The Differential Effects of Transformational Leadership on Multiple Identifications

Employees' identifications entail a valuable asset for modern organizations and identification research has stressed the necessity to distinguish identifications according to their focus (i.e., organizational, team, or leader identification). Interestingly, transformational leadership (TFL) has been proposed to unfold its effects through transforming followers' identifications and could thus be a powerful way to actively manage identification. However it remains unclear whether TFL affects identifications with different foci similarly or whether it predominantly influences a specific focus. To resolve this puzzle, we conduct three meta-analyses (k = 53; N = 15,491) and found that TFL is more strongly associated with leader than with organizational or team identification. Presenting a comprehensive model of TFL's effects on identifications, we further show that the relationships between TFL and collective identifications (i.e., organizational or team identification) are mediated by leader identification, illustrating that relational identification plays a crucial role in subsequently shaping collective identifications. Implications for research and practice are discussed.