This study examined whether transformational leadership would be affected by the predominance of a particular guna (sattva, rajas and tamas) in a leader and his or her belief in Karma Yoga. An experiment was conducted using a sample of 110 marketing executives working in a financial services firm in eastern India. A 2 × 2 + 1 factorial design was used to manipulate the three gunas (sattva, rajas and tamas) and Karma Yoga. Sattva and rajas were crossed with Karma Yoga (yes or no) to produce four cells, with tamas being the fifth cell. Transformational leadership was the measured variable. Results show that compared to rajas, sattva enhances transformational leadership, whereas tamas reduces it. Further, Karma Yoga enhances transformational leadership when the leader is sattvic, but does not enhance transformational leadership when the leader is rajasic. Results imply that organizations interested in enhancing transformational leadership should develop sattvic qualities in their managers and encourage them to be duty oriented.
AswegenA.EngelbrechtA. (2009). The relationship between transformational leadership, integrity and an ethical climate in organisations. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 7(1), 221–229.
2.
BanerjiP.KrishnanV. R. (2000). Ethical preferences of transformational leaders: An empirical investigation. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 21(8), 405–413.
3.
BarlingJ.SlaterF.KellowayE. K. (2000). Transformational leadership and emotional intelligence: An exploratory study. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 21(3), 157–161.
BhalK. T.DebnathN. (2006). Conceptualising and measuring gunas: Predictor of workplace ethics of Indian professionals. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 6(2), 169–188.
6.
BiswasM. (2009). Personality and organization citizenship behaviour: An Indian argument—An application of structural equation modelling using PLS algorithm. Vilakshan: The XIMB Journal of Management, 7(1), 77–102.
7.
BiswasM. (2010). In search of personality inventory for Indian management: An application of structural equation modeling. Journal of Services Research, 10(1), 101–123.
8.
BonoJ. E.JudgeT. A. (2004). Personality and transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(5), 901–910.
9.
BurnsJ. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.
10.
ChakrabortyS. K. (1988). Guna dynamics can enrich transactional analysis. Vikalpa, 13(3), 40–50.
11.
ChatterjeeA.KrishnanV. R. (2007). Impact of spirituality and political skills on transformational leadership. Great Lakes Herald, 1(1), 20–38.
12.
ClarkeN. (2010). Emotional intelligence and its relationship to transformational leadership and key project manager competences. Project Management Journal, 41(2), 5–20.
13.
ConoraM. A. (2010). The relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership: A Hispanic American examination. The Business Journal of Hispanic Research, 4(1), 22–34.
14.
DasR. C. (1987). The Gita typology of personality: An inventory. Journal of Indian Psychology, 6(1&2), 7–12.
15.
DeshpandeS.NagendraH. R.RaghuramN. (2008). A randomized control trial of the effect of yoga on gunas (personality) and self esteem in normal healthy volunteers. International Journal of Yoga, 2, 13–21.
16.
HouseR. J.SpanglerW. D.WoyckeJ. (1991). Personality and charisma in the US presidency: A psychological theory of leader effectiveness. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36(3), 364–396.
17.
JudgeT. A.BonoJ. E. (2004). Five-actor model of personality and transformational leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(5), 751–765.
18.
KaurP.SinhaA. K. (1992). Dimensions of guna in organizational setting. Vikalpa, 17(3), 27–32.
19.
KejriwalA.KrishnanV. (2004). Impact of Vedic worldview and gunas on transformational leadership. Vikalpa, 29(1), 29–40.
20.
KellowayE. K.BarlingJ.HelleurJ. (2000). Enhancing transformational leadership: The roles of training and feedback. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 21(3), 145–149.
21.
KrishnanV. R. (2000). Value systems of transformational leaders: An empirical investigation. Paper presented at the 28th Conference on Value Inquiry, Beaumont, Texas.
22.
KrishnanV. R. (2001). Value systems of transformational leaders. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 22(3), 126–132.
23.
KrishnanV. R. (2007). Effect of transformational leadership and leader’s power on follower’s duty-orientation and spirituality. Great Lakes Herald, 1(2), 48–70.
24.
KrishnanV. R. (2008). The impact of transformational leadership on followers’ duty orientation and spirituality. Journal of Human Values, 14(1), 11–22.
25.
KrishnanV. R. (2009). Transformational Leadership Questionnaire—Form 9. Chennai, India: Great Lakes Institute of Management.
26.
MadhuB.KrishnanV. R. (2005). Impact of transformational leadership and karma yoga on organizational citizenship behaviour. Prestige Journal of Management and Research, 9(1), 1–20.
27.
MehraP.KrishnanV. R. (2005). Impact of svadharma-orientation on transformational leadership and followers’ trust in leader. Journal of Indian Psychology, 23(1), 1–11.
28.
MohanV.SandhuS. (1986). Development of scale to measure sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic guna. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 12(1), 46–52.
29.
MullaZ. R.KrishnanV. R. (2006). Karma yoga: A conceptualization and validation of the Indian philosophy of work. Journal of Indian Psychology, 24(1&2), 26–43.
30.
MullaZ. R.KrishnanV. R. (2007). Karma-yoga: Construct validation using value systems and emotional intelligence. South Asian Journal of Management, 14(4), 116–136.
31.
MullaZ. R.KrishnanV. R. (2008). Karma-yoga, the Indian work ideal and its relationship with empathy. Psychology and Developing Societies, 20(1), 27–49.
32.
MullaZ. R.KrishnanV. R. (2010). Do karma-yogis made better leaders? Exploring the relationship between the leader’s karma yoga and transformational leadership. Journal of Human Values, 15(2), 167–183.
33.
NarayananJ.KrishnanV. R. (2003). Impact of sattva and rajas gunas on transformational leadership and karma yoga. Journal of Indian Psychology, 21(2), 1–11.
34.
SebastianK. A.MathewV. G. (2002). Three gunas and PSI experience: A study of PSI experience in relation to inertia, activation and stability. Journal of Indian Psychology, 20(2), 44–48.
