SUMMARY COURSE 3.4: LEADERSHIP &
COACHING
BY ROWAN MOELIJKER
YEAR 2018/2019
POSITIVE & ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
ERASMUS SCHOOL OF SOCIAL AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
, MEETING 2
PROBLEM 3: EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP?
ARTICLE 1: HAMSTRA, M. R. W., VAN YPEREN, N. W., WISSE, B., & SASSENBERG, K. (2011).
TRANSFORMATIONAL-TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLES AND FOLLOWERS REGULATORY
FOCUS FIT REDUCES FOLLOWERS TURNOVER INTENTIONS. JOURNAL OF PERSONNEL
PSYCHOLOGY, 10, 182–186. DOI:10.1027/1866-5888/A000043
This study examined relations between leadership style (transformational or transactional) and followers’
turnover intentions, while considering the moderating role of followers’ self-regulatory focus.
Regulatory fit: goal-striving in a way that sustains one’s self-regulatory preference.
Transformational leadership encourages followers to carry out and construe their work in terms of strategic
means stressing ideals, optimism, positive expectations, change, eagerness, and an abstract long-term plan.
Indeed, these transformational behaviours fit promotion-focused individuals’ directedness at an ideal self.
Hypothesis 1: Transformational leadership negatively relates to turnover intentions for promotion-focused
followers.
Transactional leadership gives followers clarity about rules and standards to protect the status quo and entails
closely monitoring and correcting followers’ errors to ensure short-term success. Indeed, these transactional
behaviours fit prevention-focused individuals’ preference to direct goal-striving toward obligations and
responsibilities.
Hypothesis 2: Transactional leadership negatively relates to turnover intentions for prevention-focused
followers.
Results/Discussion
A survey among psychology students (N=104), on how they experienced their jobs and supervisors, supported
the two hypotheses. Transformational leadership negatively related to turnover intentions for highly
promotion-focused followers, but not for those low in promotion focus; transactional leadership negatively
related to turnover intentions for highly prevention-focused followers, but not for those low in prevention
focus.
Limitations: although there is no reason to suspect that students who hold part-time or full-time jobs would
respond differently to leadership than employees not enrolled in higher education programs, it may be
valuable to replicate these findings in a different sample. Common method variance may be a limitation of this
study.
ARTICLE 2: HOWELL, J. M., & HAL L-MERENDA, K. E. (1999). THE TIES THAT BIND: THE IMPACT
OF LEADER-MEMBER EXCHANGE,TRANSFORMATIONAL AND TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP, AND
DISTANCE ON PREDICTI NG FOLLOWER PERFORMA NCE. JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY,
84(5), 680–694. DOI:10.1037/0021-9010.84.5.680
Note: This article has already been discussed in the first meeting. However, in this summary, an overview of the
most relevant topics for this problem will be given.
Physical Distance, Leadership Behaviours, and Leader–Follower Relationship
Quality
One contextual variable that may influence both the quality of leader–follower relationships and leadership
behaviours is physical distance. Dramatic changes in organizational structures, size, complexity, and work
