Leadership
Transformational Leadership and Performance Across Criteria and Levels: A Meta-Analytic Review of 25 Years of Research
Gang Wang1, In-Sue Oh2, Stephen H. Courtright1, and Amy E. Colbert1
Group & Organization Management 36(2) 223–270 © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1059601111401017 http://gom.sagepub.com
Abstract Although transformational leadership has been studied extensively, the magnitude of the relationship between transformational leadership and follower performance across criterion types and levels of analysis remains unclear. Based on 117 independent samples over 113 primary studies, the current metaanalytic study showed that transformational leadership was positively related to individual-level follower performance across criterion types, with a stronger relationship for contextual performance than for task performance across most study settings. In addition, transformational leadership was positively related to performance at the team and organization levels. Moreover, both meta-analytic regression and relative importance analyses consistently showed that transformational leadership had an augmentation effect over transactional leadership (contingent reward) in predicting individual-level contextual performance and team-level performance. Contrary to our expectation, however, no augmentation effect of transformational leadership over contingent reward was found in predicting individual-level task performance. Instead,
1 2
University of Iowa, Iowa City Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond
Corresponding Author: Gang Wang, Department of Management and Organizations, University of Iowa, John Pappajohn Business Building, W252, PBB, Iowa City, IA 52242-1994 Email: gang-wang@uiowa.edu
Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on December 5, 2012
224
Group & Organization Management 36(2)
contingent reward explained incremental variance in
Gang Wang1, In-Sue Oh2, Stephen H. Courtright1, and Amy E. Colbert1
Group & Organization Management 36(2) 223–270 © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1059601111401017 http://gom.sagepub.com
Abstract Although transformational leadership has been studied extensively, the magnitude of the relationship between transformational leadership and follower performance across criterion types and levels of analysis remains unclear. Based on 117 independent samples over 113 primary studies, the current metaanalytic study showed that transformational leadership was positively related to individual-level follower performance across criterion types, with a stronger relationship for contextual performance than for task performance across most study settings. In addition, transformational leadership was positively related to performance at the team and organization levels. Moreover, both meta-analytic regression and relative importance analyses consistently showed that transformational leadership had an augmentation effect over transactional leadership (contingent reward) in predicting individual-level contextual performance and team-level performance. Contrary to our expectation, however, no augmentation effect of transformational leadership over contingent reward was found in predicting individual-level task performance. Instead,
1 2
University of Iowa, Iowa City Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond
Corresponding Author: Gang Wang, Department of Management and Organizations, University of Iowa, John Pappajohn Business Building, W252, PBB, Iowa City, IA 52242-1994 Email: gang-wang@uiowa.edu
Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on December 5, 2012
224
Group & Organization Management 36(2)
contingent reward explained incremental variance in
References: Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on December 5, 2012 Wang et al. Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on December 5, 2012 258 Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on December 5, 2012 Wang et al. Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on December 5, 2012 260 Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on December 5, 2012 Wang et al. Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on December 5, 2012 262 Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on December 5, 2012 Wang et al. Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on December 5, 2012 264 Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on December 5, 2012 Wang et al. Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on December 5, 2012 266 Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on December 5, 2012 Wang et al.