Motivation and Transactional, Charismatic, and Transformational Leadership: A Test of Antecedents

Relationships between leaders' motivation and their use of charismatic, transactional, and / or transformational leadership were examined in this study. One hundred eighty-six leaders and 759 direct reports from a variety of organizations were sampled. Leaders were administered the Motivation Sources Inventory (MSO while followers reported leaders' full range leadership behaviors using the Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-rater version). Leaders were also administered the self-rating version of the Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-rater version). The Motivation Sources Inventory subscales. subsequently signzjkantly correlated with leader self-reports of inspirational motivation, idealized influence (behavior) and individualized consideration (range, r = .10 to .29), as well as with raters' perceptions of inspirational motivation, idealized influence (behavior) and individualized consideration (range, r = .18 to .19). The Motivation Sources Inventory subscales significantly correlated with leaders' self-reports of charisma, transactional and laissez-faire leadership (range, r = .12 to .28), with rater-reports of the same variables (range, r = .16 to .29). Antecedents of transformational behavior have been examined sparsely since the concept was first articulated and researched (Burns, 1978; Bass, 1985). Those few studies that have examined the construct as a criterion variable have included Avolio's (1 994) examination of life events and experiences, Bass's (1985) exploration of early career challenges, Howard and Bray's (1988) study of personality variables, Atwater and Yammarino's (1993) study of personal attributes as precedents to transformational leader behaviors, and Barbuto, Fritz, and Marx's (2000) study of work motivation and transformational leadership. Results of these inquiries demonstrate that dispositional variables play some role in transformational leadership, but much research is necessary to ascertain which variables explain the greatest variance in data. This study tests the relationship between leaders' sources of motivation and their use of transactional, charismatic, and transformational leadership. Full Range Model of Leadership Transformational leadership theories grew from Bums's (1978) work in political leadership. Bums (1 978) described the transforming leader as one who is able to lift followers up from their petty preoccupations and rally around a common purpose to achieve things never thought possible. Bass (1 985) developed a typology of leadership behaviors fitting into the broad categories of transactional and transformational leadership. Bass (1 985) identified laissez-faire, management-by-exception, and contingent reward as the key types of transactional leadership. Most conceptualizations of transactional leadership, however, exclude laissez-faire because it represents the absence of leadership. Transformational leadership was operationalized at the time to include charisma, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration (see …