Is transformational leadership always good for employee task performance? Examining curvilinear and moderated relationships

Abstract

Transformational leadership, generally considered as a desirable leadership style, has positive effects on various performance outcomes of employees; however, its productivity has been called into question because of a relative neglect of its negative aspects. Addressing this gap, an attempt at rethinking the relationship between transformational leadership and employee performance is important. The paradoxical perspective indicates that conflicting positive and negative effects of transformational leadership can coexist, which provides possibility and rationality for thorough consideration of employees' task performance influenced by transformational leaders. Integrating the principle of diminishing marginal utility and the "Too-Much-ofa-Good-Thing (TMGT)" effect, this research explores an inverted U-shaped relationship between transformational leadership and employee task performance. Furthermore, applying social cognitive theory, we assume an employee's proactive personality moderates the curvilinear influence of transformational leadership on employees' task performance. As expected, results from a study of data from 209 supervisorsubordinate relationships from China showed that the inverted U-shaped relationship between transformational leadership and employees' task performance was moderated by employees' proactive personality. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Effect of transformational and transactional leadership on SMEs in Indonesia

“…Lopez-Zafra, Garcia-Retamero, and Martos (2012) reported that transformational leadership is determined by femininity; in other words, women tend to be more transformative. Subsequently, this is the desired leadership style because it positively influences various performance outcomes (Chen et al, 2018). This finding strengthens the results from previous studies (Iscan et Bass and Riggio (2006), which stated that transformational leaders could incite their employees to achieve better performance.…”

Investigating the role of innovative behavior in mediating the effect of transformational leadership and talent management on performance

“…The results of previous studies have also proven that transformational leadership have an influence on performance (e.g. Gooty et al, 2009;Jyoti & Bhau, 2015;Kala'lembang et al, 2015;Chen et al, 2018;Apoi & Latip, 2019;Abuzaid, et al, 2019;and Chandrasekara, 2019). Therefore, these findings are consistent, support, and confirm the results of previous studies that transformational leadership has a positive and significant direct effect on performance.…”

“…It is inseparable from practice transformational leadership which has emphasized on intrinsic motivation, trust, commitment and loyalty of followers (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010). Several studies also reported that transformational leadership affects performance, for example, Gooty et al (2009), Jyoti andBhau (2015), Kala'lembang et al (2015), Chen et al (2018), Apoi and Latip (2019), Abuzaid, Al-Ma'aitah et al (2019), and Chandrasekara (2019). According to Brown and Keeping (2005), transformational leadership is characterized by the ability of leaders to articulate a shared vision of the future, intellectually stimulate employees, and pay attention to individual differences in employees.…”

The Diminishing Effect of Transformational Leadership on the Relationship Between Task Characteristics, Perceived Meaningfulness, and Work Engagement

“…Numerous studies present compelling evidence that transformational leadership is an antecedent to positive individual-and organizational-level outcomes (Gooty et al, 2009;Mendelson et al, 2019). However, because of the two sides of transformational leadership (Kark et al, 2003), the efforts of transformational leaders do not always foster positive employee outcomes (Chen et al, 2018); this is especially true for police officers (Loftus, 2009;Cockcroft, 2014). This research found that perceived meaningfulness and engagement for grassroots police officers can be weakened by the combined effect of high task autonomy and high transformational leadership.…”

“…This research found that perceived meaningfulness and engagement for grassroots police officers can be weakened by the combined effect of high task autonomy and high transformational leadership. This diminishing effect may occur because the higher autonomy in work and greater responsibility for change provided by transformational leaders can add additional burdens, such as increased expression of ideas, more allocations of tasks, high standards of performance (Chen et al, 2018), higher work stress (Spector et al, 1988), and greater challenges in balancing the implementation of changes and established statutes, which may further reduce meaningful perception and engagement in work. The results of this research can explain why employees' work engagement in public sectors is insufficient from one perspective.…”