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This study provided a comprehensive examination of the full range of transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership. Results (based on 626 correlations from 87 sources) revealed an overall validity of.44 for transformational leadership, and this validity generalized over longitudinal and multisource designs. Contingent reward (.39) and laissez-faire (−.37) leadership had the next highest overall relations; management by exception (active and passive) was inconsistently related to the criteria. Surprisingly, there were several criteria for which contingent reward leadership had stronger relations than did transformational leadership. Furthermore, transformational leadership was strongly correlated with contingent reward (.80) and laissez-faire (−.65) leadership. Transformational and contingent reward leadership generally predicted criteria controlling for the other leadership dimensions, although transformational leadership failed to predict leader job performance.

 

In the past 20 years, a substantial body of research has accumulated on transformational-transactional leadership theory. Burns (1978) first introduced the concepts of transformational and transactional leadership in his treatment of political leadership. As Conger and Kanungo (1998) noted, to Burns the difference between transformational and transactional leadership is in terms of what leaders and followers offer one another. Transformational leaders offer a purpose that transcends short-term goals and focuses on higher order intrinsic needs. Transactional leaders, in contrast, focus on the proper exchange of resources. If transformational leadership results in followers identifying with the needs of the leader, the transactional leader gives followers something they want in exchange for something the leader wants (Kuhnert & Lewis, 1987). To Burns, transactional leadership is more commonplace than is transformational leadership, if less dramatic in its consequences.

Bass (1985) based his theory of transformational leadership on Burns's (1978) conceptualization, with several modifications or elaborations. First, Bass did not agree with Burns that transformational and transactional leadership represent opposite ends of a single continuum. Bass argued that transformational and transactional leadership are separate concepts, and further argued that the best leaders are both...