The Influence of Transparency on Leaders' Behaviors: A Study among the Leaders of the Ministry of Finance, Yemen.

The Influence of Transparency on the Leaders' Behaviors

A Study among the Leaders

of the Ministry of Finance, Yemen

Supervisor: Dr. Murad Al-Nashmi

Eyad Nasser Al-Samman (201010047) Master of Business Administration Open University Malaysia (OUM)

Sana'a, Yemen, April 2012 © 2012 Eyad Al-Samman

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge Dr. Murad Al-Nashmi, the subject's facilitator, who supported

and encouraged me to achieve this research with his valuable guidance and

recommendations. During my several calls, meetings, and visits to his office to discuss issues

related to the subject and research, Dr. Al-Nashmi showed his vast knowledge, patience,

simplicity, and welcoming to all my comments and remarks. He was really a major catalyst

for me to achieve this research.

My great and warm thanks are also due to the deputy minister’s assistant of regulation and

computerizing affairs sector in the Ministry of Finance in Yemen, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Al-

Mansoob, who dedicated portion of his valuable time to assist me in disseminating the

questionnaire within the ministry and who validated its questions.

I would also like to acknowledge the invaluable suggestions and unfailing support that I have

received from the Ministry of Finance’s leaders including Fahd Ghaleb, Muhammad Qaid,

and Hameed Hasan. A special thank is dedicated to Ahmed Hajar, the deputy minister’s

assistant of planning and following up sector, who provided me with information and

suggestions concerning the research. Also, I would like to thank all leaders who responded

the questionnaire for their support and time; this research would not have been possible

without them.

Finally, I would like to thank my mother and my family's members for supporting and

motivating me during the days that I spent for preparing and writing this research. I know

they appreciate my efforts, and I truly appreciate their consideration and support.

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ABSTRACT

This study explores the influence of transparency on the leaders’ behaviors working in the

Ministry of Finance in Yemen through a behavioral perspective. According to Bond (2010),

transparency is known to be an important factor when fighting corruption in governments,

companies, and organizations. Understanding the behavioral influence of transparency on the

government leaders is an essential issue in this era. This knowledge can fill the gap and create

panoramic view for required procedures and actions to have more transparent leaders, more

transparent government entities, and consequently more transparent societies.

This quantitative study was designed to examine the influence of transparency on the

behaviors of the leaders working in a government entity by using the Multifactor Leadership

Questionnaire (MLQ) (Avolio & Bass, 2004) and the dimensions of transparency

questionnaire developed by Rawlins (2008). Data were collected from the responses of

leaders working in the Ministry of Finance in Yemen.

Results show that the transparency and its dimensions (i.e., overall transparency,

participation, substantial information, and accountability) correlated significantly (positively)

with the leaders’ behaviors in the mentioned government entity while the dimension of

secrecy correlated significantly and inversely (negatively) with the leaders’ behaviors. The

most influential dimension of transparency on the behaviors of leaders is the overall

transparency applied within the ministry.

The findings of this research indicated that increasing the level of transparency dimensions

such as participation, substantial information, and accountability will positively enhance and

improve the leaders’ behaviors towards their subordinates and towards their ministry whereas

decreasing the levels of secrecy—as a reverse dimension to transparency—will positively

enhance and improve the leaders’ behaviors.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ……………………………………………………………………… iii

ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………………...… iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………………..………....… v

LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………………………..…… vii

LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………………………………...…..... viii

CHAPTER I …………………………………………………………………………..……......… 1

INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………………......… 1

1.1. Background …………………………………………………………………...……......… 1

1.2. Problem Statement ………………………………………………………..…………....… 2

1.3. Research Questions ………………………………………………………..…………...… 3

1.4. Research Objectives ……………………………………………………..…..………....… 3

1.5. Research Significance ……………………………………………………..…………...… 4

CHAPTER II …………………………………………………………………………………...… 6

LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………………………………...… 6

2.1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………….……….....… 6

2.2. The Concept of Transparency …………………………………………………………...… 6

2.3. Dimensions and Forms of Transparency ………………………………………..……...… 10

2.4. Concepts Related to the Leaders' Behaviors ……………………….…………………...… 13

2.5. Behaviors of a Transparent Leader ………………………………...…………………...… 15

2.6. Relationship between Transparency and Leaders' Behaviors ………………...………...… 17

2.7. Research Framework ………………………………………….…...…………………...… 18

2.8. Research Hypotheses ………………………………………..…………..……………...… 19

2.9. Summary ………………………………………………………….……..……………...… 19

CHAPTER III ………………………………………………………………..………………...… 21

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ……………………...……………………………………...… 21

3.1. Introduction …………………………..……………..………………………..………...… 21

3.2. Research Design ……………………………………….……………………..………...… 21

3.3. Research Location …….…………………………………….………………..………...… 21

3.4. Unit of Analysis ……………………………………………………...…….…………...… 22

3.5. Population and Sampling Method …………………………………….………………...… 22

3.5.1 Population ………………………………………………………………….…………...… 22

3.5.2 Sample ……………………………………………………………..……………………... 23

3.6. Research Instrument ……………………………..……………………………………...… 23

3.7. Data Collection ……………………………………………...……………..…………...… 24

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3.8. Data Analysis Techniques ……………….…………………………………………......… 24

3.9. Summary ……………………………………………………….………………….…...… 25

CHAPTER IV …………………………….………………………….………………………...… 26

RESULTS AND FINDINGS ………………………..………………………………………...… 26

4.1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………...……...… 26

4.2. Sample Characteristics …………………………..……………………………………...… 26

4.2.1 Demographic Characteristics …………………………………………………………...… 27

4.3. Goodness of Measure ………….……………………………………………..………...… 29

4.3.1 Reliability Test ………………………….……………………..………………………… 29

4.4. Correlation Matrix …………………………………………………….…………….....… 30

4.5. Multiple Regression Analysis ………………………………………………..………...… 33

4.6. Summary of Findings …………………………………………………………..……....… 34

CHAPTER V.. ……………………………………………………..…………………………...… 35

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ………………………….……………………………...… 35

5.1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………..…...… 35

5.2. Summarizing of the Findings ………………………………………………….…..…...… 35

5.3. Discussion of the Findings …………………………………………….…………..…...… 36

5.3.1 Overall Transparency ……………………………………………………………..…...… 37

5.3.2. Participation …………………………………………………………………………...… 38

5.3.3. Substantial Information ………………………………….…………………..………...… 39

5.3.4. Accountability ……….………………………………………………………………...… 41

5.3.5. Secrecy ……………………………….…………………………………………….....… 42

5.4. Limitations of the Research ……………………………………………….…………...… 44

5.5. Recommendations ………………………..…………………………………………...… 45

5.6. Future Research ………………….………………………………………….………...… 45

5.7. Conclusion ……………………………………………..……………………………...… 46

REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………………………...… 48

APPENDICES ……………………………………………………………………………….....… 56

APPENDIX A: The Study’s Questionnaire ………………………..……...………...…………..… 57

APPENDIX B: The Arabic Version of the Study’s Questionnaire …………...…………………… 61

APPENDIX C: Reports of The SPSS Program ……..…………………………………………...… 65

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1.: Main parts of the study's questionnaire ……...............................................................… 23 Table 4.1.: Rate of response among respondents ……..................................................................… 26 Table 4.2.: Frequency distribution – Gender ……........................................................................… 27 Table 4.3.: Frequency distribution – Age of respondent ……......................................................… 27 Table 4.4.: Frequency distribution – Level of Education …….....................................................… 28 Table 4.5.: Frequency distribution – Current Position of the Leader …………….......................… 28 Table 4.6.: Reliability Analysis for Variables ……......................................................................… 29 Table 4.7.: Bivariate Correlation Test for Dependent and Independent Variables ……………...… 30 Table 4.8.: Pearson’s Correlation Scale ……................................................................................… 31 Table 4.9.: Results of the Multiple Regression Analysis ……......................................................… 33 Table 5.1.: Results of Testing the Research’s Hypotheses ……...................................................… 36

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Research framework/Theoretical framework ……..............................................… 18

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background

Transparency is a modern and civilized way for ensuring that a company or a government

entity has nothing remarkable to conceal from others. Those "others" can be employees of a

company or ordinary people living in different societies. According to Rawlins (2008),

transparency as a general concept means the contrary of secrecy. The idea of organizational

transparency is not new, but the use of the term "transparency" increased after the corporate

scandals of the early 21st century, such as Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco (Rawlins, 2008).

Transparency to some extent, if applied appropriately and understood comprehensively by all

members of an organization, can build trust between employees and leaders, enhance the

behaviors that leaders have, and create an ambiance of candor and frankness. Berggren and

Bernshteyn (2007) argue that transparency has been a fundamental driver of efficiency.

The behavior of leaders, who work and influence other followers and subordinates in

numerous private and government entities, can be related to the level of applied and prevailed

transparency in these entities. A long-term practicing of transparency can create transparent

leaders who have good faiths and affirmative behaviors towards their subordinates and

organizations. In her March 2009 column about transparency in motivating behaviors to

achieve results, Laura Lopez (2009) identified several rules of transparent behaviors for

leaders to be considered in order to be able to motivate the organization in a positive way.

Among these rules, which leaders can consider as transparent behaviors, are reminding

people of the organization's goals and objectives, hearing the concerns being expressed,

isolating individual needs and concerns, separating facts from fiction and hearsay, and

admitting of bad news and being candid about that to earn trust. According to Richardson

(2004), when transparency is absent, views become distorted and misunderstood. It is

believed that organizational leaders who do not employ transparency might be perceived as

employing unfair organizational practices (Ingram, 2009).

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The uniqueness of views and behaviors for staff working in an organization is necessary in

order to effectively plan for strategies, plans, and tactics. It is necessary also to correctly

organize and to appropriately and timely achieve all related tasks that must be controlled. All

these functions of management will be practiced reasonably when organizations build and

maintain transparent leaders who practically employ transparency in most of their leading and

managerial tasks.

Having transparent leaders in public or private organizations is also essential and vital. A

transparent leader is open to others especially his or her followers. This transparent leader

fosters the concept of disclosing information and has the trait of being candid and honest.

Transparent leaders behave positively towards achieving the planned goals of their associated

organizations and influence significantly others who work with them, namely, top managers,

peers, and followers.

1.2. Problem Statement

It is known that modern societies and developed countries adopt the principals and concepts

of transparency in many aspects of their daily life including political, financial, informational,

academic, and other aspects. Consequently, behaviors of leaders involved in these aspects

have positively adopted to be in parallel with these concepts and principles.

This study is derived from the need to understand more about the expected effects that

transparency with its dimensions could have on the leaders' behaviors in a government entity

functioning in a developing country. The study focused on the leaders working in a

government local entity, namely, the Ministry of Finance, and evaluated the positive or

negative influence of transparency on their behaviors through a behavioral perspective.

Several questions were addressed in this research such as how the transparency’s four

dimensions can be better used to enhance the behaviors of leaders or to make those leaders

learn to constructively and affirmatively modify their behaviors? Do the information,

participation, accountability, and secrecy of transparency are associated to the leader's

behaviors?

It is important to mention that previous studies in Yemen are very quite limited in exploring

the main aspects of the problem of this research.

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1.3. Research Questions

Determining the research question(s) is an important step in research process because the

questions narrow the research objective and purpose to specific areas on which the researcher

can focus his or her studies (Creswell, 2005). The same author adds that the research

questions of quantitative studies are designed to show possible relationships between

variables. According to Rawlins (2006), Balkin (1999) identified three main dimensions of

transparency which are informational transparency, participatory transparency, and

accountability transparency. A fourth dimension of transparency was added later by Rawlins

in his study about the relationship between organizational transparency and trust in 2008.

Accordingly, this research was conducted to find the relationship of the independent

variables, which are transparency's information, participation, accountability, and secrecy (as

a reverse item to transparency) with the dependent variable which is the leaders' behaviors at

the Ministry of Finance in Yemen. The purpose of this research was addressed by answering

the following questions:

i. Do transparency dimensions, adopted in the Ministry of Finance, have a relationship

with the leaders' behaviors?

ii. Which of the transparency’s dimensions has more influence on the leaders' behaviors?

1.4.Research Objectives

This study investigated the relationship between transparency and leaders' behaviors in a

government entity. Hence, research objectives of this study are as follows:

i. To determine whether the overall transparency is related to the leaders' behaviors.

ii. To determine whether the participatory transparency is related to the leaders'

behaviors.

iii. To determine whether the informational transparency is related to the leaders'

behaviors.

iv. To determine whether the accountability transparency is related to the leaders'

behaviors.

v. To determine whether the secretive transparency is related to the leaders' behaviors.

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1.5. Research Significance

The gap regarding the influences of different transparency dimensions on a leader's behavior

in a public entity has been filled by this study since no significant research addresses this kind

of influence or any expected relationships between the study's different variables. There are

various studies which explain the concepts of transparency and leaders' behaviors and their

consequences on organizations and leaders (Rawlins, 2008; Ingram, 2009; Lu 2010).

However, only a small number of studies tackled the direct relationship between transparency

and a leader's behavior in a public entity.

The results of this study offered a wide perspective for leaders working in public authorities

—who are at the same time the decision makers and the policymakers—for the positive

influence that transparency makes on their behaviors and consequently on their relations with

their subordinates, organizations, and their societies. The results also increased the

leadership's understanding of the relationship between transparency in organizations and

learned behaviors by leaders if the results themselves are discussed from a behavioral

perspective. To explain more about the term “behavioral perspective”, Cheery (2009)

composed an article and said that: “Today, this perspective is known as biological

psychology”. The same author mentions that behavioral psychology is a perspective that

focuses on learned behaviors. She argues that the behavioral perspective is still concerned

with how behaviors are learned and reinforced.

Another significance of this study is that the new term recently circulated in administrative

circles known as "transparent leaders" is identified and tackled. Cox (2009) describes those

transparent leaders who build trust and confidence in the environment of leadership by

exercising the power of people.

As a last significance of this study that it provided the management of the Ministry of

Finance a perception on the positive influence of transparency on the leader's behaviors

working within the ministry itself. This was an attempt to reveal more about the possibilities

for enhancing the behaviors of the ministry's leaders towards their subordinates and their

ministry.

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It is also important to mention that this study is the initial step in discovering the relationship

between transparency dimensions and different leaders' behaviors which can motivate other

researchers and academics to achieve more investigations regarding more aspects and facets

of this relationship which holds two significant and essential concepts of the modern

management science.

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CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Introduction

The previous chapter in this research provides the introduction and related basic issues

required for conducting this study including the research problem and the significance of this

study. This second chapter of the research reviews the literature related to the variables

included in the problem statement and examines the gap in literature regarding the

relationship between transparency and behaviors of leaders. This part of the study contains

reviews for literature related to independent variable which is transparency such as the

concept of transparency and the dimensions and forms of transparency. In addition, the

reviews examine the dependent variable which is the behaviors of leaders from different

aspects including concepts related to leaders' behaviors, behaviors of a transparent leader, and

the relationship between transparency and leaders' behaviors. The last section of this part

refers to the theoretical framework or the research framework.

This study suggests a model where the leaders’ behaviors can impact the multiple

dimensions’ effects of transparency which accordingly resulting in positive organizational

outcomes. It is also important to mention that prominent key words from the research

questions and objectives were searched in several websites and databases, such as Emerald

and ProQuest, to collect different aspects of this literature review.

2.2.The Concept of Transparency

The 2007 edition of the Miriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word "transparency" as "free

from pretense or deceit," "easily detected or seen through," "readily understood," and

"characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business

practices." The concept of transparency has been defined by many researchers and each one

of them defines this concept according to his or her field of study. One of these definitions is

the one made by Finel and Lord (1999) when they define transparency as a mechanism that

facilitates the release of information about policies, capabilities, and preferences to outside

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parties of the market. Seyoum (2009) argues that transparency denotes "self-disclosure", or

the opposite of secrecy. He defines government transparency in terms of how well the

government communicates its policies and regulations to the public.

Other researchers define corporate transparency as the degree to which firms regularly reveal

substantial information about their financial conditions and accounting practices to creditors,

stakeholders, and the government in a reliable manner (Rondinelli 2007; Cavusgil, Knight,

and Riesenberger 2008). Florini (1998) puts the definition of transparency this way: "Put

simply, transparency is the opposite of secrecy. Secrecy means deliberately hiding your

actions; transparency means deliberately revealing them. Transparency is a choice,

encouraged by changing attitudes about what constitutes appropriate behavior." Another

researcher, Cox (2009), defines transparency as the ability to clearly see the relationship

between oneself and ones environment.

Balkin (1998) relates mass media to the political transparency and says that: "Today political

transparency is virtually impossible without some form of mass media" (p. 2). After adopting

the concepts of transparency composed by Balkin (1998), Rawlins (2008) defines

transparency as having three important elements which are:

1. Information that is truthful, substantial, and useful.

2. Participation of stakeholders (i.e., employees and leaders) in identifying the information

they need.

3. Objective, balanced reporting of an organization's activities, and policies that holds the

organization accountable.

Rawlins (2006) tested several statements related to transparency and, using factor analysis,

found the statements grouped around four factors. He labeled these four factors as follows:

1. Substantial information.

2. Participation.

3. Accountability.

4. Secrecy, which was a reverse item factor measuring the opposite of openness.

Transparency is adopted and applied in entities—either government (public) or private—due

to many reasons. Some of these reasons are to be open and less accountable and to build

required trust among employees, leaders, and various societies that an organization operates

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in. Transparency is a relatively new term that is gaining momentum in today's business

vocabulary (Luttrell, 2008). Luttrell adds that transparency means bringing out into the open

as mush of the organizational information, operational process, and decision-making as

possible. Transparency is circulated today in many local, regional, and international

organizations among all levels of management, namely, top, middle, and lower levels. It has

also a positive influence on behaviors and personal relations among different levels of

employees.

It is important to refer that the top level of management should openly and candidly support

the transparency principles and work hardly to learn and grasp more about these concepts.

According to an article published in an e-publication (Human Resource Today E-Publication,

2009), transparency happens only when an institution creates a culture of candor and respect,

one which stakeholders feel free to speak the truth to leaders. It is remarkable to mention the

fact that changing public or private entities into a climate reinforcing transparency is less

difficult than changing the staff behaviors working their. The same e-publication indicates

several proven strategies for changing an organization into a transparent one as follows:

■ Increasing communication accountability and work performance.

■ Speeding up key processes for market advantage in the development area.

■ Creating a humanistic work environment that attracts and retains top talent by instilling

a global thinking mindset.

■ Improving quality.

■ Evaluating the health of the internal communication processes through anonymous

employee climate surveys.

In another definition of transparency as a new and contemporary concept, Rawlins (2008)

augmented a definition provided by Heise (1985) into the following operational definition:

"Transparency is the deliberate attempt to make available all legally releasable information—

whether positive or negative in nature—in a manner that is accurate, timely, balanced, and

unequivocal, for the purpose of enhancing the reasoning ability of publics and holding

organizations accountable for their actions, policies and practices" (p. 5).

Tapscott and Ticoll (2003) use the concept of "open enterprise" to describe an organization

that is actively transparent, but also carefully manages critical competitive information. In the

organization-public, relationship literature, transparency is often identified as openness

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(Rawlins, 2008). Openness—which can be found in modern and relatively real developing

countries like the ones in the Fareast—is another close and similar concept to the

transparency. The concept of openness is related to the public and private transparent entities

that care about media, stakeholders, citizens, organizations of the civil society, government,

and on top of that their employees and leaders. These organizations believe that staying away

from transparency and its principles nowadays is extremely difficult and sometimes perilous.

Transparent organizations have both leaders and employees who reinforce the principles of

transparency. According to Lincoln (2009), the leaders of transparent companies are

accessible and straightforward when talking with members of key audience. The same writer

adds that employees of transparent companies are accessible, can reinforce the public view of

the company, and able to help people where appropriate.

According to Guerrero & Madrid (2005), since transparency makes governments’ decisions

more open and public, stakeholders can express their concerns, dissent, or support. They add

that because of greater openness and better information, constituents have more elements

with which to hold authorities accountable. Furthermore, by increasing the possibility of

holding politicians and bureaucrats accountable, trust in government may also increase. There

are also several benefits for leaders and subordinates when transparency is effectively and

methodically applied in organizations. Some of these major benefits include allowing

subordinates to participate in the decision-making process, providing subordinates with

substantial information they need in time, and making leaders accustomed to be more

accountable and responsible. According to Koppell (2005), transparency helps assess

organizational performance—critical to creating organizational accountability.

Transparency has relevance in particular for Boards, for senior executives, and for sales

people; and it has roots in one of our most common of western values—Trust (Banff

Executive Leadership Inc., 2003). In an age when nothing can be hidden for long, everything

depends on trust and transparency according to Silver (2005). He also adds that stakeholders

were demanding that organizations become more transparent—which he defines as honesty

and accuracy—not only in the numbers these organizations release but also in how they are

run. In the future, transparency will no longer be simply the disclosing of information and the

access to this information, but will also involve a complex of reflexive questions surrounding

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the interests, the legitimacy, and the secondary effects of disclosure and disclosing agencies

(Mol, 2010).

2.3. Dimensions and Forms of Transparency

Through the searched and collected reviews of literature concerning transparency, several

measures, dimensions, components, and forms have been founded. The study explained some

of these facets about transparency according to the importance and also to the relationship

with the dimensions that the research objectives tackled.

According to Bonde (2010), there are different levels of transparency and different

definitions, ranging from a little transparency to a lot which is called radical transparency. He

adds that there are also different forms of transparency, for example, targeted or forced

transparency. More explanations regarding these types can be mentioned as follows:

■ Targeted transparency often evolves after some sort of accident or medical reports

about dangers. For example, in 1990 the congress told the food companies to inform the

public about the levels of fat, sugar, and nutrients in food and drinks. This was done

after scientific reports about unhealthy eating showed that it contributed to millions of

deaths every year, mostly from heart disease and cancer. The goal of targeted

transparency is when it produces outcomes in the public interest. One outcome is

reduced risk to health and safety, as can be seen below too.

■ Forced transparency takes place when it is done by an outside source, like the media or

by stakeholders, not to be confused with targeted transparency which is directly targeted

at a certain area and not random transparency forced upon the person himself or herself.

Curtin & Meijer (2006), citing Welch & Hinnant (2003), mention that an organization’s

transparency can be measured by the following measures:

■ Depth of access it allows.

■ The depth of knowledge about processes it is willing to reveal.

■ The attention to citizen response it provides.

The same researchers explain that the more transparent an organization is (via its web site or

otherwise), the more it is willing to allow citizens to monitor its performance and to

participate in its policy processes.

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The concept of transparency has not received as much academic attention as trust and,

therefore, it is a little harder to define and measure (Rawlins, 2008). The same researcher

made a study to get the relationship between transparency and trust and he found that there is

a strong evidence that trust and transparency are positively and strongly related. This study of

Rawlins (2008) found that the three components of trust (competence, integrity, and

goodwill) and the three components of transparency (participation, substantial information,

and accountability) are positively related while the fourth transparency component, secrecy,

has an inverse relationship with the other components.

Hood (2007) identifies four areas that transparency as a concept covers as follows:

■ Event transparency: open information about inputs, outputs and outcomes.

■ Process transparency: open information about transformations that take place between

inputs, outputs, and outcomes.

■ Real-time transparency: information released immediately.

■ Retrospective transparency: information available only after time passes.

According to Rawlins (2006), when Balkin (1999) identified three types of transparency, he

was actually identifying the dimensions of transparency that make up this complex construct.

Rawlins (2006) proposed that transparency efforts of organizations need all three qualities

(i.e., substantial information, participation, and accountability) in order to build, maintain,

and restore trust with stakeholders. After testing several statements relating to transparency,

Rawlins (2006) found that an additional quality is needed beside other three qualities and this

added quality is secrecy.

According to Lincoln (2009), tactical transparency adopts the definition for transparency

which states: “Transparency is the degree to which an organization shares its leaders, its

employees, its culture, its results of its good and bad business practices, and its business

strategy with its stakeholder publics.” Lincoln (2009) refers in her article to the three levels of

transparency that an organization should consider when trying to achieve tactical

transparency. These three levels are as follows:

■ Operational Transparency: that involves creating or following an ethics code, conflict-

of-interest policies, and any other guidelines the organization creates.

■ Transactional Transparency: this type of strategy provides guidelines and boundaries

for employees so they can participate in the conversation in and out of the office.

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■ Lifestyle Transparency: This is personalized information coming from sites like

Facebook and Twitter. These channels require constant transparency and authenticity.

Research results over the last seven years provide a close examination of research-backed

notions that organizations benefit from practicing transparency when revealing policies and

procedures (Garten, 2002). Revealing such policies and procedures through media could

enhance political transparency and could convince the voices calling for more transparency in

these administrative and financial areas. Transparency ensures all parties have access to

information about the organization (Lainhart, 2000). Types of this information mainly

depends on the activities of the organization. The importance of employing transparency

surfaced as a result of increased competition between multinational companies which led to

increased corruption (Denker, 2007).

Transparency is not exclusive only for private and government (public) entities, it is also

needed for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) where trust and communication are

highly predominant. According to Rawlins (2008), nongovernmental organizations are

advised to also be more transparent, because their entire value is based on trust: “they need to

be laser-focused on the trust they earn and on their transparency about their own successes

and failures” (p. 12).

In his study to find the relationship between transparency and trust, Rawlins (2008)

demonstrates that there is a constructive and positive relationship between trust and

transparency. Organizations should develop a trusting relationship with stakeholders and

share information that is substantial and useful to the stakeholders (Rawlins, 2008).

According to Luttrell (2008), the purpose of transparency is to increase trust. He adds that

transparency is a mean to an end, a method and a guiding principle. The same author

concludes by saying that: "Trust is the objective."

Ingram (2009) mentions that trust should accompany transparency to foster open

communication. Information, as a significant component of transparency, should have several

characteristics to be logically jointed with transparency. It should be substantial, accurate,

and timely collected and delivered to the intended places and persons.

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2.4.Concepts related to the Leaders' Behaviors

Certo and Certo (2009) identify leadership as "the process of directing the behavior of others

toward the accomplishment of some objectives" (p. 387). They add that "leadership, as one of

the four primary activities of the influencing function, is a subset of management. Managing

focuses on non-behavioral as well as behavioral issues. Leading emphasizes mainly

behavioral issues." A managerial person and those who work as managers in various public

and private organizations should clearly differentiate between leadership behaviors and

management behaviors.

According to Larsson et al. (2010), leadership behavior has a critical role in the creation of

successful organizations. Their research depends on the three-dimensional leadership

behavior theory (change-, structure-, and relation-orientation). Leadership behavior theory

has traditionally included two dimensions derived from factor analysis. These two

dimensions are relation- and structure-orientation (Arvonen, 2002; Yukl, 2006). The third

dimension of change-orientation was introduced in the 1990s as an increasing change

pressure in society and organizations became evident (Ekvall & Arvonen, 1991, 1994; Yukl,

1997, 1999). Larsson et al. (2010) identified and described nine common groups of behaviors

which are present in all three behavior dimensions (change-, structure-, and relation-

orientation). According to Larsson et al. (2010), these identified behaviors are as follows:

1. Strategic and visionary leader role.

2. Communication and information.

3. Authority and responsibility.

4. Learning culture.

5. Worker conversations.

6. Plainness and simplicity.

7. Humanity and trust.

8. Walking around.

9. Reflective personal leadership.

Cornelius (2006) developed a self-improvement tool (i.e., a checklist) to help people in

leading positions recognize and improve critical behaviors that are known to be effective in

setting direction and inspiring others in an organization. This tool is used to measure

leadership behaviors but not management behaviors. It is known that among the main

14

functions for management are planning, organizing and controlling which consider as

management behaviors. Cornelius (2006) adds that “the leadership behaviors are

characteristically different. Leaders define what the future looks like, align people with that

vision, and inspire them to make it happen despite the obstacles. Managers ensure

organizations run smoothly; leaders create change” (p. 1). The most common categories of

leadership behaviors included in the checklist of Cornelius (2006) are as follows:

■ Communicating purpose and direction.

■ Communicating and behaving according to values.

■ Showing enthusiasm for people.

■ Instilling in people the belief they are powerful.

■ Being consistent in the face of adversity.

■ Planning and leading change.

■ Releasing potential and energy.

■ Creating a flexible and “ready-for-change” culture.

■ Developing leaders in the organization.

Covey (2006) in his article, in which he describes the 13 behaviors of a high trust leader,

indicates that creating transparency is the third most essential and character-based behavior

that a high trust leader can learn and apply. He explains this key behavior to leaders by

saying: “Tell the truth in a way people can verify. Get real and genuine. Be open and

authentic. Err on the side of disclosure. Operate on the premise of, “What you see is what you

get.” Don’t have hidden agendas. Don’t hide information” (p. 2). For behavioral theorists, a

leader behavior is the best predictor of his or her leadership influences and as a result, is the

best determinant of his or her leadership success (Leadership-central.com, 2008).

According to Luttrell (2008), companies with high levels of trust usually have excellent

internal communications systems and practices. Perhaps even more importantly, these

companies have congenial and open leaders who make themselves accessible (Luttrell, 2008).

The same author adds that: "An authentic and trustworthy leader generates an atmosphere of

candor and integrity."

According to Skakon et al. (2010), stress among leaders and employees may be influenced by

relationships at work, with colleagues, employees, and leaders. Other researchers such as

Schaufeli & Enzmann (1998) mentioned that leader behaviors such as support, empowerment

15

and a high-quality relationship between leaders and their employees might prevent both

stress, and improve employees’ stress coping and affective well-being. Selye (1974)

suggested that good relationships between members of a group are a key determinant of

individual and organizational health. The relationship between positive and negative leaders’

behaviors and the employee stress and well-being was studied by Skakon et al. (2010). Those

researchers mention that “The research provided support for the notion that positive leader

behaviors such as support, feedback, trust, confidence and integrity are associated with both

employee affective well-being and less stress, and helps employees in coping with stress” (p.

131). They add that: “The research represented in our review also emphasizes that negative

leader behaviors such as control, low support and abuse are associated with stress and poor

well-being among subordinates” (p.131).

Behaviors of support performed by leaders were tackled by many researchers and stressed on

their importance to affirmative contribution to the relationship between a leader and his or her

followers. According to Sorrentino et al. (2003), leader support is a moderator of the

relationship between leader direction and employee satisfaction. Leader behavior is

motivational when it makes satisfaction of the subordinates’ needs conditional on effective

performance, and complements the environment of the subordinates by providing coaching,

guidance, support, and rewards. Sellgren et al. (2008) indicated that through supportive

leadership behaviors leaders create meaningful, stimulating work with a sense of coherence

and this creates a good work climate and job satisfaction.

2.5.Behaviors of a Transparent Leader

Becoming a transparent leader can have positive outcomes for success as well as bestow

confidence and optimism into a leader's persona (Crumpton, 2011). According to the Office

of Human Resources (2009) in a published article entitled "How Can I Become a More

Transparent Leader?", it suggests that becoming a transparent leader starts with using new

behaviors as follows:

■ Being more visible.

■ Being more candid.

■ Being more comfortable disclosing information.

16

Walker and Pagano (2005) mention several requirements for building transparent leadership.

Transparent leaders should be overwhelmingly honest (with respect and concern for others),

gather intelligence (e.g., ask for feedback about their own performance and discover how

others perceive them), deliver bad news well, and confess mistakes (Walker & Pagano,

2005).

According to Cox (2009), to become a transparent and authentic leader one must posses the

leadership qualities of honesty, trust, integrity, and loyalty. The same researcher adds:

"Transparent leaders recognize their strengths and weakness although; above all these leaders

maintain self identity, and know who they are and how their actions impact the actions of

others." Clearly, a transparent leader has a direct impact on his followers through his or her

personal practices and communications. This kind of personal behavior fosters self-

expression required by followers in organizations which helps in having more creative and

emotional staff. The transparent leader builds trust and confidence in the environment of

leadership by exercising the power of people (Cox, 2009). Cox (2009) explains that

transparent leaders must convey their principles and beliefs with others to increase the values

they promote within the organization. He adds that transparent leaders are confident with

their leadership decisions and strategies and are true to themselves. He concludes by saying

that leaders that lead transparent lives also live a more fulfilling life.

Ordinary and typical leaders could enhance their leadership by several steps. The first step

requires that those leaders should be serious about becoming transparent leaders (Office of

Human Resources, 2009). The same source mentions the subsequent steps which will help

those leaders in achieving this conversion as follows:

■ They should make the change real.

■ They should make the change visible to the right people.

■ They should seek support through getting testimonials and trough having partners take a

stand.

■ They should create a "then" and "now."

■ They should ask for feedback in a special way.

Kerfoot (2004) made a comparison between the transparent leader and the opaque leader

where transparent leaders are willing to share as much as possible, to enter into extensive

dialogue to explain issues/decisions, and to have honest dialogue about information that is

17

within the bounds of ability to disclose. He adds that transparent leaders truly enjoy the

dialogue, and look forward to learning more by openly engaging in easy or difficult

conversations about a variety of topics. On the other hand, Kerfoot (2004) mentions the

characteristics of an opaque leader by saying that this leader is uncomfortable sharing any

information, and does not want to be bothered with “unnecessary” dialogue. He adds that

opaque leaders will be much more conservative and less disclosing than the organization

dictates but transparent leaders will be eager to disclose and talk about everything within the

guidelines.

2.6.Relationship between Transparency and Leaders' Behaviors

As mentioned in the significance of this research that few and very limited number of

researches have reviewed the relationship between transparency in public or private

organizations and the behaviors of leaders working and belonging to these entities. This lack

of related literature can be attributed to the assumptions that normally transparent

organizations should have positive and constructive behaviors for their leaders towards their

employees, stakeholders, other organizations in industry, government, and even their

societies. Another assumption that can be assumed that affirmative behaviors of transparent

leaders are the main reason for having transparency in public and private organizations.

It is admitted that transparency leads to more robust and healthy organizations and societies

which foster openness, disclosure and timely reporting, and trust. Accordingly, leaders of

these organizations will be also healthy in terms of their behaviors and skills including their

abilities to learn how to behave as transparent leaders. As stated by Crumpton (2011), the

development of leadership skills related to transparency can lead to improved effectiveness as

a leader. Also Cox (2009) relates transparency to leaders by saying that: "Transparency is the

more personal and direct aspect of the leader." Government communicators can implement

transparency in four steps and one of them is through creating an organizational culture

which supports transparency (Fairbanks et al., 2007). According to Tsai (2011), organizations

face challenges in the external environment and changing internal context, and leaders will

alter their behavior to adapt to these environment changes. The same author said that:

"Administrators usually adjust their leadership behavior in order to reach the organizational

goal."

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According to Ingram (2009), leaders who offer fair and reasonable explanations promote

transparency. Those leaders who live in a full or partial climate that supports transparency

should be able to cognitively learn and digest essential principles and dimensions of

transparency and should be also able to apply a 360° feedback strategy (i.e., communicating

with subordinates, peers, and supervisor) to discover their mistakes as soon as their

occurrence and to be able also to inform others about bad news in time.

2.7.Research Framework

The introduction of this research has both of the research questions and the research

objectives. Other sections in the first chapter contain the supposed relationships between

independent and dependent variables. The second chapter of this research contains the

literature review which reviews numerous related literature to the independent and dependent

variables. After reviewing all these chapters and sections, the theoretical framework of this

research is developed and hypotheses are formulated to identify and examine the relationship

between the various mentioned variables. Figure 2.1 shows the relationship between variables

that were examined in this research.

Figure 2.1: Research framework/Theoretical framework

19

2.8.Research hypotheses

At the Transparency International's homepage, they have defined transparency as “a principle

that allows those affected by administrative decisions, business transactions, or charitable

work to know not only the basic facts and figures but also the mechanism and processes.” It

is the duty of civil servants, managers and trustee to act visibly, predictably and

understandably (Bonde, 2010). The four main factors, components, and dimensions of

transparency are substantial information, participation of stakeholders, accountability, and

secrecy as a reverse factor (Rawlins, 2008). In this current research, the influence of the

independent variable's components, (i.e., substantial information, participation,

accountability, and secrecy) on the dependent variable, (i.e., leaders' behaviors) was

addressed. This research has developed four principal hypotheses which can be listed as

follows:

Hypothesis 1 (H1): Overall transparency is related to the leaders' behaviors.

Hypothesis 2 (H2): Participatory transparency is related to the leaders' behaviors.

Hypothesis 3 (H3): Informational transparency is related to the leaders' behaviors.

Hypothesis 4 (H4): Accountability transparency is related to the leaders' behaviors.

Hypothesis 5 (H5): Secrecy (as a reverse item to transparency) is related to the leaders'

behaviors.

2.9.Summary

Adopting transparency in public or private sectors requires adopting also its components.

These components focus on procedures and practices related to information, participation,

accountability, and also secrecy. Transparency has many definitions according to the types of

organizations and other criteria. The literature review explained some common definitions

and related these definitions to their respective contributors and researchers. Transparency as

a general concept is currently adopted by many government and private organizations and

also by many nongovernmental organizations in nearly all countries. The need for adopting

transparency is augmented especially in the developing countries which seek more climates

that are free of corruption and nepotism. The behaviors of leaders have also been tackled in

the literature review as the dependent variable which is related to the components of

transparency.

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The literature review also tackled the definition and traits of transparent leaders who are an

important part of any transparent organization. Relationship subsisting between transparency

and leaders' behaviors, that other researchers have tackled in their studies, is reviewed in the

literature which suggests that leaders' behaviors become positive and more constructive when

those leaders work in a transparent organization and adopting the concepts of acting as

transparent leaders.

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1.Introduction

The major objective of this research is to examine the effect of the four main factors of

transparency (i.e., substantial information, participation of stakeholders, accountability, and

secrecy as a reverse item) on the leaders' behaviors in a government (public) entity. Hence,

this chapter reviews the different methods which were used to study these relationships.

Chapter three has several sections including research design, research location, unit of

analysis, population and sampling methods, research instrument, data collection, and the last

section is about the data analyzing techniques.

3.2.Research Design

The research design has the details concerning required processes to obtain needed

information for this study. These processes comprise the type of study used, sources of data,

unit of analysis, population and sampling techniques, and the questionnaire design. A 40-

question questionnaire was disseminated among the 105 leaders of the Ministry of Finance in

Yemen. This questionnaire measured the influence of transparency on the behaviors of the

ministry’s leaders. The research questions were used in this research to examine the

independent variables and dependent variable. These questions also were used to identify the

perceptions of the respondents towards the factors composing the transparency.

3.3.Research Location

This study was implemented in the Ministry of Finance, Yemen, and its local offices in

different provinces as a whole government and public entity. The Ministry of Finance

comprises eight sectors which are as follows:

1. Minister's office.

2. Foreign affairs sector.

3. Budget Sector.

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4. Financial and administrative affairs sector.

5. Regulations and government’s accounts sector.

6. Revenue sector.

7. Economic units sector.

8. Planning and following up sector.

3.4.Unit of Analysis

The unit of analysis which was used in this research is the individual. This research focused

on the individual as the unit of analysis. The identified individuals of the Ministry of Finance

are as follows:

1. Minister’s advisers.

2. Deputy ministers.

3. Deputy ministers' assistants.

4. Director generals.

5. Deputies of director generals.

Those individuals form the leading team in the Ministry of Finance in Yemen. The minister

and the vice-minister are exclusively excluded due to practicality and other administrative

and managerial reasons.

3.5.Population and Sampling Method

3.5.1 Population

As mentioned in the unit of analysis section, the members of the leading team working in the

Ministry of Finance are the population of this study. A list of the names of those leaders was

used as the population frame. The population includes all the leaders who work in the

headquarter of the Ministry of Finance and also those who work in leading positions in

different provinces (i.e., general directors of the local executive offices of the ministry and

their deputies). A survey instrument in the form of close-ended questionnaire was developed

for this study and was distributed among those leaders working in the Ministry of Finance

and its local executive offices in different provinces.

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3.5.2 Sample

A list contains the names of the population was used as the sample. Those names are for

members of the Ministry of Finance who hold leading positions in different functional

categories including minister’s advisers, deputy ministers, deputy ministers' assistants,

director generals, and deputies of director generals. The total number of those members was

105 respondents. The survey questionnaire was distributed and delivered to all of the 105

leaders working in different sectors of the ministry and in different provinces in Yemen.

3.6.Research Instrument

In this study, the survey method was used by asking questions through a questionnaire. This

questionnaire consisted of three main parts as shown in Table 3.1. These parts are

demographic profile, leaders' behaviors, and transparency dimensions.

Table 3.1.: Main parts of the study's questionnaire

Part Name Description

Part A Demographic profile items

Part B Leaders' behaviors items

Part C Transparency dimensions items

In “Part B”, the respondents rated their level of agreement with each item on a five-point

Likert scale (interval scale) ranging with values of (Not at all), (Once in a while),

(Sometimes), (Fairly often), and (Frequently, if not always). In “Part C”, the respondents

rated their level of agreement with each item on a five-point Likert scale (interval scale)

ranging with values of (Strongly disagree), (Disagree), (Neutral), (Agree), and (Strongly

agree).

There were two main assessment instruments used in this study. The Multifactor Leadership

Questionnaire (MLQ) was used to measure the different behaviors of the leaders working in

the Ministry of Finance and adopted from the model of Bass and Avolio (2004). The

Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire measures the leaders’ behaviors through identifying

their characteristics of leading behaviors (Bass & Avolio, 2004). The second model used for

24

measuring the dimensions of transparency was adopted from a model prepared and tested by

Rawlins (2008). The questions of this questionnaire are used to measure the leaders’

perception of organizational transparency (Rawlins, 2008).

A sample of this questionnaire can be found in “Appendix A” at the end of this research.

Also, it is remarkable to say that the questions were given to be answered by all respondents

in the same questionnaire and under the same circumstances and time space.

3.7.Data Collection

Since this study used a questionnaire, then the process of data collection was made through

primary available resources. The questions regarding the leaders' behaviors were collected

through the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Avolio & Bass, 2004) and the questions

related to the transparency part were developed from the survey prepared by Rawlins (2008)

entitled dimensions of transparency questionnaire. Questionnaires from these two resources

were used as references and were modified when it was applicable to fit the proposed

theoretical framework of this study. Nearly 105 questionnaires were distributed personally

among the governmental leaders working in the ministry and its branches. Approximately, 84

valid questionnaires were collected back progressively. The leaders were given a whole day

for reading, thinking, replying, and returning the questionnaire to the researcher.

3.8. Data Analysis Techniques

According to Mohan (2011), data analysis is used and can help researcher to summarize the

conclusion of the study. Collected data were analyzed using a Windows Software known as

“Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS).” The items and variables of the collected

questionnaires were coded before they were keyed in the SPSS program.

A reliability test for both independent and dependent variables was made and the Cronbach's

Alpha Coefficient was also computed to examine the reliability of the instrument. Frequency

analyses were also done to the demographic factors such as age, gender, current position, and

educational level. After that, Pearson Correlation Analysis was used to test the relationship

between the transparency’s different dimensions as the independent variables and the

dependent variable, namely, the leaders' behaviors. A final statistical analysis which is

25

regression was used to find out the relationship between dependent and independent variables

and the most influential dimension of the transparency on the behaviors of the leaders.

3.9.Summary

In this research, a study was introduced and was intended to know more about the influence

of the four components of transparency—which were used as the main dimensions of the

independent variable—on the leader's behaviors working in the Ministry of Finance. These

components of independent variable were also used to find the type of relationship (positive

or negative) that each one has with the dependent variable, namely, the leaders' behaviors in a

public and government entity. This chapter discussed the methodology approach used to

collect and analyze data through a quantitative method using a 40-question questionnaire.

26

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS AND FINDINGS

4.1.Introduction

This chapter shows the statistical results obtained from data analyzing that were collected

through the responses of the respondents. The main objective of this study is to examine the

relationship between the leaders’ behaviors, which represents the dependent variable, and the

four dimensions of the transparency known as the independent variables (i.e., participation,

information, accountability, and secrecy as a reveres item). The profile of the respondent is

included which has several demographic variables such as age, gender, educational level,

current position, and number of years spent in the ministry. The statistical data were analyzed

using the program SPSS Version 13.0 for Microsoft Windows in order to define any

relationships between the different variables contained in this study.

4.2.Sample Characteristics

The total number of distributed questionnaires was 105 among the leaders working in the

Ministry of Finance. The positions of those leaders include the minister’s advisers, deputy

minister’s assistants, general directors, and deputies of general directors. Each respondent

was given a whole day for completing the questionnaire and then returning it to the

researcher. The rate of response was 80% of total questionnaires distributed as shown in

Table 4.1.

Table 4.1.: Rate of response among respondents

Item Total Percentage

Distributed Questionnaires 105 100%

Collected Questionnaires 84 80%

Valid Questionnaires 84 80%

Uncollected and invalid Questionnaires 21 20%

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4.2.1 Demographic Characteristics

The total number of the collected and valid questionnaires is 84 out of 105 ones. The

frequency distributions were used to statistically analyze the demographic data using the

program SPSS Version 13.0. These demographic variables are shown and described in the

following tables contained in this chapter. The first demographic variable which was

described is the gender and it is shown in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2.: Frequency distribution - Gender

Item Frequency Percentage

Male 78 92.2%

Female 6 7.1%

The total number of respondents is 84 working in leading positions in the Ministry of

Finance. From this total number, 78 persons were males with a percentage of 92.2 and 6

female leaders replied the questionnaire with a percentage of 7.1. The distribution of the

second demographic variable, which is the age of respondent, is shown in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3.: Frequency distribution – Age of respondent


Below 30 Years - -

30 – 40 Years 22 26.2%

41 – 50 Years 44 52.4%

51 – 60 Years 18 21.4%

Above 60 Years - -

The frequency distribution of this demographic variable shows that the major respondents are

in their forties, (i.e., from 41 to 50 years old), with a percentage of 52.4. The total number of

those major respondents is 44 ones. The second major category is the respondents with ages

from 30 to 40 years old with a total number of 22 respondents and represents 26.2% of the

total respondents. The last and least group of ages is the 51 to 60 years with only 18

28

respondents. The frequency analysis which shows the distribution of the level of education

for the respondents is in Table 4.4.

Table 4.4.: Frequency distribution – Level of Education


Bachelor 65 77.4%

High diploma after Bachelor 4 4.8%

Master’s degree 8 9.5%

Doctorate 7 8.3%

The frequency distribution of this demographic variable shows that the highest educational

level among the respondents is the bachelor degree with a percentage of 77.4 and a total

number of 65 respondents. 9.5% of the total respondents hold Master’s degrees. This

educational level represents the second major level among respondents with 8 persons. A

total number of 7 respondents or 8.3% holds a Ph.D. degrees. Only 4 respondents or 9.5%

have high diplomas after their bachelors of the total number of respondents.

Another major frequency distribution is the current position that a leader holds in the

Ministry of Finance. Table 4.5. represents this demographic variable for the 84 respondents.

Table 4.5.: Frequency distribution – Current Position of the Leader


Minister's Adviser 3 3.6%

Deputy Minister's Assistant 11 13.1%

Director General 30 35.7%

Director General’s Deputy 40 47.6%

The table suggests that the majority of the respondents work as deputies of general directors

with a total number of 40 respondents or 47.6%. A percentage of 35.7 represents the second

major position of the respondents which is director general with a total number of 30

respondents. Deputy Minister’s assistants represent 11 ones of the total number of

29

respondents or 13.1%. The last position the respondents work in is the minister’s advisers

with only a percentage of 3.6 and only 3 persons.

4.3.Goodness of Measure

4.3.1 Reliability Test

The reliability test is conducted for measuring the reliabilities of the different variables, either

dependents or independents, included in this study. Reliability analysis measures the internal

consistency of a group of items which accordingly reflects the goodness of the measure used

in this study. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α) is the most frequently used index of reliability

which reflects the average correlation among the items that constitute a scale (Nikos, 2001).

The results obtained from performing the reliability analysis can be shown in Table 4.6.

Table 4.6.: Reliability Analysis for Variables

Description of Variable Number of Items Cronbach’s alpha

coefficient (α)

Dependent variable:

Leaders’ Behaviors 17 .570

Independent variable 1:

Overall Transparency 4 .909


Transparency Participation 4 .908


Transparency Information 6 .959


Transparency Accountability 4 .863


Secrecy (Reverse Variable) 5 .898

Rawlins (2008) cited Churchill’s (1979) recommendation that minimum reliability should be

0.6, which the majority of the measures in this study exceeds and some by a large margin.

The value of the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α) for the dependent variable (Leaders’

behaviors) is 0.57 or (almost equals to ≈ 0.6) which reflects an acceptable value for this

30

variable. Values for Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α) which are related to independent

variables (i.e., overall transparency, participation, information, accountability, and secrecy as

a reverse item) are considered highly acceptable and good. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient

(α) for the independent variable known as informational transparency, shown in Table 4.6., is

0.959 which considered a good value for measuring the consistency of the items comprising

this variable. Other values for other independent variables are overall transparency with α=

0.909, participative transparency with α= 0.908, accountability transparency with α= 0.863,

and a value of α= 0.898 for secrecy as a reverse variable to transparency.

4.4.Correlation Matrix

The statistical test known as the correlation was done between dependent variable and

different dimensions of the independent variable. The correlation type which was used is the

bivariate which is the simplest type of correlation that examines the relationships between

two or more variables.

Table 4.7.: Bivariate Correlation Test for Dependent and Independent Variables

Description of Variables LB OT TP TI TA TS

Dependent variable:

Leaders’ Behaviors (LB) - .634** .485** .570** .609** -.578**


Overall Transparency (OT) - .778** .834** .905** -.726**


Participation (TP) - .782** .760** -.582**


Substantial Information (TI) - .855** -.714**


Accountability (TA) - -.858**


Secrecy (TS) -

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

31

The correlation matrix shown in Table 4.7. describes the correlations between leaders’

behaviors as the dependent variable and the transparency dimensions, known as the

independent variables, which are participative transparency, informational transparency,

accountability transparency, and secrecy (openness) as a reverse item for transparency.

According to Sekaran (2003), if the correlation is closer to 1.0, the relationship is considered

very significant positively and if it is closer to -1.0, the relationship is very significant

negatively. There are several Pearson’s correlation scales which translate the relationship

between different variables. This study uses the scale that is shown in Table 4.8. to identify

the relationship between dependent and independent variables through the values of

Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r).

Table 4.8.: Pearson’s Correlation Scale

Correlation Coefficient (r) Value Indication

Between ± 0.8 to ± 1.0 High correlation

Between ± 0.6 to ± 0.79 Moderately high correlation

Between ± 0.4 to ± 0.59 Moderate correlation

Between ± 0.2 to ± 0.39 Low correlation

Between ± 0.1 to ± 0.19 Negligible correlation

Accordingly, the data that were collected, analyzed, and correlated regarding the dependent

and independent variables of this study were used to compare the hypotheses developed for

this research and the following results were found:

Hypothesis 1 (H1): Overall transparency is related to the leaders' behaviors.

The relationship between overall transparency is tested against the leaders’ behaviors. The

result indicates that there is a significant relationship between overall transparency and the

leaders’ behaviors (r = 0.634, p-value ≤ 0.01). Because the value of the Pearson correlation

coefficient (r) is 0.634, the relationship is said to be a positive moderately high correlation.

Consequently, hypothesis 1 (H1) is accepted.

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Hypothesis 2 (H2): Participatory transparency is related to the leaders' behaviors.

The relationship between participatory transparency is tested against the leaders’ behaviors.

The result indicates that there is a significant relationship between participatory transparency

and the leaders’ behaviors (r = 0.485, p-value ≤ 0.01). Because the value of the Pearson

correlation coefficient (r) is 0.485, the relationship is said to be a positive moderate

correlation. Consequently, hypothesis 2 (H2) is accepted.

Hypothesis 3 (H3): Informational transparency is related to the leaders' behaviors.

The relationship between informational transparency is tested against the leaders’ behaviors.

The result indicates that there is a significant relationship between informational transparency

and the leaders’ behaviors (r = 0.570, p-value ≤ 0.01). Because the value of the Pearson

correlation coefficient (r) is 0.570, the relationship is said to be a positive moderate

correlation. Consequently, hypothesis 3 (H3) is accepted.

Hypothesis 4 (H4): Accountability transparency is related to the leaders' behaviors.

The relationship between accountability transparency is tested against the leaders’ behaviors.

The result indicates that there is a significant relationship between accountability

transparency and the leaders’ behaviors (r = 0.609, p-value ≤ 0.01). Because the value of the

Pearson correlation coefficient (r) is 0.609, the relationship is said to be a positive moderately

high correlation. Consequently, hypothesis 4 (H4) is accepted.

Hypothesis 5 (H5): Secrecy (as a reverse item to transparency) is related to the leaders'

behaviors.

The relationship between secrecy as a reverse dimension for the transparency is tested against

the leaders’ behaviors. The result indicates that there is a significant inverse relationship

between secrecy and the leaders’ behaviors (r = -0.578, p-value ≤ 0.01). Because the value of

the Pearson correlation coefficient (r) is -0.578, the relationship is said to be a negative

moderate correlation. Consequently, hypothesis 5 (H5) is accepted.

In the second chapter of the research, five main hypotheses were formulated for this study.

From the obtained results of the correlation matrix, it is obvious that there are significant

influence for the overall transparency and its four dimensions on the leaders’ behaviors

working in the Ministry of Finance in Yemen.

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4.5.Multiple Regression Analysis

The regression analysis is done to know more about the most influential dimension of the

independent variables on the dependent variable. The multiple regression analysis shown in

Table 4.9. suggests that the predictors (i.e., overall transparency, participation, information,

accountability, and secrecy) are significantly related to the criterion known as the leaders’

behaviors or the dependent variable.

Table 4.9.: Results of the Multiple Regression Analysis

Coefficientsa

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients

Model B Std. Error Beta (β) t Sig.

(Constant) 63.190 5.090 12.416 .000

OverallTransparency .584 .240 .532 2.437 .017

TransparencyParticipation -.051 .169 -.045 -.300 .765

TransparencyInformation .080 .130 .112 .621 .536

TransparencyAccountability -.254 .372 -.202 -.683 .497

TransparencySecrecy -.349 .193 -.311 -1.805 .075

F-value 12.08

R .661

R2 .436

Adjusted R2 .400

a: Dependent Variable: LeadersBehaviors

The result obtained from the regression analysis indicates that the overall transparency is the

most influential independent variable on the leaders’ behaviors with a value of 0.532 for Beta

(β) and with a p-value ≤ 0.05. It is obvious that overall transparency which is prevailed in the

34

Ministry of Finance positively and influentially affects the behaviors of the leaders working

and influencing in this government entity.

Based on the results of the multiple regression analysis only one independent variable, overall

transparency with (p = 0.017), is the significant predictor of the leaders’ behaviors while

other dimensions of transparency are not predictors for the behaviors of the leaders.

Table 4.9 for the multiple regression shows that the value of “R2”—correlation of five

independent variables (i.e., overall transparency, participation, information, accountability,

and secrecy) with the dependent variable or leaders’ behaviors—is 0.436. This means that

43.6% of the five independent variables have impacts on the dependent variable.

4.6.Summary of Findings

The main purpose of this chapter was to discuss the results and findings of the statistical

analyses done for the collected data through the distributed questionnaires. Collected data

were analyzed using frequencies, reliability tests, Pearson’s correlation, and regression

analyses. Correlation analysis indicated that the overall transparency and other three

dimensions of transparency (i.e., participation, substantial information, and accountability)

are significantly (positively) correlated with the leaders’ behaviors. The transparency last

reveres dimension, namely, secrecy, was significantly (negatively) correlated with the

leaders’ behaviors. Regression analysis indicated that the overall transparency is the most

influential dimension on the dependent variable, the leaders’ behaviors.

35

CHAPTER V

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

5.1.Introduction

This chapter, as the final chapter of this study, discusses and concludes the findings and

results collected and analyzed in the previous chapter. The discussion and conclusion in this

chapter is done to determine whether there is a relationship between the transparency and its

dimensions (i.e., participation, information, accountability, and secrecy as a reverse

dimension) and the leaders’ behaviors of the leaders working and leading in the Ministry of

Finance in Yemen. This chapter also includes the limitations of the research and the

researcher’s recommendations for prospective and future researches.

5.2.Summarizing of the Findings

This research measured the influence of organizational transparency on the leaders’ behaviors

in a government entity, Ministry of Finance, in Yemen. The research instrument, namely, the

questionnaire, was distributed among nearly 105 leaders working in the Ministry of Finance

and its local branches as the targeted respondents. This questionnaire was designed for the

purpose of collecting the following information:

1) Demographic variables including age, gender, current position, years spent in the

ministry, and educational level.

2) Items related to the leaders’ behaviors as the dependent variable.

3) Items related to the independent variable which is transparency and its dimensions

including participation, information, accountability, and secrecy.

Using the software SPSS Version 13.0, the data were fully analyzed to determine the answer

of the question that this study suggests. This question is: “Does transparency with its

dimensions has a relationship with the behaviors of the leaders working in a government

entity? Five hypotheses were composed to find answers for the main two research questions.

The hypotheses stated: “There are relationships between the leaders’ behaviors and the

36

overall transparency, the participation, the substantial information, the accountability, and the

secrecy.”

The four dimensions of the transparency with the overall transparency dimension have

significant relationship with the behaviors of the leaders working in the Ministry of Finance.

All dimensions of transparency were compared between each other to figure out the most

influential dimension on the leaders’ behaviors. The findings showed that overall

transparency is the most dominant and influential dimension on the leaders’ behaviors. Table

5.1. illustrates the most essential findings concerning the five mentioned hypotheses of this

study.

Table 5.1.: Results of Testing the Research’s Hypotheses

Hypothesis Outcome

H1: Overall transparency is significantly related to the leaders'

behaviors. Accepted

H2: Participatory transparency is significantly related to the

leaders' behaviors. Accepted

H3: Informational transparency is significantly related to the


H4: Accountability transparency is significantly related to the


H5: Secrecy (as a reverse item to transparency) is significantly

inversely related to the leaders' behaviors. Accepted

5.3.Discussion of the Findings

This study has two research questions. The first research question inquired about whether

there is a relationship between transparency dimensions—adopted in the Ministry of

Finance—with the leaders' behaviors. The second research question inquired about which one

of the transparency dimensions has more influence on the behaviors of the leaders working in

the Ministry of Finance. The findings of the data analyses—which are related to the

hypotheses and research questions—are summarized in the subsequent sections.

37

5.3.1 Overall Transparency

There is a significant relationship between the overall transparency and the leaders’ behaviors

who work in the Ministry of Finance (Refer to table 4.7). The value of the Pearson correlation

coefficient (r) is 0.634 (p-value ≤ 0.01) which renders the relationship to be a positive

moderately high correlation. This explained that if the overall level of transparency applied in

the Ministry of Finance is high, the behaviors of leaders in this entity will be positively

enhanced and improved towards their subordinates and their ministry. The remarkable fact

that every leader should know that a long-term practicing of overall transparency can create

transparent leaders who have good faiths and affirmative behaviors towards their

subordinates and organizations.

The results show that the leaders of the ministry positively support the intention of the

ministry to let ordinary employees (i.e., followers or subordinates) understand how its

decisions affect them. This issue reinforces increasing the applied level or transparency in the

ministry by letting subordinates understand more about the process of making decisions

within the ministry. Based on the results that the respondents revealed through their

responses, the majority of the ministry’s leaders agree that the ministry itself provides useful

information for its subordinates for making informed decisions. This can improve the quality

of the decisions those subordinates can make since they have the required information

regarding them. Also, from this indicator, a person can understand that the consent of those

leaders to let their followers participate in the process of making decisions is also an

affirmative issue. On the contrary, the results disclose another dimension for the overall

transparency which affects on the leaders’ behaviors of the ministry. This dimension is

included in the responses of the great portion of the respondents (i.e., leaders of the ministry)

in which they oppose to render their ministry accountable to its subordinates for its actions.

This can be justified based on the types and timing of these actions. Some of these actions

could be sensitive and cannot be revealed to subordinates for not making the ministry

accountable to its subordinates.

These findings are in parallel with the research conducted by Beis and Shapiro (1987) which

indicates that leaders who offer fair and reasonable explanations promote transparency. The

reference here for the word “explanations” is related to the amount of revealed information

by leaders that enables the subordinates to make informed decisions and accordingly promote

38

transparency in their organizations. According to Rawlins (2008), transparent organizations

must share information that allows stakeholders (i.e., subordinates) to make informed

decisions regarding their relationship with the organization. This is also in parallel with the

results obtained from this research when most of the respondents agree that the ministry

provides useful information for its subordinates for making informed decisions.

From the obtained results, the overall transparency is the most dominant and influential

dimension on the leaders’ behaviors among other dimensions of transparency. According to

Cox (2009), transparency in leadership builds trust and loyalty; transparent leaders engage

the passion of their employees and leverage their commitment to deliver on the core values of

the organization.

5.3.2. Participation

The result of this section indicates that there is a significant relationship between the

participatory transparency and the leaders’ behaviors who work in the Ministry of Finance

(Refer to table 4.7). The value of the Pearson correlation coefficient (r) is 0.485 (p-value ≤

0.01) which renders the relationship to be a positive moderate correlation. This explained that

if the participatory transparency applied in the Ministry of Finance is high, the behaviors of

leaders towards their ministry and subordinates will be positively enhanced and improved. It

is remarkable to say that the correlation coefficient value for participation as a transparency

dimension was the lowest value among other values. This explains that the results obtained

from analyzing the responses of the leaders for this section support the fact that the ministry’s

leaders give their subordinates a small margin for the allowed participative actions within the

ministry.

The results show that the leaders of the ministry oppose some participative actions related to

transparency that are done by their subordinates. One of these participative actions includes

the rare requests by leaders for a feedback from their subordinates about the quality of the

ministry’s available information. Another indicator of the leaders’ behaviors includes the

involvement for ordinary employees to help in identifying the information they need. The

majority of the respondents choose to stand in the middle of the road and being unbiased.

This could be a little confusing for those leaders because they should know what would be

the benefit for letting ordinary employees participate in identifying the information they need.

39

This to a great extent depends on the type of the information those subordinates need and the

purpose for having it. The ministry’s major leaders oppose to ask for the opinions of ordinary

employees before making decisions. This could be due to some bureaucratic procedures those

leaders practice regarding the process of making decisions. It is known that in government

entities the level of bureaucratic actions is higher than private entities or nongovernmental

organizations. Weber (1947) used the term bureaucracy to label the management system that

includes three primary components: detailed procedures and rules, a clearly outlined

organizational hierarchy, and impersonal relationships among organization members. The

third component mentioned by Weber (1947) is in parallel with the finding for the

participation item where the majority of the ministry’s leaders have impersonal relationships

with other subordinates which leads to neglecting them as an effective human variable and

consequently ignoring those subordinates’ rights to have a participatory transparency in their

ministry. Gray (1995) gives more explanations regarding this point and said: “In fact, it is

recognized today that the bureaucratic approach without an appropriate emphasis on the

human variable is almost certainly a formula for organizational failure.” To make a

summarized end for this dimension of transparency, leaders of the ministry allow their

subordinates to have a weak portion of participation on the different actions and activities

related to the ministry. These activities and actions include fairly submitting feedback to

leaders, having more knowledge about the available ways for identifying information

subordinates need, and fairly participating by giving opinions to leaders for making decisions.

5.3.3. Substantial Information

There is a significant relationship between informational transparency and the leaders’

behaviors in the Ministry of Finance, Yemen (Refer to table 4.7). The value of the Pearson

correlation coefficient (r) is 0.570 (p-value ≤ 0.01) which renders the relationship to be a

positive moderate correlation. This explained that if the level of informational transparency

applied in the Ministry of Finance is high, the behaviors of leaders in this entity will be

positively enhanced and improved towards their subordinates and ministry. Leaders know

that the core of the transparency concept is the information and also in the way that the

ministry internally and externally deals with and uses this information.

The results show that the majority of the ministry’s leaders positively support the intention of

the ministry to provide ordinary employees (i.e., followers or subordinates) with information

40

in a timely fashion. The classical and main components of transparency, especially corporate

and organizational transparency, are the disclosure of reports and timeliness for this

disclosure. Accordingly, timely disclosure for information contained in the ministry’s

different types of reports and providing the ministry’s employees with these reports are

considered effective ways for supporting informational transparency within the ministry

itself. This disclosure of course will be done by the leaders who possess and control this type

of information. Based on the results that the ministry’s leaders revealed through their

responses, a major portion of those leaders agree to provide information that is relevant to

their subordinates. These information could include increase in financial allocations and

incentives, new promotions, training plans, balance of permissions, bonuses, and other

relevant information to the ministry’s subordinates. Leaders of the ministry also are in accord

with providing information to their subordinates that is easy for them to understand.

Information should be set and disseminated among employees using a simple and direct

methods to let those employees have the most benefits of it especially if this information will

help them in making critical and pivotal decisions. Major leaders of the ministry selected a

neutral choice for other items in the informational transparency section. One of these items

includes providing subordinates with complete, accurate, and reliable information. This could

be explained by the justified fairness from the leaders to disclose complete and reliable

information to the subordinates who might use it mistakenly and cause spontaneous or

accidental torts for the ministry.

These findings are in parallel with the research conducted by Durnev et al. (2009) in which

they mention that: “The importance of transparency has been widely recognized by both

academics and market regulators, resulting in numerous rules and regulations being

introduced over time to ensure timely and reliable disclosure of financial information,

creating standards to which firms must adhere” (p.1533). They refer in their research to the

supportive action made by the ministry’s leaders for disclosing timely reports and

information to their subordinates. This kind of disclosure and timeliness is also mentioned in

the research done by Heise (1985) in which he described substantial information and related

it to the transparent organizations by saying: “Transparent organizations make available

publicly all legally releasable information—whether positive or negative in nature—in a

manner which is accurate, timely, balanced, and unequivocal” (p. 209).

41

5.3.4. Accountability

There is a significant relationship between accountability transparency and the leaders’

behaviors in the Ministry of Finance (Refer to table 4.7). The value of the Pearson correlation

coefficient (r) is 0.609 (p-value ≤ 0.01) which renders the relationship to be a positive

moderately high correlation. This explained that if the level of accountability transparency

applied in the Ministry of Finance is high, the behaviors of leaders in this entity will be

positively enhanced and improved towards their subordinates and towards their ministry. It is

known that the accountability transparency is related to both regulation and general public

judgments. According to Balkin (1999), the third kind of transparency is the accountability

transparency; the ability to hold government officials—either to the legal systems or to the

public opinion—accountable when they violate the law or when they act in ways that

adversely affect people’s interests.

The results show that the majority of the ministry’s leaders oppose the intention of the

ministry to provide ordinary employees (i.e., subordinates) with related issues to the

accountability transparency. Nearly, half of the leaders working in the ministry oppose the

principle of presenting more than one side of controversial issues by the ministry to others.

This could be due to their fair of being accountable if they present more than one side of

controversial issues happening in the ministry. Being accountable includes the right for others

to litigate any leader within the ministry for a specific case or suit. Based on the results, the

ministry’s major leaders revealed through their responses that they oppose the principle of

making their ministry forthcoming with information that might be damaging to it. This

opposition is justified due to the sensitive disclosed information that could cause damage to

the ministry or weaken it. Accordingly, the leaders as an essential part of the ministry

disagree and oppose to reveal any information which can harm their ministry and this can be

logically and intellectually understood by others who might agree them on this behavior. The

item which is related to having the ministry open to criticism by its ordinary employees is

opposed by the leaders of the ministry through their major responses with a disagree choice.

This behavior of disagreement is in conflict with the importance of encouraging criticism for

the ministry’s actions by its subordinates that many researchers refer to. Among those

researchers is Zikhali (2005) who describes accountability by saying: “In its broadest sense,

accountability is an obligation to expose, explain, and justify actions. Public accountability

42

demands that the actions of public institutions be publicized to encourage public debate and

criticism” (p.24).

Based on the leaders’ responses, they oppose also to make the ministry freely admits when it

has made mistakes. This behavior weakens the chances for having transparent leaders in the

ministry itself and accordingly weakens the principle of having a whole transparent

organization. Transparent leaders should confess mistakes (Walker & Pagano, 2005).

Confident leaders are able to own up to their own mistakes and thus make effective

midcourse corrections (Bennis et al., 2008). The same researchers add that: “Leaders who tell

the truth, admit mistakes, and respectfully listen to the perspectives of others and set the tone

for an entire culture. This is simple, obvious, and clear as day.”

Another essential concepts regarding the accountability dimension of transparency is tackled

by other researchers who refer to this importance in their researches which somewhat are in

parallel with the findings of the questionnaire’s results of this study. It is widely

acknowledged that transparency can advance accountability and, as a consequence, offer a

strong basis for good governance (Bellver & Kauffman, 2005; Stirton & Lodge, 2001).

Moreover, transparency can make governments more accountable through the process of

evaluating its performance and making its decisions more predictable (Koppell, 2005).

5.3.5. Secrecy

There is a significant inverse (negative) relationship between secrecy and the leaders’

behaviors in the Ministry of Finance, Yemen (Refer to table 4.7). The value of the Pearson

correlation coefficient (r) is -0.578 (p-value ≤ 0.01) which renders the relationship to be a

negative moderate correlation. This explains that if the level of secrecy applied in the

Ministry of Finance is low, the behaviors of leaders in this entity will be positively enhanced

and improved towards their subordinates and also towards their ministry. Leader’s behaviors

include innate secretive aspects which may be related to the work, the leader himself or

herself, and to other issues. Those leaders who work in leading positions should understand

secrecy as an antonym for openness which can only be applied to a specific level and in

certain times to be more beneficial rather than being more destructive and deceptive.

43

The results show that the majority of the ministry’s leaders positively support the intention of

the ministry to provide ordinary employees (i.e., subordinates) with only part of the story.

The story herein refers to the description for facts, information, activities, events, tasks,

reports, and other related aspects issued or implemented by the ministry. The leaders consent

and confession that the ministry provided its employees with a small portion of all these

stories mentioned above reflect the high level of secrecy adopted by the behaviors of those

leaders in the ministry. Based on the leaders’ responses, the ministry often leaves out

important details in the information it provides to ordinary employees. The majority of the

ministry’s leaders agrees and supports this item which reflects that the level of applied

transparency is low within the ministry. This also can be interpreted negatively through the

behaviors of the leaders who exclude their subordinates from having essential and significant

details concerning provided information to them. The major responses of those leaders also

reveal another dimension in the context in which the ministry is slow in providing

information to its employees. Leaders support this slowness done by the ministry or by those

leaders or decision makers themselves. This can be related to the type and time for revealing

such information to the ministry’s subordinates and the possible intentions behind such

opaque behavior.

Other major responses of the ministry’s leaders are in agreement with the item which refers

to that the ministry only discloses information when it is required. The leaders here support

revealing the information only when subordinates need it. This behavior could restrict those

subordinates from making correct decisions in time and could hinder their chances for

participating in the making-decision process. It could also limit the subordinates’ creative

abilities for doing remarkable administrative and managerial achievements due to the lack of

open-source and timely information. Through this item, a person can infer that the available

information and reports subsisting in the ministry’s website are typical and limited. This

explains also that the intention of those leaders to make the ministry’s information available

only in specific time and for specific purposes and maybe for specific characters or persons.

On the contrary, the majority of the ministry’s leaders oppose to admit that the ministry

provides information that is intentionally written in a way to make it difficult to understand.

Those leaders agree that the provided information for their subordinates is easily and clearly

written and needs no special efforts to be understood.

44

Some parts of the findings are in parallel with the findings of the writer Lincoln (2009)

regarding the secrecy applied in organizations. She went to say that most importantly is to

identify areas of the organization that shall remain private. The same writer adds that things

kept private should only remain that way to maintain confidentiality. Typical examples of

items that companies should not reveal include financials, proprietary information, and

personal information (Lincoln, 2009). Also regarding the behavior of leaders with secrecy as

a reverse item to transparency in the ministry, those leaders assign peculiar importance and

specialty for this dimension of transparency and seem more conservative regarding the

typical and more sensitive information related to the ministry. Bonde (2010) considers

secrecy as an obstacle to transparency along with not having the will to be open. According

to Lincoln (2009), transparency is no longer an option. She adds that: “The truth will always

be revealed and that it is the company’s best interest to behave ethically and talk openly.”

5.4. Limitations of the Research

The findings of this study have provided some noteworthy insights regarding the influence of

transparency applied in the Ministry of Finance in Yemen on the behaviors of the leaders

working in this entity. A major limitation for this study was the small and limited population

comprising those leaders and top managers working within the ministry and its local offices

in different provinces. It is expected that extending and enlarging the population can cause

having different and diverse results. In addition, a wide scope of population can give more

accurate and reliable results due to the diversity of respondents and their associated

responses.

Another limitation of this study was the lack for female leaders working in the ministry and

this is might be a reason for having a dominant male-oriented responses and thoughts in the

results obtained for this study. The majority of the leaders working in leading positions in the

Ministry of Finance are male and this is clear in the frequency analysis regarding the gender

of the respondents where 92.2% are male leaders and only 7.1% are female leaders. This

phenomenon can be generalized in many other government entities functioning in Yemen

although female leaders can be more loyal to their organizations, more conformed to laws

and regulations, more intelligent and educated, and on top of that more responsible for their

followers.

45

5.5. Recommendations

The results of this research support the perception that negative behaviors of the leaders

working in government entities towards their subordinates, organizations, and societies are

strongly related to the low level or the absence of adopted and applied transparency in these

government entities. A major recommendation is directed to those leaders who hold leading

positions, administer, and lead many subordinates. Those leaders should consider the results

of this study when deciding the level of transparency that they should adopt in their

government entities. They should positively rectify their behaviors to support the different

dimensions of the transparency (i.e., overall transparency, participation, substantial

information, accountability, and secrecy). The ministry’s leaders should enhance their

behaviors and adopt more procedures that foster participation of subordinates. This is can be

done by requesting periodic feedback from those subordinates, involving them more in the

decision-making and policymaking processes, and providing them with more elaborated

information they might need. Leaders also should adjust their behaviors to be more

responsible through introducing more clear aspects of argumentative issues within the

ministry, being open to criticism, and through confessing easily their mistakes.

Another recommendation can be headed for the behaviors of the ministry’s leaders. Those

leaders should understand that they are live models for many followers and subordinates

working under their supervision. They should learn to be transparent leaders and foster most

important traits of a transparent leader. According to Payne-Nabors (2009), these traits

include being candid and open, planning and leading change, trusting others, sharing

information, admitting mistakes, conveying well personal principles and beliefs, and being

trustworthy and reliable.

5.6. Future Research

Future research should explore more dimensions about the possibility of having a strong

relationship between transparency and leaders’ behaviors. Uncovering additional dimensions

of the relationship between transparency and leadership behaviors may help leaders to create

and facilitate opportunities for applying and adopting transparency in their entities.

46

It would be also beneficial if the future research could include the qualitative method or even

adopt a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative aspects. This adoption will give the

research vaster and more elaborated explanations for the leader’s responses regarding the

quantitative items mentioned and selected in this study.

Another suggestion for future research is related to the population of the study. The

population could be extended and include more government and public entities. This will

increase the significance of the results and can give more accurate and precise outcomes

through the diverse responses of the diverse respondents in different government entities.

Also, conducting this research in private and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) could

provide different impressions and outcomes about the influence of transparency on the

leaders’ behaviors working in these entities. Consequently, future research could make a

comparison among the results obtained from government, private, and nongovernmental

organizations to know more and make a clear impression about the strongest and weakest

influence of transparency on the associated behaviors of leaders working in this dissimilar

and diverse entities and if this influence depends greatly on the type of the entity.

5.7. Conclusion

This current study used a quantitative research method to examine the possible relationships

between transparency with its different dimensions and the leaders’ behaviors in the Ministry

of Finance in Yemen. Eighty-four civil servants (i.e., government leaders) were surveyed to

tackle the research hypotheses and research questions of this study. The results of the

analyzed data collected through the 40-question questionnaire supported all the hypotheses

contained in this study that transparency’s dimensions (i.e., overall transparency,

participation, substantial information, accountability, and secrecy) has significant

relationships with the leader’s behaviors working in the ministry. Some of these behaviors are

positive and some others are negative depending on many factors such as subjective or

objective relations with subordinates, level of applied bureaucratic practices in the ministry

itself, type of information needed to be disclosed, and other managerial, personal, and

administrative factors.

The limitations of this study include the small population which was excluded to the leaders

who work in the Ministry of Finance as a government entity. Another limitation was the lack

47

of many female leaders working in the ministry which could affect the responses and

impressions of the respondents in this study regarding transparency and its different

dimensions.

Future research suggested adopting the qualitative method beside the current quantitative

method used in this research. Extending the population of the study was suggested also for

future research to include more government entities and even extending the population to

include private and nongovernmental organizations. The main purpose of this extension is to

improve the significance of the study’s results and to have an interesting comparison for the

influence that transparency could contribute on the behaviors of the leaders working and

influencing in these different entities.

This current study has recommended leaders working in the Ministry of Finance to have more

knowledge about transparency, its effective dimensions, its effective benefits and positive

implications, and its direct influences on their behaviors towards their subordinates,

organizations, and societies. The study also recommended the leaders to learn more about the

traits and behaviors which can make them fully transparent and which can consequently

enable them to transform their entities to real transparent ones.

48

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APPENDICES

57

Appendix A: The Study’s Questionnaire

No.# | | | | |

A Transparency – Leaders' Behaviors Survey A Cover Letter and the Research’s Instrument

Dear respondent/leader:

I do thank you for your participation in responding this questionnaire which concerns about

measuring and knowing more about one of the most important relationship in the

administrative ad behavioral fields in the public and government sector. It is an interesting

thing to find an answer for the question of many researchers about the influence of

transparency on the leaders' behaviors working in different public entities. This survey is

designed to examine the relationship between transparency and the behaviors of leaders

working in public and government entities.

Consequently, spending a short time in reviewing and replying this questionnaire about this

relationship could contribute in a useful help for all leaders and decision makers towards their

subordinates, ministry, and society.

Make sure that your responses will be kept confidential and will be used for only academic

purposes to find the relationship between the two main variables of this research. The

researcher emphasizes the name of the respondent will not be published in any report

documenting the results of this research.

Thank you so much for supporting the researcher and delivering it fully replied to the

researcher.

The Researcher

58

A Questionnaire Regarding the Influence of Transparency and its Dimensions on the Leaders’ Behaviors in Government Entities

Part A: Demographic profile

Age: ( ) years

Gender: Female ( ), Male ( )

Current Position: ( )

Total years spent in current position: ( ) years

Total years spent in the organization: ( ) years

Educational level: ( )

Part B: Leaders' Behaviors

Not at all

Once in a

while Sometimes Fairly

often

Frequently, if not

always

1. I make others feel good to be around me. 2. I express with a few simple words what we could

and should do.

3. I help others develop themselves. 4. I am content to let others continue working in the

same way as always.

5. Others have complete faith in me. 6. I provide appealing images about what we can

do. 7. I provide others with new ways of looking at

puzzling things.

8. I let others know how I think they are doing. 9. I provide recognition/rewards when others reach

their goals.

10. As long as things are working, I do not try to change anything.

11. Whatever others want to do is O.K. with me. 12. Others are proud to be associated with me. 13. I help others find meaning in their work. 14. I get others to rethink ideas that they had never

questioned before.

15. I enable others to think about old problems in new ways.

16. I give personal attention to others who seem rejected.

17. I tell others the standards they have to know to carry out their work.

59

Part C: Transparency and its Dimensions

Overall Transparency

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

agree

18. The organization that I work in (Ministry of Finance or the ministry) wants to understand how its decisions affect its ordinary employees.

19. The ministry provides information that is useful to people like its ordinary employees for making informed decisions.

20. The ministry wants to be accountable to people like its ordinary employees for its actions.

21. The ministry wants people like its ordinary employees to know what it is doing and why it is doing it.

Participation

22. The ministry asks for feedback from its ordinary employees about the quality of its information.

23. The ministry involves its ordinary employees to help identify the information that they need.

24. The ministry makes it easy to find the information that its ordinary employees need.

25. The ministry asks the opinions of its ordinary employees before making decisions.

Substantial Information

26. The ministry provides information in a timely fashion to its ordinary employees.

27. The ministry provides information that is relevant to its ordinary employees.

28. The ministry provides information that is complete. 29. The ministry provides information that is easy for its

ordinary employees to understand.

30. The ministry provides accurate information to its ordinary employees.

31. The ministry provides information that is reliable. Accountability 32. The ministry presents more than one side of

controversial issues.

33. The ministry is forthcoming with information that might be damaging to it.

34. The ministry is open to criticism by its ordinary employees.

35. The ministry freely admits when it has made mistakes.

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Secrecy

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

agree

36. The ministry provides only part of the story to its ordinary employees.

37. The ministry often leaves out important details in the information it provides to its ordinary employees.

38. The ministry provides information that is intentionally written in a way to make it difficult to understand.

39. The ministry is slow to provide information to its ordinary employees.

40. The ministry only discloses information when it is required.

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Appendix B: The Arabic Version of the Study’s Questionnaire

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63

64

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Appendix C: Reports of the SPSS Program

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

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The Influence of Transparency on Leaders' Behaviors: A Study among the Leaders of the Ministry of Finance, Yemen.

Documents