Article Component Papers (LEADERSHIP TRAITS AND SKILLS)

LEADING FROM WITHIN: THE EFFECTS OF EMOTION RECOGNITION AND PERSONALITY ON

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR

ROBERT S. RUBIN DePaul University

DAVID C. MUNZ Saint Louis University

WILLIAM H. BOMMER Cleveland State University

This study of 145 managers of a large biotechnology/agricultural company examined how leaders’ emotion recognition ability and personality characteristics influenced performance of transformational leadership behavior. Emotion recognition, positive affectivity, and agreeableness positively predicted such behavior. In addition, extra- version moderated the relationship between emotion recognition and transformational leadership. We also provided construct validity evidence for transformational leader- ship behavior by showing differing effects of these antecedents on contingent reward behavior. The study provides empirical support for the contribution of emotion and personality to transformational leadership behavior.

The past two decades have witnessed a great deal of scholarly attention to transformational leader- ship behavior, which is currently the most widely accepted leadership paradigm (Tejeda, 2001). Inter- est in transformational leadership behavior contin- ues, largely bolstered by Avolio and Bass’s “full range leadership theory” (Bass, 1998; Avolio, 1999). In this theory, leader behavior has three broad categories: transformational, transactional, and nontransactional (laissez-faire). These catego- ries describe leader behavior ranging from, at the best, the active and effective, to—at the worst— passive and ineffective (Avolio, 1999). The most passive and ineffective form of leadership, laissez- faire, is characterized by a complete abdication or avoidance of leadership. The transactional form of leadership is characterized by leaders’ engaging in an exchange process with followers whereby the leader rewards or punishes followers on the basis of follower performance. This exchange process

can be both constructive and corrective. Corrective exchanges involve leader behavior whereby leaders actively seek to correct mistakes before or after they occur. Constructive exchanges take the form of con- tingent rewards whereby leaders promise rewards for satisfactory performance and deliver the re- wards when performance is achieved.

Transformational leadership behavior represents the most active/effective form of leadership, a form in which leaders are closely engaged with follow- ers, motivating them to perform beyond their trans- actional agreements. Podsakoff and colleagues ex- tensively reviewed seven conceptualizations of transformational leadership behavior and found that it included articulating a vision of the future, fostering group-oriented work, setting high expec- tations, challenging followers’ thinking, supporting followers’ individual needs, and acting as a role model (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman, & Fetter, 1990). As Avolio (1999) noted, every leader dis- plays behavior that can be characterized as trans- formational, transactional, and nontransactional; however, effective leaders more often display trans- formational leadership behavior and contingent re- ward behavior and less frequently display more passive and ineffective behaviors.

In order to demonstrate transformational leader- ship behavior’s relative effectiveness among leader- ship behaviors, much research has been concerned with outcomes of transformational leadership be-

A previous version of this manuscript was presented at the 2003 Academy of Management meeting in Seattle. The authors would like to thank Tom Lee and three anonymous reviewers for their guidance and collegiality. In addition, we would like to thank Cathy Daus, Jill Kickul, and Ray Coye for their helpful comments on drafts. Special recognition goes to Pam Carrafa and Leslie O’Brien for their assistance in data collection and site coordination.

� Academy of Management Journal 2005, Vol. 48, No. 5, 845–858.

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havior (e.g., employee attitudes, performance, and so forth). Indeed, to say that transformational lead- ership behavior is predictive of positive individual and organizational outcomes is somewhat axiom- atic (Lowe, Kroeck, & Sivasubramaniam, 1996). One unintended consequence of the literature’s rather primary focus on transformational leader- ship’s outcomes has been a relative lack of empha- sis concerning the underlying basis of this leader- ship behavior (Bommer, Rubin, & Baldwin, 2004; Ployhart, Lim, & Chan, 2001). Put simply, research- ers know very little about why some leaders engage in transformational leadership behavior and others do not.

Although little is known about transformational leadership behavior antecedents, they have not been totally neglected in the literature. More spe- cifically, some conceptual work suggests that cer- tain macro-organizational work contexts (e.g., or- ganizational structure) will be more conducive to this behavior than others (Pawar & Eastman, 1997). Further, empirical research has examined leaders’ biographies (Avolio, 1994) and personal character- istics (Atwater & Yammarino, 1993; Judge & Bono, 2000; Pillai, Williams, Lowe, & Jung, 2003).

The vast majority of transformational leadership behavior research, however, focuses upon media- tion (Podsakoff et al., 1990) or moderation (Howell & Hall-Merenda, 1999) of leader effectiveness. Re- cently, many have called for greater consideration of individual and contextual antecedents of trans- formational leadership behavior (Bass, 1998; Bass, Avolio, Jung, & Berson, 2003; Bommer et al., 2004; Pawar & Eastman, 1997). As Bass astutely asked, “Can the tendency to be more transformational be accurately predicted? If so how?” (1998: 117). The purpose of this study was to investigate this question.

Undoubtedly, this question can be approached from many angles. In order to conduct a focused investigation, we began with the influence of indi- vidual differences, since we could draw on both theoretical and empirical support for such influ- ence. The impact of individual differences on be- havior has been a core area of study in organiza- tional science. As Murphy remarked, “[individual differences] profoundly affect our behavior; an ex- amination of the role of individual differences pro- vides an important starting point for understanding human behavior in organizations” (1996: xvi). Given the extensive literature, we narrowed our investigation to two important individual differ- ences domains, namely, emotional intelligence and personality traits, thereby contributing directly to

recent calls to incorporate both emotion (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1995; George, 2000) and personality (Pillai et al., 2003) into studies of leadership and transformational behavior.

Beyond exploring these two antecedent domains, we wanted to address some recent concerns regard- ing transformational leadership behavior research. Specifically, some have argued that conceptual am- biguity exists among the components of transfor- mational and transactional leadership (Yukl, 1999). Theoretically, these two forms of leader behavior are linked, as transactional exchanges form the ba- sis upon which transformational leadership behav- ior is performed (Avolio, 1999: 42). Empirically, the two constructs tend to be highly correlated and to predict similar outcomes (Bycio, Hackett, & Allen, 1995), indicating that, indeed, little may dis- tinguish the two forms of behavior. Bass (1999) articulated a need for research that could contrib- ute to this discussion, noting that little is known about the differences in the perceptions of transfor- mational and transactional leaders.

From an antecedent perspective, it is unclear whether the genesis of transformational leadership behavior differs significantly from that of transac- tional behavior. Avolio argued that “such ex- changes [transactional leadership] are only the base to build on, however, rather than the ceiling for the leader’s efforts” (1999: 42). Thus, it would be rea- sonable to assume that while the antecedents of transformational and transactional behavior are likely to be somewhat similar, transformational leadership behavior may require additional or unique antecedents. However, research has yet to fully explore how antecedents might differently affect transformational and transactional leader behavior. Although the primary focus of our hy- pothesis development is on transformational lead- ership behavior, we include in our study the pro- totypical and constructive form of transactional leadership— contingent reward behavior—to pro- vide construct validity data and contribute to the nomological network for future antecedent work.

HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT

Though multiple perspectives exist on the nature of emotions, it seems clear that emotions play an important role in organizational research and prac- tice. Recent research suggests that a focus on emo- tion and transformational leadership behavior would be productive (Ashkanasy, Härtel, & Daus, 2002). Huy (1999) argued that emotion at the indi- vidual level is critical in creating radical change (i.e., paradigm shifts). Huy’s arguments are highly

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consistent with descriptions of transformational leadership behavior whereby leaders attempt to evoke change by appealing to followers’ emotional states to motivate personal adaptation. Similarly, Fox and Amichai-Hamburger (2001) argued that persuasion of employees to support organizational change is most successful through affective rather than cognitive appeals. Supporting this view, Ash- kanasy and Tse (2000) described transformational leadership behavior as the management of leader and follower emotion, suggesting that emotional abilities are critical in accomplishing this task.

Emotional Intelligence and Transformational Leadership Behavior

Many of the connections between transforma- tional leadership behavior and emotion are predi- cated on the notion that individuals differ consid- erably in their ability to understand and utilize emotional stimuli in productive ways. More re- cently, theories of emotional intelligence have be- gun to more fully explicate these differences. Ac- cording to Mayer, Caruso, and Salovey, “Emotional intelligence refers to an ability to recognize the meanings of emotions and their relationships, and to reason and problem-solve on the basis of them” (1999: 267). Thus, emotional intelligence describes differences among individuals with regard to un- derstanding and solving problems with and about emotions. Specifically, Mayer, Salovey, Caruso, and Sitarenios (2003) proposed that emotional in- telligence consists of four skill dimensions: (1) per- ceiving emotion (i.e., ability to identify emotions in faces, pictures, music, etc.), (2) facilitating thought with emotion (i.e., ability to harness emotional in- formation in one’s thinking), (3) understanding emotion (i.e., ability to comprehend emotional in- formation), and (4) managing emotion (i.e., ability to manage emotions for personal and interpersonal growth). These skills are hierarchically arranged in such a way that perceiving emotion correctly is pri- mary to facilitating thought, understanding emotion, and managing emotion (Mayer et al., 2003). Ashka- nasy and his colleagues (2002) argued that the com- ponents of emotional intelligence are highly con- sistent with transformational leadership behavior.

Within emotional intelligence, perceiving emo- tions may be particularly important for the perfor- mance of transformational leadership behavior. As Ashkanasy and Tse commented, “Transformational leaders are sensitive to followers’ needs. . .they show empathy to followers, making them under- stand how others feel” (2000: 232). Bass argued that transformational leaders “meet the emotional

needs of each employee” (1990: 21). George (2000) contended that creation of follower excitement and enthusiasm stems from appraisal of followers’ au- thentic feelings. A prerequisite for meeting follow- ers’ emotional needs, then, is accurate assessment of how followers feel. According to the literature on emotional intelligence, these authentic feelings are primarily communicated through facial expres- sions and nonverbal behavior (Ekman & Friesen, 1974; Mayer, Salovey, Caruso, & Sitarenios, 2001). Thus, a leader’s ability to accurately recognize emotions in followers opens as a window to follow- ers’ authentic feelings. Emotion recognition in- volves the ability to accurately decode others’ ex- pressions of emotions communicated through nonverbal channels (i.e., the face, body, and voice). This ability is positively linked to social compe- tence and interaction since nonverbal behavior is a dependable source of information on others’ emo- tional states (Nowicki & Duke, 2001). Elfenbein and Ambady commented that emotion recognition is the most “reliably validated component of emo- tional intelligence” and linked to a variety of pos- itive organizational outcomes (2002: 963; for an extensive review, see Elfenbein, Marsh, and Am- bady [2002]).

Caruso, Mayer, and Salovey (2002) argued that accurately recognizing emotion in others is critical to leaders’ capacity to inspire and build relation- ships. Indeed, prior research in the area of emotion recognition has demonstrated that facial recogni- tion ability is integral to maintaining successful social and work interactions, including successful marriages, managerial status, and strong clinical and leadership skills (Carney & Harrigan, 2003; Elf- enbein & Ambady, 2002). Within the context of leadership, successful interpersonal interactions are not trivial matters. For instance, some research has shown that managerial derailment is heavily influenced by managers’ inability to understand others’ perspectives, a limitation that makes them insensitive to others (Lombardo, Ruderman, & Mc- Cauley, 1987). Further, leaders who engage more frequently in transformational leadership behavior are often found to have higher-quality leader-mem- ber relationships than those engaging more fre- quently in transactional forms of leadership (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995).

Since leader-follower relationships are critical to successful leadership, and the ability to recognize emotion is important for building strong leader- follower relationships, it stands to reason that transformational leaders who build strong relation- ships do so in part through understanding follow- ers’ emotions. The ability to accurately recognize

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emotions via nonverbal expressions is, then, criti- cal to this relationship-building process. Further, if emotional appeals are an effective means of chal- lenging the status quo (Fox & Amichai-Hamburger, 2001), then transformational leaders must be highly attuned to the emotional feedback they receive when delivering appeals. In view of the above re- search, we contribute to the literature by offering a direct test of the emotion recognition and transfor- mational leadership behavior relationship.

Hypothesis 1. Leader emotion recognition abil- ity is positively associated with leader transfor- mational leadership behavior.

Personality Traits and Transformational Leadership Behavior

With respect to personality traits and transforma- tional leadership behavior, Bass remarked, “When it comes to predicting transformational leadership and its components, there is no shortage of person- ality expectations. However, the empirical support has been spotty” (1998: 122). One possible expla- nation for this mottled support may be the employ- ment of multiple personality frameworks within transformational leadership behavior research. Uti- lizing the well-known five-factor model (FFM) as a framework for examining personality and transfor- mational leadership behavior may reduce the in- consistent findings. Ployhart and colleagues noted this: “Organizing this literature [on transforma- tional leadership behavior] around the FFM of per- sonality provides some structure to this process” (2001: 814). Although the jury is still out, a growing consensus that the FFM traits encapsulate many of the important aspects of personality exists (Judge, Bono, Ilies, & Gehardt, 2002).

Recent research has demonstrated that certain traits of the FFM may be more relevant than others. Specifically, Judge and Bono (2000) found that of the five traits, only agreeableness was a strong and consistent predictor of transformational leadership behavior. Extraversion and openness to experience did show a significant correlation with the focal behavior, and extraversion was marginally predic- tive. In another recent study, Ployhart and col- leagues (2001) found a strong relationship between extraversion and transformational leadership be- havior in both typical and maximum performance situations. Conscientiousness, though predictive of leader emergence (Judge et al., 2002) and in some cases leader effectiveness, does not seem to be pre- dictive of transformational leadership behavior (Judge & Bono, 2000). Similarly, mixed results for the trait of openness exist (Judge & Bono, 2000;

Ployhart et al., 2001). Bass (1998) noted, for in- stance, that emotional stability is often shown to be more predictive of lower forms of leader behavior, such as laissez-faire leadership. The extant studies indicate that narrowing the FFM to agreeableness and extraversion may be most useful, while other FFM traits may play a less important role. We do not mean to imply however, that other FFM traits are unequivocally unimportant for transforma- tional leadership behavior, but rather, that agree- ableness and extraversion seem to be traits that play a unique role in transformational leadership behavior.

Extraversion and agreeableness are viewed as key traits enabling an individual to engage others and to allow for others to engage him or her. For exam- ple, behaviors often identified as being “transfor- mational” (e.g., articulating a vision, providing in- tellectual stimulation) all require a leader to communicate values and ideas and to engage fol- lowers in social interactions. Extraversion allows for the requisite assertiveness and gregariousness needed to perform such transformational leader- ship behavior. For example, Thomas, Dickson, and Bliese (2001) found that extraversion significantly predicted human relations aspects of military cadet leader performance.

Transformational leadership behavior also re- quires leaders to build trusting, warm relationships with employees through honest engagement, the hallmark of an agreeable personality. Keller (1999) found that agreeableness was significantly related to ratings of leader sensitivity. Atwater and Yam- marino (1993) found that warmth was a significant predictor of transformational leadership behavior. In view of the available research and above logic, we offer the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 2a. Leader agreeableness is posi- tively associated with leader transformational leadership behavior.

Hypothesis 2b. Leader extraversion is posi- tively associated with leader transformational leadership behavior.

Another important personality trait likely to strongly influence transformational leadership be- havior is positive affectivity (PA). Individuals with high PA are likely to experience positive emotion and moods. George commented that these individ- uals “tend to have an overall sense of well-being and to be positively engaged in the world around them, in terms of both achievement and interper- sonal relations” (1996: 146). Positive affectivity has been associated with prosocial behavior (George, 1991), performance (Wong & Law, 2002), work

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achievement (Staw, Sutton, & Pelled, 1994), indi- cators of leader effectiveness (George, 1995), and the ability to develop and maintain workplace re- lationships (Staw et al., 1994). These findings are in line with the view that PA could be an antecedent of transformational leadership behavior.

Transformational leaders are described as cham- pions of change and as likely to manifest important social values (Bass et al., 2003). These leaders are also likely to utilize emotion to communicate vi- sion and motivation to followers (Lewis, 2000). In- dividuals with high PA search for and get pleasure from social relations (George, 1996). Since affect may be strongly tied to social perceptions in organ- izations (Lord & Maher, 1991), it follows that PA would be an important component of eliciting pos- itive social interaction and change. Further, indi- viduals considered high in PA often perceive pos- itive events as more likely to occur (Mayer & Salovey, 1993). Thus, leaders who are character- ized by a high degree of PA may be more willing to perform transformational leadership behavior as a change mechanism since they are likely to believe change is possible. Some research has supported this link. For example, Howell and Frost (1989) found that effective visions are tied to emotional expression and nonverbal communication. Fox and Spector (2000) found that PA was positively related to leader-follower liking and perceived similarity. Further, Newcombe and Ashkanasy (2002) showed that leader positive affect resulted in higher lead- ership ratings. Given the above research and logic, we propose:

Hypothesis 3. Leader positive affectivity is pos- itively associated with leader transformational leadership behavior.

Communication from leader to follower is often laden with emotional content (George, 2000). For example, Ashforth and Humphrey (1995) con- tended that leadership necessarily involves dis- playing and arousing emotion in others. Similarly, Conger and Kanungo (1987) argued that leaders utilize emotions to arouse certain feelings and mo- tivation in followers. Thus, leadership naturally involves recognition of others’ emotions and ex- pressiveness. Leaders who can more effectively di- rect these two abilities toward productive transfor- mational leadership behavior should be effective in influencing employees (Dasborough & Ashkanasy, 2002). Therefore, in addition to the associations hypothesized above, an interaction between emo- tion recognition and extraversion is also likely.

Specifically, extraversion may strengthen the re- lationship between emotion recognition and trans- formational leadership behavior. According to the

emotional intelligence literature, accurate recogni- tion of follower emotion plays an important role in directing leaders’ attention toward the most pro- ductive courses of action. In the case of transforma- tional leadership behavior, recognizing emotion and appropriately responding to followers’ emo- tion is essential for effective influence and main- taining the leader-follower relationship (Caruso et al., 2002; George, 2000). For example, it is one ability for a leader to recognize a follower is angry; it is entirely another ability for the leader to express recognition of that emotion to the follower, thereby recognizing the employee’s needs and worth (e.g., “Bob, I see you are angry about this decision, per- haps you would like to talk specifically about how it impacts you?”). Extraverted individuals have a strong inclination toward this expressiveness (Judge & Bono, 2000). Thus, extraversion may allow a leader to utilize his or her emotion recognition ability more effectively. Much as highly intelligent individuals who lack requisite social skills are per- ceived as relatively ineffective in social situations (i.e., as solely “book smart”; Ferris, Witt, and Hochwarter [2001]), leaders who possess strong emotion recognition ability but lack expressiveness may not profit from their emotion recognition ability in terms of performing transformational leadership behavior. Consequently, we tested this premise via the following:

Hypothesis 4. Leader extraversion moderates the relationship between leader emotion recog- nition and transformational leadership behav- ior. Specifically, increased levels of leader ex- traversion will strengthen the relationship between leader emotion recognition and trans- formational leadership behavior.

METHODS

Participants and Procedures

A large, Midwest-based, global biotechnology/ agricultural company agreed to provide access to 234 managers and their 1,400 subordinates from five organizational units. We use the term “leader” to refer to these managers, who were the focus of this study. In addition, the term “subordinate” is used to refer to a leader’s “direct report.” As an incentive to participate, leaders were informed that they would receive a timely feedback report on their leadership behavior consistent with the com- pany’s ongoing efforts to develop self-aware lead- ers. A total of 177 leaders (76 percent of the total) volunteered to take part in the study.

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To be included in the study, a leader had to satisfy three criteria: (1) the leader had to have two or more subordinates rate his or her leadership behavior, (2) at least two subordinates who com- pleted the leadership measures had to have re- ported directly to the leader for at least three months, and (3) the leader him-/herself had to com- plete measures assessing the variables examined in this study. Of the 177 participating leaders, 145 met the above inclusion criteria. The leaders averaged 43.3 years of age and 12.9 years of company tenure. Over three-fifths (62%) were male, and all had at least a college degree (64% held graduate degrees). A total of 480 subordinates (of a possible 1,078) provided responses for an average of 3.31 respon- dents per leader (min. � 2; max. � 11) and a 45 percent subordinate participation rate.

Leaders attended a 75-minute survey session to complete all surveys. Multiple levels of leaders were recruited to participate in the study; thus, only the subordinates reporting to first-line leaders were not themselves also leaders. These nonleader subordinates who volunteered attended a 30- minute survey session solely to rate their direct leaders’ leadership behavior. To avoid leaders and subordinates being in the same survey session room, we had leaders attend sessions with other leaders at similar hierarchical levels. The first au- thor conducted all survey sessions and reiterated the purpose, confidentiality, and voluntary nature of the study. Paper-and-pencil surveys were used to collect the data.

Measures

The measure of transformational leadership be- havior used in this study was developed by Podsa- koff and colleagues (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, & Bom- mer, 1996; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman, & Fetter, 1990) and was rated by focal leaders’ subor- dinates. That is, each subordinate rated his or her direct leader only. The measure consisted of 22 items pertaining to six dimensions: articulating a vision, providing a role model, communicating high performance expectations, providing individ- ualized support, fostering the acceptance of group goals, and providing intellectual stimulation. This measure was soundly developed via appropriate classical test theory construction. Further, it repre- sents a shared conceptualization of transforma- tional leadership behavior since it is explicitly a collection of behaviors used by other theories to capture the behaviors expressed by “transforma- tional” leaders. However, this measure excludes

ratings of charisma, which are found in Bass’s widely used Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, and focuses directly on leader behavior, rather than on behaviors and attributions of leadership. Previ- ous research has shown a correlation between cha- risma and aspects of the FFM (Keller, 1999). Thus, we believed the Podsakoff et al. (1996) measure would provide a less biased assessment of transfor- mational leadership behavior, given our study’s in- tent. Podsakoff and his colleagues (1996) found internal consistencies ranging from .82 to .90.

The prototypical constructive transactional be- havior, contingent reward behavior, was measured with five items from Podsakoff and colleagues’ con- tingent reward scale (Podsakoff, Todor, Grover, & Huber, 1984). Podsakoff et al. (1984) reported a high coefficient alpha for this scale (� � .93).

Leaders’ agreeableness and extraversion were measured with items from Goldberg’s (1999) Big Five Inventory. Both scales contain five items and utilize a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“not at all descriptive of me”) to 5 (“very descriptive of me”). Goldberg (1999) reported average scale reli- abilities between .75 and .85 and high correlations with other known measures of the five-factor model (.94 with NEO-PI-R).

The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PA- NAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) was used to measure leader positive and negative affect. Nega- tive affect was included in the analyses as a control and for purposes of construct validity. Both scales contain ten adjectives assessing positive and nega- tive trait affect. Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they they generally experi- enced each feeling on a five-point scale (1, “not at all”; 5, “extremely”). The PANAS is widely used in organizational research, and the PA (� � .88) and NA (� � .87) scales have shown acceptable internal consistency (Watson et al., 1988).

The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy (DANVA) was used to measure leaders’ emotion recognition. The DANVA is a performance-based measure that assesses individuals’ ability to cor- rectly identify the basic emotions of happiness, sadness, anger, and fear in 24 photographs of adult facial expressions at an equal number of high and low intensities (Nowicki & Duke, 2001). Specifi- cally, the DANVA tests stimuli that both children and adults would recognize at least 80 percent of the time as a particular emotion. Nowicki and Duke (2001) reported an internal consistency of .78 for the facial recognition test. The DANVA has been widely used in clinical/social psychological and organizational studies (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002).

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Although the DANVA is scored as the number in- correct, we recoded to reflect more conventional scoring, so that a score of 24 (not 0) represents a perfect score in our results.

As an additional control variable, we measured leaders’ span of control. Since larger spans of con- trol can diminish a leader’s ability to influence, it is likely that a wide span of control would lead to fewer resources allocated across employees. Simi- lar arguments have been made with respect to em- ployee performance ratings (e.g., Judge & Ferris, 1993). Much as professors who teach large sections have less time to devote to individual student needs, leaders with wider spans of control also have less time to engage employees with transfor- mational leadership behavior such as providing in- dividualized support or intellectual stimulation. During the survey session, leaders indicated the number of subordinates they managed directly. Wide-ranging spans of control were reported by leaders (range � 2–56); the average was 7.3 subor- dinates per leader.

RESULTS

Because our hypotheses are concerned with transformational leadership behavior in a general sense, and not its specific manifestations, we col- lapsed the measure into a single construct. This procedure appears to have been empirically justi- fied by the single measure’s high reliability (� � .92) and the correlations among the dimensions (i.e., the average correlation was .43). In addition, we wanted to aggregate subordinate ratings for each leader. Previous research suggests that a measure of within-group agreement provides sufficient justifi- cation for aggregating subordinates’ ratings into a single leader transformational leadership behavior

and contingent reward behavior score. Following George’s (1990) suggestion and previous transfor- mational leadership behavior research (e.g., Bass et al., 2003; Bommer et al., 2004), we computed a measure of within-group agreement (rwg) taken from James, Demaree, and Wolf (1984) for each leader’s group. For each leader’s transformational leadership behavior and contingent reward behav- ior ratings, the mean rwg’s were .93 and .94 respec- tively. In both cases less than 4 percent (contingent reward behavior) and 1 percent (transformational leadership behavior) of the rwg calculations fell be- low the acceptable .70 cutoff. On the basis of these data, we aggregated subordinate ratings.

Hypothesis Testing

Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations, and correlations for all study variables. As ex- pected, wider spans of control were significantly associated with less transformational leadership behavior (r � �.25, p � .01) and contingent reward behavior (r � �.27, p � .01). Negative affectivity was not significantly related to either transforma- tional leadership behavior or contingent reward behavior.

To ensure the appropriateness of regression anal- ysis, we examined the data with respect to the underlying assumptions of regression. A thorough analysis of the data suggested that all of the as- sumptions of ordinary least squares regression were met. As the regression results in Table 2 in- dicate, the four predictor and two control variables included in this study accounted for 26 percent of the variance in transformational leadership behav- ior and 17 percent of the variance in contingent reward behavior. A closer examination of the rela-

TABLE 1 Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations for all Study Variablesa

Variable Mean s.d. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Transformational leadership 1. Behavior 3.69 0.41 (.92) 2. Contingent reward behavior 3.77 0.62 .58** (.91) 3. Span of control 7.32 6.98 �.24** �.29** 4. Agreeableness 3.91 0.49 .30** .25** �.12 (.67) 5. Extraversion 3.14 0.83 .07 .04 �.07 .32** (.78) 6. Positive affectivity 3.92 0.45 .29** .12 .11 .24** .40** (.84) 7. Negative affectivity 1.83 0.37 .00 �.03 �.06 �.10 �.29** �.18* (.75) 8. Emotion recognitionb 18.92 2.70 .17* .17* �.15 .11 .03 �.13 �.03 (.68)

a n � 145. Alpha coefficients appear on the diagonal in parentheses. b A K-R 20 reliability assessment was used to calculate alpha for emotion recognition.

* p � .05 ** p � .01

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tionships and specific tests of hypotheses are dis- cussed below, and results are presented in Table 2.

With respect to emotion recognition, Hypothesis 1 posits that leader emotion recognition ability is positively associated with leader transformational leadership behavior. Results supported Hypothesis 1. Leaders who accurately identified emotions from facial expressions were more likely to engage in transformational leadership behavior (� � .18, p � .05). Emotion recognition was not a significant pre- dictor of contingent reward behavior.

Regarding leader personality traits, Hypotheses 2a and 2b suggest that agreeableness and extraver- sion, respectively, are positively associated with transformational leadership behavior. As seen in Table 2, only agreeableness (� � .23, p � .01) was a significant predictor, showing support for Hy- pothesis 2a but not for 2b. Similarly, agreeableness was also significantly related to contingent reward behavior (� � .20, p � .01), while extraversion was not. Thus, leaders who reported being more agree-

able were likely to be rated as engaging in transfor- mational leadership behavior and contingent re- ward behavior. Hypothesis 3 states that PA is positively associated with transformational leader- ship behavior. Results showed support for Hypoth- esis 3 in that leaders with high positive affectivity were more likely to be rated as performing trans- formational leadership behavior (� � .36, p � .001). In contrast, PA was not a significant predictor of contingent reward behavior.

Beyond positing simple “main effects,” Hypoth- esis 4 asserts that extraversion moderates the rela- tionship between emotion recognition and transfor- mational leadership behavior; according to our hypothesis, increased levels of extraversion posi- tively strengthen the relationship between emotion recognition and transformational leadership behav- ior. To test Hypothesis 4, we created mean-centered interaction terms for extraversion and emotion rec- ognition and multiplied them to create a single interaction term. The interaction term was then

TABLE 2 Results of Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Transformational

Leadership Behavior and Contingent Reward Behavior

Variable

Transformational Leadership Behavior Contingent Reward Behavior

b s.e.b � b s.e.b �

Step 1 Constant 3.79*** .18 4.12*** .27 Span of control �.02 .01 �.26* �.03 .01 �.29*** Negative affectivity �.04 .10 .01 �.09 .15 �.05

R2 .06 .09 Step 2

Constant 1.47*** .46 1.88** .75 Span of control �.02 .01 �.25** �.02 .01 �.27*** Negative affectivity .05 .09 .04 �.06 .15 �.03 Agreeableness .19 .07 .23** .26 .11 .20* Extraversion �.07 .04 �.14 �.08 .07 �.11 Positive affectivity .32 .08 .36*** .22 .12 .16 Emotion recognition .03 .01 .18* .03 .02 .13

R2 .26 .17 �R2 .20*** .08* Step 3

Constant 1.36*** .45 1.78** .75 Span of control �.02 .00 �.29*** �.03 .01 �.29*** Negative Affectivity .06 .09 .06 �.04 .15 �.02 Agreeableness .21 .07 .26** .28 .11 .22* Extraversion �.08 .04 �.16 �.08 .07 �.11 Positive affectivity .33 .07 .37*** .23 .12 .17 Emotion recognition .02 .01 .17* .03 .02 .13 Emotion recognition

� extraversion .04 .01 .19* .03 .02 .12

R2 .29 .18 �R2 .03* .01

* p � .05 ** p � .01

*** p � .001

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added to step 3 in the hierarchical regression anal- ysis. Results showed that the interaction was sig- nificant for transformational leadership behavior (� � .19, p � .05), but not for contingent reward behavior. Following the recommendations of Aiken and West (1991), we subjected the interaction to a split-plot analysis to better understand its form. The form in Figure 1 supports Hypothesis 4, as the regression for high emotion recognition is signifi- cant (p � .05), whereas the regression for low emo- tion recognition is nonsignificant. Specifically, leaders high in extraversion and with emotion recognition ability were rated more highly on trans- formational leadership behavior than leaders high in extraversion and low in emotion recognition ability. For leaders who were low in extraversion, emotion recognition ability made no statistically significant difference in their transformational leadership behavior ratings.1

DISCUSSION

The goal of the present study was to examine the influence of emotional intelligence and personality traits on transformational leadership behavior.

Broadly speaking, the results showed that person- ality traits and emotional recognition were posi- tively linked to transformational leadership behav- ior. Overall, over one-quarter of the variance in transformational leadership behavior could be ex- plained by a relatively few trait, ability, and control variables. Although some of the findings reinforce previous research, others represent more novel dis- coveries. Moreover, the study results are encourag- ing as they are free of same-source variance inflation.

With respect to personality traits, this study rep- licated previous findings, added new data, and ex- tended research by including contingent reward behavior. First, leaders with high positive affect were more likely to perform transformational lead- ership behavior but not more or less likely to en- gage in contingent reward behavior. Second, results showed that agreeableness, but not extraversion, predicted transformational leadership behavior and contingent reward behavior. Our findings are consistent with Judge and Bono’s (2000) demon- stration that agreeableness was the strongest pre- dictor of transformational leadership behavior. This convergence of findings is encouraging since the present study and Judge and Bono’s (2000) study utilized different measures of transforma- tional leadership behavior and personality.

Much has been written recently regarding the potential influence of emotional intelligence and

1 To assess whether a nonlinear relationship was present, we tested whether the squared terms of emotion recognition or extraversion added unique variance. In neither case was a nonlinear relationship found.

FIGURE 1 Split-Plot Analysis of the Interactive Effects of Emotion Recognition and Extraversion

on Transformational Leadership Behavior

2005 853Rubin, Munz, and Bommer

its role in organizational leadership, but little em- pirical work exists on the topic. This study contrib- utes much-needed empirical evidence in support of one aspect of emotional intelligence and its rela- tionship to transformational leadership behavior. Leaders in this study who were better able to rec- ognize emotion accurately in others were rated more highly on transformational leadership behav- ior. Additionally, emotion recognition was not pre- dictive of contingent reward behavior in the present study. These results support theoretical ar- guments that leaders who perform transformational leadership behavior are more interpersonally sen- sitive than leaders who might engage in solely con- tingent reward behavior. Thus, emotion recogni- tion could represent an important point of divergence for understanding and predicting trans- formational leadership behavior as opposed to other forms of leader behavior.

Perhaps the most important contribution is that leader emotion recognition can interact with extra- version in a way that significantly and positively influences leader performance of transformational leadership behavior. High extraversion provided a clear benefit to leaders who also possessed the abil- ity to accurately recognize emotion. Conversely, leaders who possessed low extraversion and high emotion recognition abilities did not seem to reap the benefits of their emotion recognition ability. In fact, leaders high in extraversion and low in emo- tion recognition ability may be at a greater disad- vantage than those low in extraversion but high in emotion recognition ability. For example, high-ex- traversion/low-emotion-recognition leaders may be perceived as “all talk” and as insensitive, lacking the ability to read employees’ emotional cues indi- cating their needs. Thus, although extraversion does not seem to have a direct effect on transfor- mational leadership behavior, it does have an indi- rect effect and should not be discounted as an im- portant leadership trait. Further, transformational leadership behavior by nature is focused on sub- stance, such as providing a clear vision, setting group goals, and setting high performance expecta- tions. Berson, Shamir, Avolio, and Popper (2001) found that transformational leadership behavior was related to the overall strength of a leader’s vision and noted that personality characteristics might play a role. Our results suggest that emotion recognition may be a necessary but insufficient ability involved in the performance of transforma- tional leadership behavior. Together, emotion rec- ognition, strong substance (e.g., vision content), and expressiveness may very well differentiate leaders’ performance of transformational leader-

ship behavior. Future researchers may want to con- sider the use of constructs that tap this behavior more directly than extraversion; emotional expres- sivity (e.g., Gross & John, 1997; King & Emmons, 1990) may be one such construct.

As mentioned above, although we focused pri- marily on transformational leadership behavior, we wanted to heed calls to study antecedents of trans- formational leadership behavior, but not to the ex- clusion of transactional behavior. The present study showed that transformational leadership be- havior and contingent reward behavior (the proto- typical transactional behavior) were correlated at a moderately high level (r � .58), suggesting overlap- ping constructs. Yet a comparison of the regression results showed that only agreeableness was a sig- nificant predictor of contingent reward behavior. Thus, although contingent reward behavior and transformational leadership behavior may often produce similar outcomes, the pathways to, or gen- esis of, contingent reward behavior may be quite different from that of transformational leadership behavior. For example, our findings for an interac- tion between emotion recognition and extraversion support previous theory contending that perfor- mance of transformational leadership behavior re- quires management of emotion, which in turn pro- duces employee empowerment, growth, and change. Contingent reward behavior, which pro- duces order and stability, may not require such management of emotion.

Although this study has promising results and some positive methodological strengths (e.g., mul- tiple data sources, a large organizational sample, multiple raters of behavior), a few limitations de- serve specific mention. First, this study employed a cross-sectional design and, thus, the direction of causality is impossible to decipher. Second, the leaders were selected from a single organization. In addition, participation was voluntary, making it quite possible that selection effects were present in leader ratings. Although the subordinate participa- tion rate was less than ideal, it is consistent with rates in previous transformational leadership be- havior research (Bono & Judge, 2003) and is not necessarily an indication of nonresponse error (Krosnick, 1999). Further, the descriptive statistics for transformational leadership behavior closely approximated previous research, with good vari- ability, indicating that systematic biases were not likely present in subordinate ratings. Third, our model contained only a small number of predic- tors, which may have increased the chances for model misspecification. These factors may threaten

854 OctoberAcademy of Management Journal

both the internal and external validity of the study. Important to future research is an attempt to un-

derstand the full process— both individual differ- ences and contextual circumstances—leading to the performance of transformational leadership be- havior. At the individual level, further inquiry into interactions between emotion and personality would be productive. These include explanations of the mechanism for how these antecedents con- tribute to transformational leadership behavior. For example, emotional regulation may be an impor- tant means by which leaders are able to adjust their emotions to be situationally appropriate. Further, explorations are needed to understand how a lead- er’s context influences transformational leadership behavior. These types of studies may ultimately provide support to organizations looking to in- crease the prevalence of transformational leader- ship behavior.

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APPENDIX

Scale Items of Study Variables

Transformational Leadership Behavior

1. Is always seeking new opportunities for the unit/ department/organization.

2. Paints an interesting picture of the future for our group.

3. Has a clear understanding of where we are going. 4. Inspires others with his/her plans for the future. 5. Is able to get others committed to his/her dream of

the future. 6. Fosters collaboration among work groups. 7. Encourages employees to be “team players.” 8. Gets the group to work together for the same goal. 9. Develops a team attitude and spirit among his/her

employees. 10. Acts without considering my feelings. 11. Shows respect for my personal feelings. 12. Behaves in a manner that is thoughtful of my

personal needs. 13. Treats me without considering my personal feel-

ings. 14. Shows us that he/she expects a lot from us. 15. Insists on only the best performance. 16. Will not settle for second best. 17. Leads by “doing” rather than simply by “telling.” 18. Provides a good model to follow. 19. Leads by example. 20. Has provided me with new ways of looking at

things which used to be a puzzle for me. 21. Has ideas that have forced me to rethink some of

my own ideas I have never questioned before. 22. Has stimulated me to think about old problems in

new ways.

Contingent Reward Behavior

1. Always gives me positive feedback when I perform well.

2. Gives me special recognition when my work is very good.

3. Commends me when I do a better than average job. 4. Personally complements me when I do outstanding

work. 5. Frequently does not acknowledge my good perfor-

mance.

Agreeableness

1. I have a soft heart. 2. I take time out for others. 3. I feel others’ emotions. 4. I am not interested in other people’s problems. 5. I make people feel at ease.

Extraversion

1. I don’t like to draw attention to myself. 2. I am quiet around strangers.

2005 857Rubin, Munz, and Bommer

3. I start conversations. 4. I talk to a lot of different people at parties. 5. I do not mind being the center of attention.

Positive Affectivity

“Indicate to what extent you generally feel this way, that is, how you feel on average:”

1. Interested 2. Excited 3. Strong 4. Enthusiastic 5. Proud 6. Alert 7. Inspired 8. Determined 9. Attentive

10. Active

Negative Affectivity

1. Distressed 2. Upset 3. Guilty 4. Scared 5. Hostile 6. Irritable 7. Ashamed 8. Nervous 9. Jittery

10. Afraid

Robert S. Rubin ([email protected]) is an assistant pro- fessor in the Management Department at DePaul Univer- sity’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in organizational psychology from Saint Louis University. His current research interests include trans- formational/transactional leadership, leadership cyni- cism, social and emotional individual differences, and management pedagogy.

David C. Munz ([email protected]) is a professor of psy- chology at Saint Louis University. He received his Ph.D. in industrial-organizational psychology from the Univer- sity of Oklahoma. His research interests include work- place affect, stress, and the design and evaluation of workplace interventions. He has published and pre- sented extensively and is a Fellow of APA and a charter member of APS.

William H. Bommer ([email protected]) is an as- sociate professor in the Management and Labor Relations Department at Cleveland State University’s Nance Col- lege of Business. He received his Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Indiana University. His research interests include transformational/transactional leadership, organ- izational citizenship, leadership development, and re- search methods.

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