Transformational-Transactional Leadership and Work Outcomes: An Organizational Justice and Cultural Perspective

Abstract

Leadership involves a process whereby leaders inspire followers and motivate them to accomplish goals. This dissertation investigates the processes and boundary conditions of effective transformational-transactional leadership by integrating multiple theories, namely, published literature related to transformational-transactional leadership, cultural value orientations, organizational justice, and organizational change. Specifically, this study investigates how and when cultural value orientations influence followers’ reactions to transformational-transactional leaders and whether organizational justice explains such leaders’ effectiveness (at both the team and individual levels) during times of organizational change. This research provides empirical support for the contention that transformational-transactional contingent reward leaders are universal. More importantly, this research indicates that, from the cross-level of analysis, organizational justice fully or partially mediated the relationship between transformational-transactional contingent reward leadership and work outcomes, and that perceived change frequency moderated the transformational leadership—task performance relationship. These findings shed light on the underlying process and boundary conditions for effective leadership.