The impact of division managers' leadership styles on the willingness of employees to exert extra effort in the Veterans Benefits Administration

Research has shown a positive relationship between managerial leadership style and employee extra effort as measured by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) 5X. However, there was a lack of research on the nature of leadership and employee extra effort within the federal government. This study was designed to determine the impact of the leadership style of VBA division managers on employee motivation to exert extra effort towards processing disability compensation claims. The data was collected from 46 division managers (MLQ 5X Leader Form) and 230 of their associated employees (MLQ 5X Rater Form). The results indicated that for this sample, division manager leadership style was not predictive of employee willingness to exert extra effort. Suggestions were offered as to why the data did not support any of the hypotheses. The implications of this study, the limitations of this study, and recommendations for future research were also presented.