| After more than 20 years of accumulated research, there is little doubt that transformational leadership behavior (TLB) is an effective form of leadership and related to a myriad of positive individual and organizational outcomes. Indeed, TLB has been empirically linked to outcomes such as increased employee satisfaction, organizational commitment, satisfaction with supervision, extra-effort, turnover intention, organizational citizenship, and overall employee performance. However, TLB, like most forms of leader behavior, has been traditionally viewed as an independent variable exerting influence “down-stream.” Although research on TLB and its “down stream” effects is important, adopting such an orientation may preclude asking questions regarding the genesis of TLB. If TLB is truly important, and we want to understand how to influence, improve, and/or modify the frequency and display of TLB, it is necessary to shift the focus “up-stream” towards the study of TLB as a dependent variable.; The present study examined a set of TLB antecedents across multiple domains. One-hundred-forty-five leaders and 524 subordinates of a large Midwestern biotechnology-agricultural company participated. Each leader completed a battery of surveys, ability tests, and leadership ratings of his/her own boss. The results indicated that approximately 40% of the variance in TLB could be explained by 18 total antecedent variables and two control variables from three antecedent domains (i.e., leader, situation and follower focused antecedents). Moreover, significant relationships were found for many individual predictors of TLB. Post-hoc exploratory analyses revealed no significant interactions among the antecedent domains. In addition, none of the antecedent domains were predictive of transactional leadership or non-contingent punishment behavior. These results support and extend prior theory and empirical work suggesting that transformational leaders posses unique capabilities and perspectives. |
