A laboratory study of the moderating effect of task importance on the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership styles and outcomes

This study investigated task importance as a moderator of the relationship between four transformational and transactional leadership styles (charisma, intellectual stimulation, contingent reward, and no leadership) and six outcomes (performance quantity and quality, satisfaction with the leader, perceived leader effectiveness, task interest/enjoyment, and extra effort). The sample for this study was composed of 102 undergraduate students (45 males, 57 females). Each participant viewed one of four videos, created for this study, in which a leader (as portrayed by an actress) displayed the characteristics of one of the leadership styles noted above. Task importance was manipulated by providing participants with handouts designed to convey either high or low task importance. Participants completed an in-basket exercise adapted from Howell and Frost (1989). The findings showed a significant main effect of the leadership condition for three outcomes--performance quantity, task interest/enjoyment, and extra effort. The interaction effect was marginally significant for two outcomes--performance quality and satisfaction with the leader. Contrary to expectations, contingent reward leadership emerged as the best predictor of the outcomes--while the effect of contingent reward leadership was not significant for all outcomes in this study, a pattern emerged whereby participants in the contingent reward leadership condition reported highest scores for five of the six outcomes investigated in this study. The study's contributions and limitations, along with directions for future research, are discussed