
prescriptive analytics in the field of monitoring employee behaviour and their impact on organisational culture.

Keywords
leadership • engagement • business outcome • employment • value proposition • employee type

1. Introduction

Managing employees is a demanding job in all organisations, for managing employees, and focus on the parts that
especially in the ones that have many employees or the ones need improvements in operational management. Finally,
that have many employees around the world (multinational the question that this paper should answer is: Is there a
organisations). Additionally, management is made more theoretical framework that unifies the important elements
difficult by the growing generational differences and the fact of leadership and their mutual influence on management,
that each leader manages employees who belong to different organisation and business results?
generational groups. Since the coronavirus pandemic has To build this concept, the focus will be on four elements
opened the door to remote work, there is no need to further that are important in leadership process: engagement,
explain the complex environment in which today’s leaders find employee value proposition (EVP), types of employee and
themselves. leadership styles. Firstly, all these elements will be observed
The paper aims to conduct research on several dimensions independently; then, they will be connected to each other in
that can help to improve employee management. The a novel concept that will show their interdependence and
motivation behind this research was the need for a better influence on each other. Through literature research and
understanding of the elements that influence the quality the author’s long-term experience in the field of leadership,
management of employees, and to explore the possibilities dimensions essential for creating an organisational culture
of a more comprehensive overview of these elements as that have a positive effect on business results are highlighted.
well as their mutual connection. Through this connection, the To design the concept, it is necessary to explore the above-
theoretical framework will be transformed into a concept that, mentioned key elements and the theories that describe
in a practical sense, can help leaders set initial frameworks them. In this sense, employee engagement, employee

© 2022 Talajic et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

121
Research in Social Change

value proposition (EVP) and employee types, as well as about the organisation and answers questions such as:
leadership theories and styles, will be researched. All these ‘What benefits do I have in this company?’ or ‘Is the strategy
theories have been researched in detail in the past and many of the company in line with my personal goals?’ Browne
valuable papers can be found about them, but during this described the EVP’s influence on the company performance.
research no sources were observed that would unite them The most comprehensive model was provided by Heger
completely into a more comprehensive concept. Each of (2007), who recognised the strong connection between EVP
these elements is essential in management and the literature and engagement, and measured the impact of these two
describes them quite well while highlighting the need for their dimensions on business results. The leader must be aware
consideration. All these elements complement each other, of how employees view the organisation (including himself)
but in the literature, it is only partially possible to observe to realistically see the necessary strategic and operational
their mutual relation and influence in the form of a theoretical activities to improve employees’ perception.
concept. Heger (2007) made the biggest contribution with his Nowadays, when differences between people are substantial,
developed EVP concept, but again only partially. the leaders should think about individual approaches to their
This is the reason why the development of such a employees or groups of employees with similar characteristics.
comprehensive concept was imperative in this paper. Such a Because of that, in the fourth section, this paper deals with
concept will make it possible to see the wider picture, as well different types of employees. Some employees like greater
as views on a synthetic and analytical level. independence at work, while some prefer the support of a
The theoretical scientific contribution of the paper is revealed leader and constant guidance. In general, different things
through the observation of different theories and their are important to different employees, even within the same
integration into one concept. The practical contribution of this generation. Increasing regulatory activities in the form of better
paper is manifested in the ability for the leader to analyse treatment of employees, as well as their rights, is also one
each of the elements, together with their mutual connections, of the challenges for the leader. This relates to sustainable
and to quickly locate the problems that they have in the development, which also emphasises the need for equality
organisational culture. Based on this, leaders could decide of all employees and the equal right for development. The
more efficiently on the necessary corrective actions. already heavy burden on the leader is additionally weighed
The paper is designed in such a way that the second section down with this. Considering the heterogeneity of the
deals with the engagement dimension. By reviewing the employees’ population, it is almost impossible for leaders to
literature (Albrecht 2010; Kahn 1990, Wiley, Kowske and devote themselves to each employee separately and have
Herman 2010 and others) it has been demonstrated that a management and leadership strategy for each employee.
engagement is crucial in order to have the culture that brings The only way is to put employees into groups that will be
positive business outcomes. Attridge (2009) made a literature homogenous regarding certain characteristics. The leader, in
overview on employee engagement levels with the focus on that case, manages each of the employee groups separately
the employee engagement framework. Finnegan (2014) and makes decisions that are appropriate for a certain group.
explained employee engagement’s correlation to productivity Aziz, Wuensch and Brandon (2010) divide workers into
and profitability mostly using the results of Gallup’s research six categories: ‘Workaholic’, ‘Positively engaged’, ‘Worker
survey. The research showed the comparison of the business enthusiast’, ‘Relaxer’, ‘Disenchanted worker’ and ‘Unengaged
results among the top 25% with respect to engagement level, worker’. The categories were designed to observe the
and the bottom 25%. Those with high engagement level homogeneity of the group regarding dimensions such as
scored 22% higher in profitability, 21% higher in productivity engagement, loyalty and others. Romero (2016) divided
and 10% higher in customer satisfaction. The research also employees in three groups: ‘Freeloader’, ‘The Worker’ and
showed that in this top 25%, the employee turnover was ‘The Entrepreneur’. Heim (2017) introduced four types of
lower by 65% and the organisations had higher earnings per employees: ‘Adventurer’, ‘Warrior’, ‘Guide’ and ‘Diplomat’.
share. Due to its importance, various authors also introduce Chong et al. (2011) grouped employees into three categories:
engagement level measurements to transform subjective ‘Necessities’ – high engagement level and focus on results
level assessments into objective measures. Some of the with significant impact; ‘Commoners’ – do regular work with no
measures are ‘Ultrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES)’ desire for creativity and innovation; and ‘Parasites’ – tend to be
(Schaufeli et al. 2002), ‘Intellectual – Social – Affective (ISA)’ negative and negatively influence organisational culture.
(Soane et al. 2012), ‘Job Engagement Scale (JES)’ (Rich, Oehler (2015) and many others emphasised that strong
Lepine, and Crawford 2010) and ‘Institute for Employment leadership is a very important ingredient for good employee
Studies Scale (IESS)’ (Robinson, Hooker, and Hayday 2007). performance in the organisation’s overall success. Strong
The importance of the EVP concept will be highlighted in the leadership is also essential for a company to be successful,
third section. It describes the value an employee perceives which explains why it is important to look at different ways

122
 Talajic et al.: Analytical concept of the impact of leadership on business performance

of leadership and to adapt to each group of employees, as gives more. This is the reason why many companies try to
well as to the business situation. For this reason, in the fourth improve this part and measure the level of engagement.
section, the paper will focus on different leadership styles and Different studies have been carried out related to this topic
the appropriateness of their use in different situations. and the level of engagement has been used, together with
The last (fifth) section deals with the designing of a conceptual some other dimensions, for the distinction and grouping of
framework through the dimensions of the employee type, EVP, employees into homogenous groups.
engagement and leadership, a task that is also the final goal of Albrecht (2010) describes engagement as a state wherein
this paper. In the previously mentioned sections, every element an employee invests more effort in work, attending to work
has been described through research of different literature. In with greater energy and passion. For Kahn (1990) the level of
this one, everything will be united and connected through the effort the workers devote to work is connected with employee
presentation of mutual influences, which is the added value engagement. It includes emotional, physical and cognitive
of this concept. The proposed framework is intended to be effort. He also explored how the organisation’s culture and
a guide for leaders in establishing a culture of highly healthy working environment influence the level of engagement. For
engagement and high EVP, considering different groups of Attridge (2009), employee engagement can be improved by
employees and leadership styles. The concept is divided improving the organisational culture, working environment
into four main aspect areas: Environment (Culture), People, and leadership.
Leadership and Performance. The dimensions explored and Kumar and Pansari (2015) designed the engagement
described in the previous sections are incorporated in each framework with five dimensions: identification, commitment,
of these aspect areas, with the addition of the Satisfaction, loyalty, performance quality and satisfaction. The engagement
Potential and Work–life balance dimensions. After that, the level could be measured by using this framework as well.
mutual connection and influence of individual dimensions on Identification is defined as an emotional state in which
each other will be described. employees stay with the company no matter what. Commitment
This proposed concept could be a basis for analytical insights is more connected with the state of being committed to work
and further research on the relationship between leaders despite potential difficulties. Loyalty describes how loyal
and their followers as well. The use of the concept will be employees are to the company. Performance quality is related
demonstrated, and its usefulness validated, through a real to work efficiency while satisfaction comprises employees’
business case done on a Croatian bank’s analytical department satisfaction with the organisation’s culture and working
(within the IT organisation unit). Through this validation it will environment. The employee engagement scorecard that
be demonstrated how this theoretical concept can be applied the authors developed can be seen in Table 1 below. Within
in real business situations. One of the important elements of certain dimensions of the proposed framework, some key
research used for this real case would be the one from Talajić, items were identified that will be used for the score of each
Vrankić and Kopal (2021), where they proposed different dimension. In the satisfaction dimension they identified five
groups of employees and the proportion of every group in the items and five is the maximum score. For the identification
population in order to obtain optimal business results. dimension seven items were recognised with the maximum
In the conclusion, in addition to summarising the obtained score of seven for that dimension. Commitment and loyalty
results, the recommended concept will also be critically have three items each and performance quality has two items.
reviewed and guidelines for further improvements will be The maximum total engagement score is 100.
given. Jewel and Reznik (2016) introduced another engagement
In general, this could ultimately have a positive effect on society framework (Figure 1).
as a whole and the principles of sustainable development. They identified engagement drivers that influence the
Leaders are required to be creative, work hard and motivate engagement level: growth, relationships, autonomy, fairness,
themselves to make the transition from good leaders to well-being and security. Leaders should focus on these drivers
great ones. All this should be an opportunity for innovation in to improve overall engagement level in the organisation. In
business and an opportunity for breakthroughs that may have order to be engaged, the employees need to feel growth (both
been unimaginable until now. personal and professional), have good relationships within
teams, sense that they are treated fairly compared to other
employees, and see a fair financial aspect and additional
2. Engagement
benefits that make them feel relaxed; additionally, it is also
necessary for the company to take care of them and make
Every organisation needs and wants engaged employees. them feel safe.
It will improve their performance and culture. An engaged Wiley, Kowske and Herman (2010) introduced the concept
employee is more devoted to the company, cares more and of global employee engagement and defined it as: ‘The

123
 Research in Social Change

Table 1. The employee engagement scorecard.

Source: Kumar and Pansari (2015).

Figure 1. Employee engagement framework. Source: Jewel and Reznik (2016, 37).

extent to which employees are motivated to contribute to of organisational goals.’ They recognised 10 global drivers
organisational success, and are willing to apply discretionary of employee engagement and four ‘macro drivers’ of
effort to accomplishing tasks important to the achievement engagement (Table 2):

124
 Talajic et al.: Analytical concept of the impact of leadership on business performance

Table 2. Global and macro drivers of engagement.

For them, work–life balance is one of the key drivers for influence work–life balance negatively at some level,
highly engaged employees. In some companies, hard which can consequently lead to a decrease in level of
work is perceived as a high engagement, but organisations engagement.
very often underestimate the fact that hard work can The framework can be seen in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2. Employee engagement model and outcomes. Source: Wiley, Kowske and Herman (2010, 360).

125
 Research in Social Change

The model is composed of four areas: values and behaviours, Browne (2012) designed the EVP framework based on the
macro drivers, desired state, and consequences. The research of relation between EVP and company performance
above-proposed drivers can be found in the part values and (Figure 3).
behaviours. In the second part, those drivers are migrated and There are five elements in his EVP framework: benefits, pay,
mapped to the area of macro drivers. Management of these affiliation, work content, and career. Within every element
drivers leads to the third stage of the framework (desired there are key drivers that affect the final EVP results the most.
sate), which is employee engagement. Metrics such as profit An organisation should find the gap between the desired
or sustainable revenue, which are better with the higher level EVP and present culture (EVP), and try to decrease this
of engagement, can be found in the last part (consequences), gap. Special focus is put on different age groups within every
and correlation has been found among these metrics and element of the framework. The conclusion states that different
engagement. age groups have different performance in some drivers and
the importance of each driver changes during the work–life
cycle. Above all, leadership is very important in building a
3. Employment Value Proposition
high EVP.
Heger (2007) introduced a very important concept where
Employee value proposition (EVP) is a type of framework that he conducted research on connection between the EVP
posits a mechanism that can be used for gauging the value framework and employee engagement. He enriched the EVP
that an employee attaches to the organisation in which he framework with the engagement dimension to obtain a more
is employed, as well as for ascertaining how the employee robust EVP model and proposed the possible outcomes of
perceives it. This is an important concept because it represents business performance. He recognised the two parts related
the opinion that the employee has about the organisation in to the employee: rational and emotional, and also defined the
terms of benefits, culture, working environment and other level of engagement as a level of how much an employee
important dimensions that represent the general image of the invests each of these parts during work. The rational part
organisation. considers intellectual attributes, which include knowledge,

Figure 3. Dimensions of Employee Value Proposition model. Source: Browne (2012, 43).

126
 Talajic et al.: Analytical concept of the impact of leadership on business performance

resources and tools that employees need during working groups: discretionary effort, organisational advocacy and
time. The emotional part considers emotions, which include intention to stay. In this part, labour market opportunity is
inspiration, passion and purpose. The proposed model has introduced as an independent variable because the level of
three main parts: EVP measures, engagement measures labour market opportunity has an impact on the engagement
and business outcomes (Figure 4). The EVP measures part results. If an organisation has a low level of engagement and
consists of three groups: EVP importance, EVP fulfilment the level of market opportunity is low as well, the organisation
and EVP discrepancy. At the beginning, 41 measures are will worry less than in the case when the market opportunity is
introduced and grouped into 11 categories. In a survey, the high. In the case when market opportunity level is high, there
employees first mark the importance of each attribute, and is higher risk of employee turnover. The ‘business outcomes’
then they mark the same attributes with the level of fulfilment. part consists of business outcomes driven by EVP measures
The calculated difference between EVP importance and and engagement measures grouped into the three measure
EVP fulfilment is EVP discrepancy value. The smaller the groups: account receivable, productivity and profit margin.
discrepancy value, the better. Engagement index is calculated Voluntary turnover is an independent variable.
in the part of engagement measures. The inputs for this The proposed framework comprehensively describes the
calculation are EVP discrepancy value and survey results connection between EVP and engagement, and consequently
related to specific engagement attributes divided into three their joint impact on the business results.

Figure 4. Linkage model of the EVP, employee engagement and business outcome measures. Source: Heger (2007, 125).AR, accounts
receivable.

127
Research in Social Change

4. Employee Types

Different employees bring different traits, attitudes and

competencies. For this reason, people management is a
difficult and complex task for every leader. One employee
could be very creative and innovative, but another might prefer
repetitive and less creative work. They are both valuable for
the organisation, but each of them needs a different leadership
approach. For the leader it is impossible to have a different
approach for each employee, but the grouping of employees
with similar characteristics and needs could be a valuable
concept. In that case, leaders do not have to consider the
same approach for each employee. Instead, leaders have the
same approach for all employees within one group. It does
not mean that leaders do not have to consider an individual
approach in many situations, but in the strategical thinking
process a leader should consider the group, not individuals.
Figure 5. Healthy and unhealthy engagement level – impact on
One of the differentiators between different groups is, as performance.
mentioned in the previous sections, the level of engagement.
On the other side, engagement cannot be the only attribute by
which groups will be made. Heger (2007) made a clear distinction between satisfaction
Aziz, Wuensch and Brandon (2010) introduced six groups and employee engagement and put satisfaction as an attribute
with different levels of engagement, but they also recognised that should be considered when differentiating groups of
the work–life balance as an important factor for employees employees. An employee could be satisfied, but not engaged
related to the final performance. For that reason, work–life (for example: someone who is very satisfied at work can feel
balance should be considered as an important differentiator satisfied just because they can shirk and not work a lot; this
whilst dividing the employees into homogeneous groups. is a disengaged employee). An engaged employee should be
Positive correlation between employee engagement and satisfied.
performance has been demonstrated in many researches, Potential is the dimension that leaders should consider when
but a lacuna observed in almost all researches is that the dividing their employees into groups. An employee with
possibility of having ‘too many’ engaged employees has high potential could drive innovation, is creative, and wields
not been considered. In this case there is a risk of work–life the capability for creating an impact within and outside the
balance decrease, which can consequently lead to burn-out enterprise. It is interesting that these employees can be in an
and performance decrease. engaged or disengaged status. It is best to have an employee
The impact of these two different engagement stages can be who has high potential and a high level of healthy engagement.
seen in Figure 5. In the stage of healthy engagement, work– It may seem that it would be the best for an organisation to
life balance and engagement level are in positive correlation have just this type of employees. However, it should be kept
and consequently improve the performance as well. The line in mind that such employees are very demanding to motivate
between these two stages is the moment where engagement and it is very difficult for leaders to manage them. On the
level is high enough and the maximum level of work–life other hand, such employees do not like simple and repetitive
balance is reached. When an employee is in an unhealthy work. Talajić, Vrankić and Kopal (2021) showed in their model
stage, work–life balance starts to decrease and performance that there should be around 30% of such employees for the
level decreases as well. At the beginning of the unhealthy organisation to have an optimal business result.
stage, the performance still increases because the decrease in The dimensions that should be included during the division of
work–life balance level still does not have a significant impact employees of an organisation into groups are: engagement
on performance. As the work–life balance further deteriorates, level, work–life balance, EVP, satisfaction and potential.
it starts to have a significant impact on performance and leads Talajić, Vrankić and Kopal (2021) divided employees into
to its decrease. three groups: Enthusiast, Worker and Parasite, and their
Another dimension that differentiates employee groups is characteristics by the above-mentioned five dimensions are
the EVP measure. EVP is in close relation with engagement. provided below (Tables 3–5).
If leaders influence the EVP, they could improve employee They concluded that in the long run the ‘Parasite’ should not
engagement. exist; and that 29% of all employees should be ‘Enthusiasts’,

128
 Talajic et al.: Analytical concept of the impact of leadership on business performance

Table 3. Type ‘Enthusiast’.

Table 4. Type ‘Worker’.

Table 5. Type ‘Parasite’.

with the remainder (71%) needing to be the ‘Worker’ type. through the direction of human assistants—a human and
This will be a very important metric in the proposed concept. social achievement that stems from the leader’s understanding
of his or her fellow workers and the relationship of their
individual goals to the group’s aim.’ Pretince (2004) thinks that
5. Leadership Theories and Styles
leaders should have an individual leadership pattern for every
employee, making it possible to activate employees’ intrinsic
Leaders should justify the goals of the company in respect motivation for work. Sharma and Jain (2013) extended this with
of profit and they must motivate their employees to invest the fact that different people need different leadership styles.
more effort, use their full potential and discharge their day- According to them, the followers are the ones who assess
to-day tasks as well as creative functions with a high degree if the leaders are successful. They defined leadership ‘as a
of engagement. These three aspects are not in a positive process by which a person influences other to accomplish an
correlation sometimes, which makes the role of a leader very objective and directs the organisation in a way that makes it
demanding and difficult. more cohesive and coherent.’
Rush (2012) stressed the important skills of great leaders, Dries and Pepermans (2012) undertook research on
such as active listening, good conflict management, good leadership potential with recognition of 77 identification criteria
decision making, strategic thinking and subordinates’ grouped into 13 factors (Figure 6).
empowerment. Stowell and Mead (2020) identified eight They grouped factors in four quadrants and named them
categories that followers like in their leaders: communication, Analytical skills, Learning agility, Drive and Emergent
being interpersonal, ethics, personality, coach and feedback leadership. In the first quadrant they measured leaders’
giver, credibility, strategy envision and basic management. analytical skills, which include factor-related intellectual
They defined leadership as ‘the accomplishment of a goal curiosity, strategic thinking, problem solving and potential

129
Research in Social Change

Figure 6. Four quadrants of leadership factors. Source: Dries and Pepermans (2012, 365).

of decision making. In the second quadrant about learning dedicated to emergent leadership with motivation to lead,
agility, the focus is on emotional intelligence, adaptability and self-promotion and stakeholder sensitivity as a crucial factor
willingness to learn. The third quadrant provides insights into to measure. The above model suggests one possible means
the potential that leaders possess to awaken and sustain the that can be employed for the measuring of every factor
drive in employees working under them to, in turn, realise including the coefficient of determination (R2), which indicates
their maximum potential with regard to both day-to-day tasks the effect size range across studies that included a specific
and creative functions, by using the factors of dedication, factor as a predictor of leadership efficiency, as indicated in
results orientation and perseverance. The final quadrant is Tables 6–9.

Table 6. Suggestions for measures related to quadrant I (Analytical skills).

Source: Dries and Pepermans (2012, 371).

130
 Talajic et al.: Analytical concept of the impact of leadership on business performance

Table 7. Suggestions for measures related to quadrant II (Learning agility).

Source: Dries and Pepermans (2012, 372).

Table 8. Suggestions for measures related to quadrant III (Drive).

Source: Dries and Pepermans (2012, 372).

131
Research in Social Change

Table 9. Suggestions for measures related to quadrant IV (Emergent leadership).

Source: Dries and Pepermans (2012, 373).

Different leadership theories have been introduced and These styles are more often used, and they will be used in
often connected with a specific leadership style. Bass the final proposed framework of this paper. The transactional
(1990) introduced three different theories: trait, event and leadership style is oriented towards the results and less
transformational. For the trait theory, people become leaders focussed on people. There is low trust and almost no
because of their personality traits, while for the event theory, education focus. The transformational style is more focussed
people become leaders because of an important event on people motivation and mentoring. This style is especially
that inspires them to take up the mantle of leadership. The used in the situation of change. Leaders that use servant
transformational theory supposes that people become leaders leadership style are those who listen with empathy, help
because they want to grow that way and they are ready to people grow and build a culture of trust. This style is similar
learn all the necessary skills. to transformational leadership but is more used in more
Khan and Nawaz (2016), although their research was ordinary situations. Ethical leadership style is characterised
conducted using different literature as a basis, recognised by reliability, transparency, integrity, non-discrimination and
these consolidated theories: ‘great-man’ theory (a special honesty. Leaders with abusive leadership style have low self-
event is made for someone to be a leader), the trait theory esteem, and they typically tend to be unreliable and unethical.
(someone is a leader because of their personality traits), the This leadership style will not be included in the framework
situational theory (leaders adjust the leadership style to the because this style is not the one that drives a positive effect
situation and there is no unique style), the behaviour theory on business results.
(every person has a unique style of leadership with which they Nandasinghe (2020) emphasised that leadership styles have
feel most comfortable), the process theory (the role and focus an impact on the performance of the organisation. For them,
of leaders is the well-being of others, and social responsibility), the relation-oriented style in general has a better impact on
the transactional theory (followers are rewarded for goal an organisation’s performance than the task-oriented one.
accomplishment while leaders are more focussed on results It should be pointed out here that some urgent situations
and less focussed on people) and transformational theory (the necessitate giving preference to the task-oriented style over
focus is on people and motivation, including ethics and team the relation-oriented one.
benefits as well). Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958) introduced the concept of
Leaders do not use the same style all the time and they mix ‘forces in leadership’. They recognised ‘forces in the leader’,
them, even though they can prefer one style over another. It ‘forces in the subordinates’ and ‘forces in the situation’. The
depends on the situation they have to manage factors such as ‘force in the leader’ includes the leader’s personality, value
company culture, employee type, etc. system, confidence in subordinates, preferred leadership
Murari (2011) introduced five distinct leadership styles: style, and self-confidence in an uncertain situation. The ‘force
transactional, transformational, abusive, servant and ethical. in the subordinate’ deals with the fact of the followers being

132
 Talajic et al.: Analytical concept of the impact of leadership on business performance

characterised by different expectations and personalities (the Many studies have shown the importance of leadership
numerous variants among which might admit categorisation in reaching a high level of engagement. For that reason,
across a wide spectrum). ‘In a climate of mutual confidence leadership will be an important part of the concept that will be
and respect, people tend to feel less threatened by deviations presented in the next section.
from normal practice, which in turn makes a higher degree of This section presents previous research related to employee
flexibility possible in the whole relationship’ (Tannenbaum and motivation and the dimensions that particularly affect this
Schmidt 1958). The ‘force in the situation’ is driven by the type motivation. As a general conclusion from the previous
of organisation, specific situational problems and the pressure research publications, the following dimensions were
of deadlines. highlighted through which a leader can influence employee
Xu and Thomas (2011) used 360-degree feedback for the motivation: engagement, EVP, potential, satisfaction and
organisation from New Zealand, where they calculated work–life balance. Through these dimensions, leaders not
the correlation of leadership attributes with employee only motivate employees but also build an organisational
engagement level. They found a positive correlation of team culture that will lead to better business results. This puts the
support, performance effectiveness and integrity with level of leader at the centre of the entire process. The entire process
engagement. Team support had the highest correlation factor, will be shown in the creation of the leadership concept in the
which means that leaders should pay attention to creating next section. The concept that follows is a novelty in relation
team spirit and support as a priority in the leading process. to previous researches, because unlike the previous ones
‘Employee engagement is harnessing of organisation that analysed the dimensions of motivation in silos (separated
members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people from each other), all these dimensions will be integrated and
employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and interconnected into a concept through which leaders will be
emotionally during role performances.’ (Kahn 1990). This able to comprehensively see the culture of the organisation
means that through availability, safety and meaning the leader and work on its improvement. This will be done in the next
can influence employee engagement. section.
Judge and Piccolo (2004) found a strong positive correlation
between transformational leadership and satisfaction. This
6. Analytical Leadership Framework Proposition
could lead to a higher engagement level. Erkutlu (2008) and
Lee (2005) found a connection between transformational
leadership and commitment. They showed a positive A review of the above researches shows how complex the
correlation, which can lead to an engagement level increase entire process of developing a culture that promotes business
as well. Griffin, Parker and Mason (2010) found that a clearly growth and satisfaction of the organisation’s employees is. In
stated leader’s vision can have a positive impact on adaptivity this section, the above researches will be integrated into a
and proactivity. Those two are important forces that influence unique conceptual framework that will serve as a guide for
engagement. leaders in terms of what they must take into account when
Ashfaq, Abid and Ilyas (2021) discovered that ethical building a culture of business growth, how each part of the
leadership has an impact on self-efficacy and commitment, framework affects the entire system and how the added value
which in turn increases engagement. of the organisation is actually generated. Until now, mostly
Devi and Narayanamma (2016) demonstrated strong positive individual areas have been observed separately. The novelty
correlation between two leadership styles (transformational of this paper is the design of a framework that integrates
and transactional) and the level of engagement. They used everything into one system. This framework, together with
the UWES tool for measuring employee engagement, its inputs (especially those from the Environment section),
together with a multifactor leadership questionary to measure provides not only the possibility of additional data analysis
the leadership style. The transformational leadership style in the form of prediction of employee behaviour but also the
had a greater impact on engagement than the transactional prescription of future activities for the improvement of the
one. Jayanto and Basbeth (2021) found that transformational entire system.
leadership is positively correlated to employee engagement, The duality of this concept is manifested through scientific and
and that the inspirational motivation is the dimension practical contribution. The scientific theoretical contribution is
of leadership that has the highest impact on employee manifested through the unification of different theories into
engagement. Benazir (2015) conducted research on the one new comprehensive concept that is not found in recent
impact of leadership and rewarding on employee engagement available literature. On the other hand, in a practical sense,
in the banking sector of India. The estimated correlation leaders can, based on this concept, practically use it to set
between reward and engagement was 0.283, while the their strategic goals in a way that would support the business
correlation between leadership and engagement was 0.355. growth of the organisation. In addition to setting strategic

133
Research in Social Change

goals, leaders can practically use the concept to take a deeper accordingly. Their main tool is the leadership style and the
look at each element, analyse the data they collect for each results of the analyses they get from the Environment area.
of the elements and narrow their views on those parts that Using the results and data obtained from this area, they
can have the most influence on improving the organisation’s carry out suitable adaptations in their leadership style, and
culture and bringing about better business results. innovatively formulate programmes using which to periodically
In general, the framework consists of four main areas: identify areas requiring improvements, as well as define
Environment, Leadership, People and Performance. activities needing to be implemented that would result in the
The ‘Environment’ area represents the culture of organisations execution of those improvements, simultaneously leading to
and the general working environment. There are five sub-areas better business performances. The leadership styles they use
in this area. Sub-area 1 (EVP) represents the part related are transformational, transactional, servant and ethical.
to the employment value proposition, where, by surveying ‘People’ is another big area inside the framework. Employees
employees, the gap among the fulfilment of expectations are the ones who form the culture of the organisation. By
for a certain attribute and the importance of a particular their behaviour, they determine what the culture will be and
attribute is calculated. The obtained gap (discrepancy) is an further determine the key values in the ‘Environment’ area.
important indicator for the leader as to the direction in which In this area, two sub-areas are distinguished: 7a (Individual
the strategy should be adjusted, and the attributes with which Employee) and 7b (Group of Employees). For the leader, 7a is
the employee is not satisfied. Sub-area 2 (Engagement) abuts important because of the individual approach to the employee
on this part. In sub-area 1, the leader already receives signals that aims to recognise the employee’s needs and for being
about the potential level of engagement, and in sub-area 2 it able to calculate individual values from the ‘Environment’
is further calculated using the attribute groups’ discretionary area. On the other hand, each of these individual values make
effort, organisational advocacy and intention to stay. Through it possible to design 7b and group employees into relatively
these two sub-areas, the leader already has an overall picture homogeneous groups. Through the group view, on the one
of the level of employee engagement and how the employees hand, the leader makes general strategic management
perceive the company. In sub-area 3 (Potential), the leader decisions adapted to each of the groups; but, on the other,
monitors the potential of the employees. Potential can be he also manages the results of the organisation by optimising
monitored either through achieved results or through various the share of individual groups of employees in the total
knowledge tests. This part is important for the leader in order to population. As already mentioned, Talajić, Vrankić and Kopal
be able to assign adequate tasks to the employees according (2021) calculated the optimal shares of individual groups in
to the levels of their potential, but also to be able to know what the population for business results to be optimal. A population
kind of employee is needed for the required position when composed only of the most ambitious, the most creative and
hiring a new employee. In sub-area 4 (Satisfaction) the leader the ones with the highest possible potential is not optimal. It is
measures employee satisfaction. Although this sub-area is almost impossible for a leader to manage such a population
partly connected with sub-area 2, it is important to measure because such employees are also looking for creative work.
it separately, since there can be situations of an employee Very often, organisations have tasks that are operational in
who is engaged and not satisfied, and vice versa (that the nature and are not interesting to the ‘best’ group of employees.
employee is satisfied but not engaged). For example, an That is why the leader must optimise through the optimal
employee can be satisfied because he can slack off and rest shares of groups. The same authors divide employees into
at work, which means that he is not engaged. That is why the ‘Enthusiast’, ‘Worker’ and ‘Parasite’ groups (mentioned in
leaders must monitor this part with special focus. The final previous sections). These groups are also suggested for using
sub-area 5 (Work–life balance) is also closely related to sub- and managing this framework. In the long run it has been
areas 1 and 2, but it needs to be additionally monitored. This demonstrated by Talajić, Vrankić and Kopal (2021) that an
is especially important in the context of engagement and the employee population that consists of 29% of ‘Enthusiast’ and
possibility that due to an imbalance in the work–life balance, 71% ‘Worker’ is optimal for the organisation in order to derive
the employee goes into the phase of unhealthy engagement, optimal business results. They also observed that in the short
which can result in burn-out and deterioration in all elements run, there was a tendency of the employee population towards
of business performance. a composition largely dominated by Workers and Enthusiasts,
The next big area is ‘Leadership’. In this area there is one but to a minimal extent also unavoidably involving Parasites,
sub-area (sub-area 6) related to leaders. Leaders play an e.g. in one case, a mix of 24.26% ‘Enthusiast’, 58.58% ‘Worker’
extremely important role in this framework. Their task is to and 17.16% ‘Parasite’ was observed; such observations lend
build the culture of the organisation (area: Environment), credence to the view that in the short-run, it is inevitable that
motivate employees (area: People), monitor business results an organisation will have at least a few Parasites. A possible
(area: Performance) and make adjustments in management reason for this is the fact that it takes time to recognise the

134
 Talajic et al.: Analytical concept of the impact of leadership on business performance

‘Parasite’ type, and that they very often skilfully manipulate The proposed concept was validated through its application in
the organisation. However, in the long run, if the organisation a department (within the IT division) within a Croatian bank.
monitors the work of ‘Parasite’ employees effectively, they It was a department supporting the development of analytical
should not survive, or they should be redirected to one of the systems and data warehouses (DWH). The department
remaining two types. had 25 employees and was faced with a high turnover of
The last big area is ‘Performance’. In the end, everything employees (1 leave per month), with even those who had
is related to the performance of the organisation. Business been employed for only a brief while contributing significantly
results are a measure that determines how well a leader to the turnover. The problem (at the time, it was assumed to be
does the job and how good a culture the leader has built. a problem) was that mostly the best (‘Enthusiasts’) employees
Within this area, there is sub-area 8 (business outcomes). It left and it was difficult to find a suitable replacement. Together
includes productivity, profitability, margins, employee turnover, with the Human Resource (HR) department, an attempt
customer satisfaction and process efficiency. The organisation was made through the mentioned concept to locate the
should set up the key performance indicator (KPI) values and potential problem and ascertain whether the department
monitor the actual performance. really had bigger problems because these employees left
The described framework is represented in Figure 7. The the company. Measurements and analysis of each of the
mechanism of the framework works as indicated by the arrows. components of the concept were made. The results showed
The ‘Leader’ area affects the ‘People’ area. With leadership quite a large ‘EVP discrepancy’ within ‘1. EVP’ and a low level
style, the leader manages employees on the individual and of satisfaction within ‘4. Satisfaction’. In connection with the
group levels. The ‘People’ area through employees (individual final output (‘8. Business Outcomes’) of the department, it
and group) influences the ‘Environment’ area, building the was noticed that the more creative and more complex tasks
culture of the organisation and creating values in five sub- were still efficiently performed and the productivity was at a
areas within this area. Through these values, ‘Environment’ high level. However, the problem was in the productivity and
affects the area of ‘Leader’ in such a way that the leader efficient realisation of less complex operational tasks, and in
takes the data, analyses it and adjusts leadership method, the delays in performing less complex tasks. Looking again
and makes decisions in order to improve the values. This at the concept as a possible problem source, the element
is a cyclical process that happens continuously. Ultimately, ‘7b. Group of Employees’ was highlighted. Analysis of the
the ‘People’ area affects the ‘Performance’ area. It is the structure of the department’s employee population revealed
employees who, with their level of efficiency and effort, bring that the ‘Enthusiast’ type amounted to 45% and the ‘Worker’
better results to the organisation in all aspects. type 55% of this population, whereas the type ‘Parasite’

Figure 7. Analytical leadership framework.

Source: Author.

135
Research in Social Change

was not recognised. Comparing this result with the 29% The designed concept brings a dual benefit that manifests
‘Enthusiast’ suggested by Talajić, Vrankić and Kopal (2021), a itself through scientific and practical contributions. The
considerable deviation was noticed. Further analysis showed scientific contribution is manifested through the fact that
that the department did not have that many attractive activities the concept was created as a cluster of different theories
that it could give to the ‘Enthusiast’ type. Consequently, the and views united into one new system. This system offers
employees constituting this department were dissatisfied, a broader and comprehensive view of the mutual influences
which explains the facts of the ‘EVP discrepancy’ and the level of the elements with which the leader manages employees
of ‘satisfaction’ being unsatisfactory. The department had a lot and develops the culture of the organisation. Awareness of
of less-complex activities. The percentage of 55% ‘Worker’ the existence of connections and relations between these
type was not enough to finish all these activities. For that elements is one of the key contributions of this model. This
reason, some of those activities must be done by those coming kind of theoretical basis helps the leader in the strategic
under the ‘Enthusiast’ category. They are not interested in reflection on the issue of improving the culture of the
these activities and do not perform them efficiently. Owing to organisation through quality management of employees. This
the requirement to carry out these activities, which might be leads to a practical contribution that is manifested through the
perceived as mundane by those covered under this category, application of the concept in concrete business situations,
such individuals find their motivation levels falling, and one of which is described above in the paper itself. Leaders
accordingly, leave the organisation as the most likely outcome. can use this concept in such a way as would enable them
The conclusion was that a higher turnover of employees can to examine the building blocks of it and analyse each of the
be solved (reduced) in such a way that the replacement for an elements. As the concept also shows the mutual influences of
‘Enthusiast’-type employee that left should be a ‘Worker’ type. the components, the leader can immediately identify cause-
Productivity will continue to be high on complex tasks, and and-effect relationships. With a comprehensive analysis
the hiring of additional ‘Workers’ will improve the efficiency employing this concept, it is possible to focus on the parts
and timely completion of more operational and less complex that have the most impact on a positive business culture at a
tasks that are important for the department as well. Using this given moment. In the above example, the leader together with
strategy, in period of 1 year, the department reduced the share the HR department found the problematic part, which properly
of ‘Enthusiasts’ to about 32% and increased that of ‘Workers’ directed the focus to the source of the problem and its solution
to 68%. Follow-up measurements showed an increased level in the form of a change in the proportion in the population
of ‘Satisfaction’ and a smaller ‘EVP discrepancy’. In the end the comprised of ‘Enthusiast’ and ‘Worker’ types.
employee turnover was reduced to only 1 leave per 6 months. The beauty of this concept lies in the possibility of conducting
Owing to this helpful concept, which helped to understand the this kind of analysis and systematically solving various
interdependence between all parts of building the culture of problems.
the organisation, the department managed to improve its own This concept can also help in the classification of problems
culture and identify the root cause of the problem. in managing employees and building a quality culture. In
the example of the analytical support department, a more
detailed analysis of the concept led to the identification of a
7. Conclusion
non-optimal share of employees of a particular group, which
precisely classified one type of problem. Over time, as the
Managing people is a complex and difficult task. Leaders model is used, other types of problems will be recognised
influence employees with their methods and thereby create an and classified, which will enable the design of standards
organisational culture that encourages better organisational for classified problems, and thus again help leaders to
performance. Within this paper the general leadership more quickly discover the areas of the source of problems
framework is created. The general framework consists of and possible improvements obtainable resultant to such a
four major areas that influence each other: ‘Environment’, classification.
‘Leadership’, ‘People’ and ‘Performance’. Various studies have Critically, what is missing from this concept and needs
shown the importance of each of these areas and their sub- improvement are the standards for calculating the individual
areas, but a consolidated analysis of their mutual integration metrics behind each element of the concept. Almost each of the
and integrated view was lacking. This paper connected all components can be quantified, and therefore measurement
of this in one framework to make leaders conscious of the standards or scores for individual elements in the organisation
fact that these connections exist, to help them identify such can be proposed. Such a single metric standardisation and
connections, to make them aware of the complexity of the measurement recommendation would greatly help the
whole process and to point out the responsibility they need to leaders themselves in implementing the culture improvement
shoulder in this regard. strategy in the organisation. The first step in this improvement

136
 Talajic et al.: Analytical concept of the impact of leadership on business performance

is the research of recent literature that will ultimately lead to Ashfaq, F., G. Abid, and S. Ilyas. 2021. “Impact of Ethical Leader-
the implementation of the concrete quantitative dimension of ship on Employee Engagement: Role of Self-Efficacy and Orga-
this model (for example, measures of engagement or EVP). nizational Commitment.” European Journal of Investigation Health
In addition to the obvious practical contribution, with the Psychology and Education 11: 962–74. https://doi.org/10.3390/
quantification (score) of each of the elements, we strengthen ejihpe11030071.
the scientific contribution of the concept, since behind every Attridge, M. 2009. “Measuring and Managing Employee Engagement:
quantification measure there is a scientific basis. In addition, A Review of the Research and Business Literature.” Journal of
prescribing measurement standards reduces the risk of Workplace Behavioral Health 24 (4): 383–98.
subjective impressions and assessments, which ultimately Aziz, S., K. L. Wuensch, and H. R. Brandon. 2010. “A Comparison
leads to wrong conclusions and even manipulation. among Worker Types Using a Composite Approach and Median
An additional possibility of improving the concept is a clearer Splits.” The Psychological Record 60 (4): 627–42. https://psycnet.
investigation of the area of ‘People’. This specifically refers apa.org/record/2010-23608-006.
to researching the approach that a leader can have towards Bass, B. M. 1990. “Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research and
an employee individually or in a group. Such a systematic Managerial Applications.” New York: Free Press.
research and proposals of approach with concrete activities Benazir, N. I. 2015. “Impact of Rewards and Leadership on the
would greatly help leaders in correcting the approach to each Employee Engagement in Conventional Banking Sector of South-
employee or a certain homogeneous group of employees. The ern Punjab.” International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sci-
contribution itself would be based on proposed approaches, ences 57: 30–4. https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/
which would open the eyes of leaders, enabling them to define ILSHS.57.30.
new, more creative, and innovative approaches. Browne, R. 2012. “Employee Value Proposition.” Beacon Manage-
Damij et al. (2015) published a very interesting work on the ment Review: 37–43. https://www.sibm.edu/assets/pdf/beacon3.
motivation of the employee. Their main measuring instrument pdf#page=37.
was a questionnaire based on Herzberg’s dual-factor Chong, K. W., I. Harlan Smith, A. Sikula, Sr, and L. P. Anderson. 2011.
motivation theory. The questionnaire consists of 30 + 30 “The Key Characteristics of Different Types of Employees: A Sum-
questions related two factors: motivators and inhibitors. mary of Six Studies.” American Journal of Business 26 (1): 26–39.
Motivators are related to extrinsic motivational factors Damij, N., Z. Levnajić, V. Skrt Rejec, and J. Suklan. 2015. “What Moti-
while inhibitors are related to intrinsic motivational factors. vates Us for Work? Intricate Web of Factors beyond Money and
Using the questionary, they choose 30 factors and measured Prestige.” PLoS ONE 10 (7): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.
their importance on the motivation. The correlations among pone.0132641.
them were calculated as well. The immense novelty of their Devi, V. R., and P. L. Narayanamma. 2016. “Impact of Leadership
research lies in the fact that they proposed a social network Style on Employee Engagement.” Pacific Business International
analysis (SNA) model to see how one factor affects another in 1 (1): 91–8.
terms of network and how the decrease/increase in one factor Dries, N., and R. Pepermans. 2012, June. “How to Identify Leader-
can influence the others. ship Potential: Development and Testing of a Consensus Model.”
For the leadership concept proposed in this paper, the above Human Resources Management 51 (3): 361–85. https://doi.
research can be a great value addition in terms of adding the org/10.1002/hrm.21473.
new tool to the concept. That tool (especially the part with Erkutlu, H. 2008. “The Impact of Transformational Leadership on
an SNA) could help leaders to observe the connections and Organizational and Leadership Effectiveness: The Turkish Case.”
strength of connections among their employees, as well Journal of Management Development 27 (7): 708–26.
as the mutual influences of factors that have an impact on Finnegan, D. 2014. “How Much Does Employee Engagement Cor-
motivation. relate with Profitability.” In SHRM Annual Conference Analytics
Owing to all this, the importance of the designed concept Rethinking Retention and Engagement, June 24, 2014, Orlando.
is manifested in the fact that it essentially brings a new Griffin, M., S. K. Parker, and C. Mason. 2010. “Leaders Vision and the
perspective and opens the door wide for all the improvements Development of Adaptive and Proactive Performance: A Longitudi-
mentioned above. nal Study.” Journal of Applied Psychology 95 (1): 174–82.
Heger, B. K. 2007. “Linking the Employment Value Proposition (EVP)
to Employee Engagement and Business Outcomes: Preliminary
References
Findings from Linkage Research Pilot Study.” Oranization Devel-
opment Journal 25 (2): 121–32.
Albrecht, S. L. 2010. “Handbook of Employee Engagement – Per- Heim, D. 2017. “4 Types of Workers and How to Manage them”.
spectives. Issues, Research and Practice.” UK: Edward Elgar Wipro. Accessed September 15, 2022. https://hub.appirio.com/
Publishing. blogs/4-types-of-workers-and-how-to-manage-them.

137
 Research in Social Change

Jayanto, A. A., and F. Basbeth. 2021, June. “The Transformational Accessed on August 12, 2022. https://www.employment-studies.
Leadership Impact on Employee Engagement, and the Moderating co.uk/system/files/resources/files/447.pdf.
Role of Organization Culture and a Study in Healthcare System.” Romero, L. E. 2016. “The 3 Basis Types of Employees: A Simple
South East Asia Journal of Contemporary Business, Economics Guide for Leaders and HR Professionals.” Forbes. Accessed June
and Law 24 (4): 125–32. 22, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/luisromero/2016/02/23/
Jewel, E., and T. Reznik. 2016. “Exploring the Dynamics of Employee the-3-basic-types-of-employees-a-simple-guide-for-leaders-hr-
Engagement.” The Jabian Journal 37. https://journal.jabian. professionals/?sh=2f7112e722cb.
com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Exploring-the-Dynamics-of- Rush, G. 2012, November. “Why We Need Leaders. Realizing Lead-
Employee-Engagement-jabian-journal.pdf. ership(1)”. Accessed August 23, 2022. https://www.mgrconsulting.
Judge, T., and R. Piccolo. 2004. “Transformational and Transactional com/index.php/44-focused-enewsletters-gary-rush-facilitation/
Leadership: A Meta – Analytic Test of Their Relative Validity.” Jour- leadership-concepts-by-gary-rush-facilitation/226-why-we-need-
nal of Applied Psychology 89 (5): 755–68. leaders.
Kahn, W. 1990. “Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement Schaufeli, W., M. Salanova, V. “Gonzalez-Roma, and A. Bakker.
and Disengagement at Work.” Academy of Management Journal 2002. The Measurement of Engagement and Burnout: A Two
33: 692–724. Sample Confirmatory Factor Analytic Approach.” Journal of Hap-
Khan, Z. A., and A. Nawaz. 2016, January. “Leadership Theories piness Study 3: 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015630930326.
and Styles: A Literature Review.” Journal of Resources Devel- Sharma, M. K., and S. Jain. 2013. “Leadership Management: Prin-
opment and Management 16. https://www.researchgate.net/ ciples, Models and Theories.” Global Journal of Management and
publication/293885908_Leadership_Theories_and_Styles_A_ Business Studies 3 (3): 309–18. http://www.ripublication.com/
Literature_Review. gjmbs.htm.
Kumar, V., and A. Pansari. 2015. “Measuring the Benefits of Employee Soane, E., C. Truss, A. Shantz, C. Rees, and M. Gatenby. 2012.
Engagement.” MIT Sloan Management Review 56 (4). “Development and Application of a New Measure of Employee
Lee, J. 2005. “Effects of Leadership and Leader-Member Exchange Engagement: The ISA Engagement Scale.” Human Resource
on Commitment.” Leadership & Organization Development Jour- Development International 15 (5): 529–47.
nal 26 (8): 655–72. Stowell, S. J., and S. S. Mead. 2020, March. “What People Want in
Murari, K. 2011, December. “Just! Five Distinct Leadership Styles.” Inter- a Leaders? How do you Measure Up? Training Industry Maga-
national Journal of Research in Commerce & Management 2 (12): zine.” Accessed August 3, 2022. https://trainingindustry.com/
30–6. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327307051_just_ magazine/mar-apr-2020/what-people-want-in-a-leader-how-do-
five_distinct_leadership_styles. you-measure-up/.
Nandasinghe, G. 2020, February. “Leadership and Organization Per- Talajić, M., I. Vrankić, and R. Kopal. 2021.” Analytical Approach to
formance: A Review on Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives.” the Influence of Motivation on the Dynamics of Heterogeneous
Global Journal of Management and Business Research 20 (4): Employees and Expected Average Costs of Efficient Work.”
20–41. Zagreb International Review of Economics & Business 24 (2):
Oehler, K. 2015. “2015 Trends in Global Employee Engagement.” 77–104.
Accessed June 10, 2022. https://www.sigmoidcurve.com/assets/ Tannenbaum, R., and W. H. Schmidt. 1958, April. “How to Choose a
Uploads/2015-trends-in-global-employee-engagement-sigmoid- Leadership Pattern.” Harvard Business Review 36 (2): 95–101.
connect.pdf. Wiley, W., B. J. Kowske, and A. E. Herman. 2010. “Developing and
Pretince, W. 2004, January. “Understanding Leadership.” Harvard Busi- Validating a Global Model of Employee Engagement.” In Handbook
ness Review. https://hbr.org/2004/01/understanding-leadership. of Employee Engagement, edited by Albrecht S. L., 351–64. UK:
Rich, B. L., J. Lepine, and E. Crawford. 2010. “Job Engagement: Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781849806374.
Antecedents and Effects on Job Performance.” Academy of Man- Xu, J., and H. C. Thomas. 2011. “How Can Leaders Achieve High
agement Journal 53 (3): 617–35. Employee Engagement?” Leadership & Organization Develop-
Robinson, D., H. Hooker, and S. Hayday. 2007. “Engagement: The ment Journal 32 (4): 399–416. https://doi.org/10.1108/0143773
Continuing Story.” Brighton, UK: Institute for Employment Studies. 1111134661.

138