A study of the relationship among the constructs of transformational and transactional leadership and conflict management style

This study investigated the relationship among the constructs of transformational and transactional leadership and conflict management style as measured by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (NLQ (5X)) and the Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory-II (ROCI-II). The sample (N = 715) of participants came from a manufacturing division of a mid-size private sector national securities printing company. The purpose of this study was to answer two questions. One, what are the relationships between perceptions of leaders' transformational leadership style and perceptions of leaders' conflict management style? Two, what are the relationships between perceptions of leaders' transactional leadership style and perceptions of leaders' conflict management style? The results showed that there was a strong positive correlation between conflict management style F1 and transformational and transactional leadership, and effective leadership outcome of .76, .68, and .79 respectively. Conversely, the results showed that there was a strong negative correlation between conflict management style F2 and transformational and transactional leadership, and effective leadership outcome of -.71, -.68, and -.65 respectively. These findings suggest that leaders using conflict management style F1 were associated with achieving higher leadership outcomes than leaders using style F2. The study also found a strong correlation of .93 between the constructs of transformational and transactional leadership. This strong correlation suggests that the constructs may not be separate and distinct as theorized by Bass and Avolio (1994). In addition, this study verified previous findings that leaders using transformational leadership were associated with achieving higher leadership outcomes than leaders simply using transactional leadership.