Impact of Perceived Leadership Styles on Work Outcomes: Case of Building Professionals

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to empirically evaluate the transformational and transactional leadership styles among building professionals in the construction industry. This is part of a large-scale research project undertaken by the writers. Bass’s transformational leadership theory reported in 1985 was employed and tested in a sample of 510 professional employees from a cross section of qualified building professionals selected from four countries. The main objectives of the study are (1) to examine the extent of leaders who are perceived to use transformational and transactional leadership styles; (2) to identify which of the two leadership styles is best able to predict outcomes of “leader effectiveness,” “extra effort by employees,” and “employees” satisfaction with the leaders; and (3) to offer insight into the management theory for building professionals in business organizations. Results of the study suggest that all five of the transformational factors and three of the transactional factors are significantly correlated with leadership outcomes of leader effectiveness, extra effort by employees, and employees satisfaction. The results further supported that transformational leadership could augment transactional leadership in producing greater amounts of performance and satisfaction.