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TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND JOB BEHAVIORS:
THE MEDIATING ROLE OF CORE JOB CHARACTERISTICS
RONALD F. PICCOLO
University of Central Florida
JASON A. COLQUITT
University of Florida
Although the effects of transformational leadership on task performance and organi-
zational citizenship behavior (OCB) are well-documented, the mechanisms that ex-
plain those effects remain unclear. We propose that transformational leadership is
associated with the way followers view their jobs, in terms of Hackman and Oldham’s
(1976) core job characteristics. Results of our study support a structural model
whereby indirect effects supplement the direct effects of transformational leadership
on task performance and OCB through the mechanisms of job characteristics, intrinsic
motivation, and goal commitment. Additional analyses revealed that transformational
leadership relationships were significantly stronger for followers who perceived high-
quality leader-member exchange.
Over the past two decades, transformational
leadership has emerged as one of the most popular
approaches to understanding leader effectiveness.
Transformational leadership theory rests on the as-
sertion that certain leader behaviors can arouse fol-
lowers to a higher level of thinking (Bass, 1985;
Burns, 1978). By appealing to followers’ ideals and
values, transformational leaders enhance commit-
ment to a well-articulated vision and inspire fol-
lowers to develop new ways of thinking about
problems. Indeed, the positive association between
transformational leadership and follower behaviors
is well documented (Fuller, Patterson, Hester, &
Stringer, 1996; Judge & Piccolo, 2004; Lowe, Kro-
eck, & Sivasubramaniam, 1996), and studies have
begun to examine the process by which those ef-
fects are ultimately realized (e.g., Bono & Judge,
2003; Dvir, Eden, Avolio, & Shamir, 2002; Kark,
Shamir, & Chen, 2003).
A central tenet of the transformational approach
is that such effects are transmitted through follower
reactions to a leader. Early studies of the transfor-
mational process, therefore, tended to emphasize
the mediating role of followers’ attitudes toward
leaders, such as trust, satisfaction, personal identi-
fication, and perceived fairness (e.g., Kark et al.,
2003; Pillai, Schreisheim, & Williams, 1999; Pod-
sakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman, & Fetter, 1990).
Other studies have suggested that transformational
effects are explained by how followers come to feel
about themselves or their group, in terms of self-
efficacy or group potency (Bono & Judge, 2003;
Shamir, House, & Arthur, 1993; Sosik, Avolio, &
Kahai, 1997).
We propose a different mechanism for explaining
the effects of transformational leaders—one rooted
not in perceptions of leader or self, but rather,
rooted in the job. One of the more powerful influ-
ences a leader can have on followers is in the “man-
agement of meaning” (Smircich & Morgan, 1982),
as leaders define and shape the “reality” in which
followers work. Hackman and Oldham’s (1976,
1980) five core job characteristics—variety, iden-
tity, significance, autonomy, and feedback—offer
one means of capturing key facets of that reality.
We therefore tested the model shown in Figure 1, in
which the direct effects of transformational leader-
ship on task performance and organizational citi-
zenship behavior (OCB) are supplemented by ef-
fects on followers’ perceptions of core job
characteristics. Those perceptions then go on to
predict intrinsic motivation and goal commit-
ment, which are themselves related to the two
outcomes. This study therefore offers a unique
integration of two of the more visible literatures
in the organizational behavior domain: transfor-
mational leadership and job characteristics
theory.
An earlier version of this article was presented at the
2004 annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and
Organizational Psychology, Chicago. We would like to
thank Dov Eden and three anonymous reviewers for their
guidance during the review process.
娀Academy of Management Journal
2006, Vol. 49, No. 2, 327–340.
327
EXPLAINING TRANSFORMATIONAL
LEADERSHIP EFFECTS
Since its introduction by Burns (1978) and Bass
(1985), transformational leadership theory has
evolved to describe four dimensions of leader be-
havior. Idealized influence is the degree to which
leaders behave in charismatic ways that cause fol-
lowers to identify with them. Inspirational motiva-
tion is the degree to which leaders articulate vi-
sions that are appealing to followers. Intellectual
stimulation is the degree to which leaders chal-
lenge assumptions, take risks, and solicit followers’
ideas. Individualized consideration is the degree to
which leaders attend to followers’ needs, act as
mentors or coaches, and listen to followers’
concerns.
Of all the transformational leadership effects,
perhaps the most often studied are its associations
with beneficial job behaviors. Transformational
leaders have the ability to raise follower task per-
formance while also encouraging OCB—those “ex-
tra-role” behaviors that are discretionary and not
directly recognized by an organization’s formal re-
ward system, and that help improve organizational
functioning (Smith, Organ, & Near, 1983). As three
separate meta-analytic reviews have summarized
(Fuller et al., 1996; Judge & Piccolo, 2004; Lowe et
al., 1996), the transformational leadership dimen-
sions have displayed strong and consistent correla-
tions with task performance and OCB across
organizations.
According to Bass (1985), transformational lead-
ers provide constructive feedback to their follow-
ers, convince followers to exhibit extra effort, and
encourage followers to think creatively about com-
plex problems. As a result, followers tend to behave
in ways that facilitate high levels of task perfor-
mance. In addition, transformational leaders make
their organizations’ missions salient and persuade
followers to forgo personal interests for the sake of
the collective. When followers equate their own
success with that of their organizations’ and iden-
tify with the organizations’ values and goals, they
become more willing to cooperate in order to make
a positive contribution to the work context (Podsa-
koff et al., 1990).
FIGURE 1
Proposed Model of Transformational Leadership and Core Job Characteristic Effects
328 AprilAcademy of Management Journal
Hypothesis 1. Transformational leadership is
positively related to follower task performance
and OCB.
Transformational Leadership and Core
Job Characteristics
Of course, the contribution of the present study
lies not in testing Hypothesis 1, but rather in ex-
ploring whether core job characteristics provide
one mechanism for explaining those effects. Hack-
man and Oldham (1976) introduced job character-
istics theory to explain conditions in which em-
ployees would be intrinsically motivated when
performing a job. According to the theory, organi-
zations can encourage positive work attitudes and
increased work quality by enhancing jobs along
five dimensions. These include variety (the degree
to which a job requires the use of a number of
different skills and talents); identity (the degree to
which the job requires completion of a “whole”
piece of work, or doing a task from beginning to end
with a visible outcome); significance (the degree to
which the job has a substantial impact on the lives
of other people); autonomy (the degree to which the
job provides substantial freedom); and feedback
(the degree to which the job provides clear infor-
mation about performance levels).
Although perceptions of core job characteristics
are clearly dependent on structural aspects of one’s
formal job description, transformational leaders
can foster such perceptions through their own ac-
tions. Smircich and Morgan suggested that leaders
influence followers by “mobilizing meaning, artic-
ulating and defining what has previously remained
implicit or unsaid, by inventing images and mean-
ings that provide a focus for new attention, and by
consolidating, confronting, or changing prevailing
wisdom” (1982: 258). Leaders “frame” or “bracket”
followers’ work experiences to create a new point
of reference for understanding the day-to-day flow
of work (Goffman, 1974; Schutz, 1967; Smircich &
Morgan, 1982).
This “management of meaning” perspective on
leadership is similar to the social information pro-
cessing model introduced by Salancik and Pfeffer
(1978). These authors suggested that individuals
rely on informational cues from their social con-
texts when making assessments about work envi-
ronments. Leaders, for example, as central charac-
teristics of a work context, are relevant information
points when followers make judgments about their
jobs. Both Salancik and Pfeffer (1978) and Griffin,
Bateman, Wayne, and Head (1987) argued that job
perceptions do not depend exclusively on objective
characteristics of actual jobs, but instead on social
constructions of the information available to work-
ers at the time they make judgments.
Griffin (1981) was among the first to test the
notion that leaders can influence job perceptions
without making any adjustments to objective job
characteristics. He argued that individual task per-
ceptions stem from five basic sources of informa-
tion: (1) technology, (2) organizational structure, (3)
coworkers, (4) characteristics of a job incumbent
and—most relevant in the current study—(5) an
individual’s immediate supervisor. In Griffin’s
study of leader behaviors and job characteristics,
managers reported the extent to which they exhib-
ited behaviors intended to influence job percep-
tions. Three months later, subordinates in an ex-
perimental group reported higher ratings of core job
characteristics, even though no tangible changes to
their actual jobs had been made. Griffin (1981) ex-
plained these results by suggesting that informa-
tional cues from supervisors may have caused em-
ployees to perceive their tasks differently.
Transformational leaders may play a particularly
strong role in the management of meaning and so-
cial information. Shamir and his coauthors (1993)
suggested that leaders who exhibit transforma-
tional behaviors can influence how followers judge
a work environment by using verbal persuasion
and by clearly communicating the value of an or-
ganization’s mission. Similarly, Bono and Judge
(2003) suggested that transformational leaders help
followers view work goals as congruent with their
own values. There are reasons to expect that the
same management of meaning processes may be
used to influence job perceptions.
In addition, many of the behaviors subsumed by
the transformational pattern have direct implica-
tions for levels of core characteristics. Leaders who
utilize intellectual stimulation by seeking new per-
spectives and developing new ways to perform job
tasks may enhance follower perceptions of variety
and autonomy. Leaders who engage in individual-
ized consideration by coaching and teaching
should have followers who see more autonomy and
feedback in their jobs. When leaders engage in ide-
alized influence (by emphasizing the moral and
ethical consequences of work decisions) or inspira-
tional motivation (by articulating a compelling vi-
sion of the future), followers may view their jobs as
more significant. Shamir and colleagues (1993) pro-
vided indirect support for these assertions by sug-
gesting that leaders who appeal to ideological val-
ues and engage in intellection stimulation interject
meaningfulness into their organization and their
followers’ work.
2006 329Piccolo and Colquitt
Hypothesis 2. Transformational leadership is
positively related to follower perceptions of
core job characteristics.
Effects of Core Job Characteristics
One of the central predictions of job characteris-
tics theory is that enhanced core job characteristics
are associated with higher levels of what Hackman
and Oldham termed “internal motivation,” de-
scribed as a “self-perpetuating cycle of positive
work motivation driven by self-generated (rather
than external) rewards for good work” (1980: 72).
The authors likened internal motivation to Csik-
szentmihalyi’s (1975) “flow” concept and Deci’s
discussion of “intrinsic motivation,” described as
involvement in “an ongoing process of seeking and
conquering challenges” (1975: 131). Our model
uses Deci’s intrinsic motivation terminology,
which has come to be the more common label in
the larger motivation literature (e.g., Kanfer, 1991).
Comprehensive summaries of the literature on
job characteristics theory have provided support
for the notion that jobs regarded as challenging,
important, and autonomous are more intrinsically
motivating. For example, Fried and Ferris (1987)
meta-analyzed over 200 studies and reported cor-
rected correlations ranging from .22 to .52 between
the five core characteristics and intrinsic motiva-
tion. Path analysis studies have suggested that the
intrinsic motivation effects are driven by multiple
characteristics and are particularly reliant on the
characteristics that create perceived meaningful-
ness in one’s job (Johns, Xie, & Fang, 1992).
Hypothesis 3. Follower perceptions of core job
characteristics are positively related to fol-
lower intrinsic motivation.
Hackman and Oldham (1980) argued that em-
ployees who are intrinsically motivated engage in
higher levels of task performance because perform-
ing well creates positive affect. Staw (1977) made a
similar argument, suggesting that intrinsically mo-
tivated individuals derive satisfaction from task ac-
complishment and therefore work harder to excel.
Although these arguments apply most obviously to
work quality, Hackman and Oldham (1980) also
provided conceptual arguments for the effects of
intrinsic motivation on work quantity. Specifically,
the authors argued that intrinsic motivation should
reduce the forms of task withdrawal (e.g., day-
dreaming, breaks, socializing) that slow work ef-
forts. Kanfer (1991) made a similar point, noting
that one of the key mechanisms for explaining the
performance effects of intrinsic motivation is con-
sistency of task engagement. Intrinsically moti-
vated individuals are more likely to choose to work
on particular tasks at a given moment. Indeed, that
engagement not only increases work quantity over
time, but can also improve the acquisition of task-
related skills, thereby affecting work quality (Kan-
fer, 1991).
Unfortunately, these types of arguments have re-
ceived very little empirical testing. Most of the
research on intrinsic motivation in the larger moti-
vation literature has treated it as a dependent vari-
able and used either job characteristics or the pres-
ence of extrinsic rewards as predictors of motivated
behavior (see Fried and Ferris [1987] and Deci,
Koestner, and Ryan [1999] for meta-analytic re-
views). The most recent studies linking intrinsic
motivation with task performance have come out of
the related area of psychological empowerment
(e.g., Thomas & Velthouse, 1990). For example,
Spreitzer (1995) linked the empowerment version
of intrinsic motivation to subordinate perceptions of
managerial task performance in an industrial firm.
Research relating intrinsic motivation to OCB is
surprisingly rare, yet there appear to be natural
links between the two constructs. Individuals
likely execute discretionary behaviors that go be-
yond the formal requirements of a job to satisfy
some higher-order individual need or to align work
behavior with individual values. Because such be-
haviors are less likely to be formally rewarded than
are required job behaviors, they are presumably
performed for self-generated, intrinsic reasons.
Some support for this assertion was found by Lee
and Allen (2002), who linked “intrinsic cognitions”
to some forms of OCB, and by Rioux and Penner
(2001), who linked the outcome to an organization-
al concern motive that captured, among other
things, having a genuine interest in work.
Hypothesis 4. Follower intrinsic motivation is
positively related to follower task performance
and OCB.
Our model also draws a link between job charac-
teristics and goal commitment in explicating the
reasons for transformational effects. Following
Locke, Shaw, Saari, and Latham (1981), Hollen-
beck, Williams, and Klein defined goal commit-
ment as “the determination to try for a goal and the
persistence in pursuing it over time” (1989: 18). We
are not aware of any research linking the five core
job characteristics to goal commitment, but there
are conceptual reasons to expect a relationship.
Klein, Wesson, Hollenbeck, and Alge (1999), for
example, identified antecedents of goal commit-
ment beyond expectancy and goal attainment, the
two most proximal drivers of commitment. Among
those antecedents was volition, which overlaps
330 AprilAcademy of Management Journal
substantially with autonomy, and performance
feedback, which is a central aspect of job charac-
teristics theory. Both volition and feedback were
proposed to have an influence on goal commitment
through their effects on expectations of goal attain-
ment. Thus, by shaping expectancies for accom-
plishment of work-related goals, core characteris-
tics appear to be linked to expressions of goal
commitment.
Hypothesis 5. Follower perceptions of core job
characteristics are positively related to fol-
lower goal commitment.
In most studies of goal setting theory, goal com-
mitment has been regarded as a moderator of the
relationship between goal difficulty and perfor-
mance. However, Locke, Latham, and Erez (1988)
suggested that goal commitment would also have a
direct link to performance and introduced a model
of job performance with goal commitment as the
most proximal predictor. Drawing on earlier work
by Salancik (1977), the authors noted that commit-
ment is the binding of individuals to specific be-
havioral acts. Thus, individuals who are more com-
mitted to goals should try harder to achieve them
and persist in that effort longer (Locke et al., 1988).
Such persistence is one of the most powerful driv-
ers of task performance (Locke & Latham, 2002). In
support of this view, two meta-analyses concluded
that goal commitment does indeed have a positive,
moderate relationship with task performance
(Klein et al., 1999; Wofford, Goodwin, & Premack,
1992).
In contrast, the relationship between goal com-
mitment and OCB remains unclear and untested.
On the one hand, many individual goals do not
include a citizenship component, and extra-role
behaviors that distract from goal-based duties
might hinder the achievement of such goals. On the
other hand, group- or organization-level goals in-
herently encourage cooperation and helping behav-
iors among employees, and a commitment to those
goals should facilitate altruistic behaviors that are
not directly rooted in an individual’s job descrip-
tion. Indeed, a leader’s ability to foster acceptance
of group goals is a strong predictor of OCB (Podsa-
koff, MacKenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000).
Hypothesis 6. Follower goal commitment is
positively related to follower task performance
and OCB.
Alternative Models
In summary, we propose that the relationship
between transformational leadership and beneficial
job behaviors (task performance and OCB) is par-
tially mediated by perceptions of core job charac-
teristics, which are related to intrinsic motivation
and goal commitment. The model in Figure 1 there-
fore offers a new, relatively unexplored set of
mechanisms for transformational effects on job be-
haviors. Of course, one could envision alternate
structures for Figure 1 that could also have merit.
For example, it may be that the job characteristics
mechanisms fully mediate transformational effects,
suggesting that direct paths to task performance
and OCB should be dropped. On the other hand, it
may be that Figure 1 understates the direct effects
of transformational leadership, which may have
direct links with goal commitment and intrinsic
motivation (Shin & Zhou, 2003). We therefore
tested two alternate models that provide different
representations of transformational effects. Figure 2
depicts these alternate models.
Potential Boundary Condition
In addition, we explored a potential “boundary
condition” for transformational effects. In describ-
ing leaders as managers of meaning, Smircich and
Morgan noted that some followers can choose to
resist such management, writing that leadership
“involves a complicity or process of negotiation
through which certain individuals, implicitly or
explicitly, surrender their power to define the na-
ture of their experience to others. Indeed, leader-
ship depends on the existence of individuals will-
ing, as a result of inclination or pressure, to
surrender, at least in part, the powers to shape and
define their own reality” (Smircich & Morgan,
1982: 258). This reasoning implies that some fol-
lowers are resistant to transformational behaviors.
One construct that could capture such resistance is
leader-member exchange (LMX) quality (Graen &
Uhl-Bien, 1995). Followers in high-quality LMX
relationships report high levels of trust in leaders
and commitment to their visions, so they may be
more responsive to transformational behaviors. In
contrast, followers in low-quality LMX relation-
ships have formal, impersonal communication pat-
terns with leaders that could prove insufficient for
transmitting changes in job perceptions.
METHODS
Respondents
Respondents included 283 individuals from a
broad cross-section of job types. The most common
job categories were administration/support (11%),
Web design and computer networking/technology
2006 331Piccolo and Colquitt
(10%), and education/training (9%); but as partic-
ipants were drawn from multiple organizations in
several industries, we cannot assert that the sample
is representative of any definable population. For-
ty-four percent of the respondents were men, 56
percent were women, and 78 percent were Cauca-
sian. Their average age was 34 years, and their
average tenure in their current jobs was 7 years. We
recruited respondents from the StudyResponse ser-
vice (Stanton & Weiss, 2002), a nonprofit academic
service that attempts to match researchers in need
of samples with individuals willing to complete
surveys. In exchange for this service, the StudyRe-
sponse researchers examine the relationship be-
tween study characteristics (e.g., survey length)
and survey effectiveness (e.g., response rate, miss-
ing data rates). As of the most recent update (Au-
gust 10, 2005), 95,574 individuals had registered
with the StudyResponse service.
For the present study, recruits were limited to
full-time employees who reported to a supervisor.
A random sample of 1,491 such employees was
generated. The StudyResponse staff sent out re-
cruitment e-mails with links to an online survey. In
accordance with our Institutional Review Board’s
protocols, participants were told that the research
was voluntary and that the study pertained to “the
relationship between job attitudes and job behav-
FIGURE 2
Alternate Models of Transformational Leadership and Core Job Characteristic Effects
332 AprilAcademy of Management Journal
iors.” Respondents were further told that they
would receive a $10 Amazon.com gift certificate if
they filled out the survey and their supervisors
filled out a shorter set of questions. Respondents
signed on to the online survey using their StudyRe-
sponse ID number, which was the only identifier
included with their data. Once the participants had
filled out their survey, they e-mailed their supervi-
sors a link to the supervisory survey, so the super-
visor data were identified with the same ID num-
bers. A total of 283 individuals completed the self-
survey, resulting in a response rate of 19 percent.
Of these, 217 had supervisors who filled out the
supervisor survey; thus, the overall response rate
was 15 percent.
Measures
Unless otherwise indicated, all measures used a
response scale in which 1 was “strongly disagree”
and 5 was “strongly agree.”
Transformational leadership. The four dimen-
sions of transformational leadership were mea-
sured with items from the Multifactor Leadership
Questionnaire (MLQ Form 5X; Bass & Avolio,
1995). Four items were used to measure intellectual
stimulation (e.g., “My supervisor . . . seeks differ-
ing perspectives when solving problems”), inspira-
tional motivation (e.g., “. . . articulates a compel-
ling vision of the future”), and individualized
consideration (e.g., “. . . treats me as an individual
rather than just a member of a group”). Eight items
were used to measure idealized influence (e.g.,
“. . . instills pride in me for being associated with
him/her”). Transformational leadership was mea-
sured at the individual level because the level of
theory—dictated by the outcome variables—was at
the individual level (Rousseau, 1985).
Job characteristics. The ten Likert items from
the revised form of the Job Diagnostic Survey
(Idaszak & Drasgow, 1987; see Hackman & Oldham,
1974) were used. On a seven-point scale (1, “very
inaccurate,” to 7, “very accurate”), participants in-
dicated the accuracy of statements such as, “The
job requires me to use a number of complex high-
level skills” (variety), “The job provides me the
chance to completely finish the pieces of work I
begin” (identity), “The job is very significant and
important in the broader scheme of things” (signif-
icance), “The job gives me considerable opportu-
nity for independence and freedom in how I do the
work” (autonomy), and “After I finish a job, I know
whether I have performed well” (feedback).
Intrinsic motivation. This variable was mea-
sured with four items developed by Hackman and
Oldham (1974). Sample items are, “My opinion of
myself goes up when I do this job well” and “I feel
bad and unhappy when I discover that I have per-
formed poorly on this job.”
Goal commitment. The five items validated by
Klein, Wesson, Hollenbeck, Wright, and DeShon
(2001), based on the earlier work of Hollenbeck,
Klein, O’Leary, and Wright (1989), were used. Sam-
ple items (both reverse-coded) are, “It’s hard to take
my work goals seriously” and “Quite frankly, I
don’t care if I achieve my work goals or not.”
LMX. This was assessed using Graen and Uhl-
Bien’s (1995) seven-item scale. Sample items are,
“How would you characterize your working rela-
tionship with your supervisor?” (1, “extremely in-
effective,” to 5, “extremely effective”) and “How
well does your supervisor recognize your poten-
tial?” (1, “not at all,” to 5, “fully”).
Task performance. Supervisors were asked to
complete the seven-item scale developed by Wil-
liams and Anderson (1991). Supervisors indicated
the extent to which they agreed with statements
about their subordinates’ performance, such as,
“This employee . . . adequately completes assigned
duties” and “. . . fulfills responsibilities specified
in his/her job description.”
OCB. Supervisors also completed the 16-item
measure of OCB published by Lee and Allen (2002),
indicating the extent to which they agreed with
statements about their subordinates’ behavior.
Items included, “This employee . . . helps others
who have been absent,” “. . . assists others with
their duties,” “. . . attends functions that are not
required but that help the organizational image,”
and “. . . offers ideas to improve the functioning of
the organization.”
Measurement model. Confirmatory factor analy-
ses revealed the existence of coding factors in
scales on which minorities of items were worded in
an opposite direction (i.e., were reverse-coded; see
Schmitt and Stults [1985] for a discussion of this
common problem). These items exhibited lower
factor loadings and/or highly correlated error
terms. We therefore dropped the negatively worded
item in the intrinsic motivation scale, both posi-
tively worded items in the goal commitment scale,
and both negatively worded items in the task per-
formance scale. Our analyses also revealed an un-
acceptably low loading for a task performance item
with vague item content (“Engages in activities that
will directly affect his/her performance”), so this
item was also dropped. The four facet scores were
used as manifest indicators of the latent transfor-
mational leadership factor, and the same technique
was used to represent job characteristics. Given the
length of the OCB scale, we used four 4-item par-
cels as manifest indicators of the latent variable.
2006 333Piccolo and Colquitt
The resulting measurement model provided an ad-
equate fit to the data (
2
[215] ⫽467.22;
2
/df ⫽
2.17; CFI ⫽.93; SRMR ⫽.05; RMSEA ⫽.08).
RESULTS
Table 1 provides the descriptive statistics and
correlations for the study variables. We assessed
the fit of the structural model in Figure 1 by adding
the predicted paths to the measurement model. We
allowed the disturbance terms for task performance
and OCB to covary in order to provide a noncausal
association between the two. The structural model
provided an adequate fit to the data (
2
[219] ⫽
481.93;
2
/df ⫽2.20; CFI ⫽.92; SRMR ⫽.07;
RMSEA ⫽.08). The path coefficients in Figure 1
supported all of the hypotheses except for Hy-
pothesis 6 (goal commitment and OCB). Transfor-
mational leadership was significantly related to
task performance and OCB and, more important
to this study, transformational leadership was
also significantly related to perceptions of core
job characteristics, which were related to intrin-
sic motivation and goal commitment. Intrinsic
motivation was then related to both outcomes,
while goal commitment was only related to task
performance.
We compared the fit of our hypothesized model
to the two alternate models in Figure 2. The first
model predicted complete mediation of transfor-
mational leadership effects, with no direct paths
between leadership and the outcomes included.
This model exhibited a moderately poorer fit to the
data (
2
[221] ⫽522.66;
2
/df ⫽2.36; CFI ⫽.91;
SRMR ⫽.12; RMSEA ⫽.08), and that difference in
fit was statistically significant (
2
[2] ⫽40.73, p⬍
.001). The second model added two other transfor-
mational paths, to intrinsic motivation and goal
commitment. The fit of this model was almost iden-
tical to that of Figure 1 (
2
[217] ⫽476.76;
2
/df ⫽
2.20; CFI ⫽.92; SRMR ⫽.06; RMSEA ⫽.08), with
the difference in fit nonsignificant (
2
[2] ⫽5.17,
n.s.). Figure 1 therefore displays a more parsimoni-
ous model that achieves the same fit level.
As noted in the Introduction, we explored
whether LMX moderated the transformational rela-
tionships in Figure 1 using moderated regression.
Transformational leadership explained 10 percent
of the variance in core characteristic perceptions
(p⬍.001), with LMX explaining an incremental 1
percent (p⬍.10). The product of the two explained
an additional 2 percent (p⬍.05). Transformational
leadership explained 9 percent of the variance in
task performance (p⬍.001), with LMX explaining
an incremental 2 percent (p⬍.05). The product
term explained an incremental 8 percent (p⬍.001).
Transformational leadership explained 21 percent
of the variance in OCB (p⬍.001), with LMX not
contributing incremental variance. However, the
product term explained an additional 9 percent of
the variance (p⬍.05). The plots of these interac-
tions are shown in Figure 3, with each illustrating
that transformational leadership relationships are
stronger when LMX is high rather than low.
DISCUSSION
In this study, we introduced and tested a model
that used job characteristics theory as a tool for
explaining the relationship between transforma-
tional leadership and beneficial job behaviors.
What stands out most from our results is that fol-
lowers of truly exceptional leaders regarded their
jobs as more challenging and important. That is,
followers of leaders who engaged in inspirational
motivation, idealized influence, intellectual stimu-
lation, and individualized consideration behaviors
perceived higher levels of Hackman and Oldham’s
(1976, 1980) five core job characteristics (variety,
identity, significance, autonomy, and feedback).
We had reasoned that transformational leaders
could “manage meaning” by using language and
imagery to frame followers’ job experiences (Salan-
cik & Pfeffer, 1978; Smircich & Morgan, 1982). This
TABLE 1
Descriptive Statistics and Zero-Order Correlations
a
Variable
␣
Mean s.d. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Transformational leadership .96 3.43 0.87
2. Core characteristic perceptions .90 5.20 1.07 .32*
3. Intrinsic motivation .68 3.84 0.65 .33* .25*
4. Goal commitment .86 3.96 0.83 .27* .35* .52*
5. Task performance .93 4.31 0.57 .30* .36* .30* .42*
6. Organizational citizenship behavior .94 4.07 0.64 .46* .41* .35* .30* .64*
7. Leader-member exchange .93 3.59 0.94 .70* .32* .40* .33* .31* .38*
a
n⫽202 after listwise deletion of missing data.
*p⬍.05.
334 AprilAcademy of Management Journal
management of meaning provides one explanation
for the association observed in our data.
The relationship between transformational lead-
ership and core job characteristics is important, as
those characteristics were significantly related to
intrinsic motivation. Hackman and Oldham (1976,
1980) pointed to the importance of intrinsic moti-
vation, suggesting that individuals whose actions
were powered by self-generating, internal rewards
would prove to be more effective employees. Our
results support this assertion, as intrinsic motiva-
tion was significantly associated with task perfor-
FIGURE 3a
Leader-Member Exchange as a Boundary Condition of Transformational Leadership Effects
on Core Characteristic Perceptions
FIGURE 3b
Leader-Member Exchange as a Boundary Condition of Transformational Leadership Effects
on Task Performance
2006 335Piccolo and Colquitt
mance. Moreover, our study is among the first to
link intrinsic motivation to OCB, as individuals
driven by self-generating rewards were more likely
to perform discretionary behaviors that are rarely
associated with external rewards.
The relationship between transformational lead-
ership and job characteristics is important for an-
other reason, as job characteristics were signifi-
cantly related to goal commitment. Goal
commitment, which is characterized by a determi-
nation to try for goals and to persist in that pursuit
over time, has been linked to task performance
across a wide variety of contexts (Klein et al., 1999;
Wofford et al., 1992). Yet this is perhaps the first
study to link job characteristics to goal commit-
ment—a significant predictor of task performance
in our sample. We are also among the first to ex-
plore the relationship between goal commitment
and OCB, which was near zero in our sample. Goal-
committed individuals may regard extra-role be-
haviors as a means to support team-level goals, but
they may also view extra-role behaviors as a dis-
traction from individual goal achievement. Thus,
the link between goal commitment and OCB re-
mains unclear.
The marriage of transformational leadership and
job characteristics theory opens up a new domain
of potential mediators of transformational effects.
Our focus on core job characteristics complements
the content of other research that is beginning to
explore the process whereby transformational lead-
ership is associated with beneficial job behaviors.
That is, our results point to a potential job-based
mediator that adds to the leader-based and self-
based mechanisms explored in past research, such
as trust, satisfaction, identification, perceived fair-
ness, and efficacy (e.g., Bono & Judge, 2003; Dvir et
al., 2002; Kark et al., 2003; Pillai et al., 1999; Pod-
sakoff et al., 1990; Shamir et al., 1993). In line with
that other research, our tests of alternate models
showed that the core job characteristics only par-
tially mediated transformational relationships; the
completely mediated model in Figure 2 provided a
significantly worse fit to the data.
We should also note that our LMX results point
to potential boundary conditions for transforma-
tional relationships. Although the results should be
interpreted with the requisite caution, given that
they were not predicted a priori, transformational
relationships were significantly stronger for follow-
ers who perceived high-quality exchange relation-
ships with their supervisors. Smircich and Morgan
(1982) noted that leaders could not manage or
frame the realities of their followers if those indi-
viduals did not grant the leaders such power. It
may be that followers in high-quality LMX relation-
ships are more open to the social influence of trans-
formational leaders, given that the leaders have
earned their trust and commitment. It may also be
that the iterative role-taking/role-making process
that has occurred in high-quality LMX relation-
ships (Graen & Scandura, 1987) makes followers
FIGURE 3c
Leader-Member Exchange as a Boundary Condition of Transformational Leadership Effects
on Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
336 AprilAcademy of Management Journal
more open to being “stretched” by behaviors such
as intellectual stimulation or individualized con-
sideration. In contrast, the occurrence of transfor-
mational behaviors in relationships with low-qual-
ity LMX could be met with resistance, because
leaders may not have engaged in the more routine
actions needed to foster effective working relation-
ships. At the very least, this result points to the
need for more integration of leadership perspec-
tives in future research, as many studies in the
literature focus on a single theory or approach.
Limitations
The theoretical contributions discussed above
should be interpreted in light of this study’s limi-
tations. The data that were collected are cross-sec-
tional, so alternative explanations for observed re-
sults may exist. There may be ambiguity in causal
direction, for example, such that highly enriched
jobs provide a medium for the emergence of trans-
formational leadership, and jobs regarded as low
along the core characteristics constrain transforma-
tional behaviors and ultimately make transforma-
tional leadership impractical. Individual character-
istics of followers may also have an important role
in the transformational leadership process (Dvir &
Shamir, 2003) in such a way that some traits (e.g.,
extraversion, self-esteem) both facilitate assign-
ments to jobs rich in core characteristics and also
make employees more receptive to transforma-
tional leadership. It may also be that followers who
engage in high levels of task performance and OCB
enable leaders to act more transformationally, ac-
counting for the observed associations.
Another possibility is that the observed relation-
ship between transformational leadership and per-
ceived job characteristics is spurious, in that an
unmodeled variable (e.g., affective disposition) ac-
counts for the association between the two. Some
links in the model did include variables measured
from a common source, raising concerns about ef-
fect size inflation due to same-source bias. How-
ever, we collected the two outcome variables (task
and citizenship performance) from supervisors;
thus, their source differs. All variables were col-
lected with survey measures, and are therefore sub-
ject to monomethod bias. We should also note that
our survey measure of goal commitment was not
referenced to explicitly assigned or identified
goals—a departure from common practice in that
literature.
The sample used in the study also offers some
important limitations. Because of our use of the
StudyResponse service, we have little knowledge
of who respondents were or why they chose to
participate. For example, the individuals who
signed up for the service may be more likely to
engage in OCB on their jobs, or be more likely to
earn high ratings of task performance. We can
therefore make no claims as to the generalizability
or representativeness of our results. Our sampling
strategy also prevented us from collecting data from
multiple followers per leader and aggregating data
to the unit level of analysis, something that has
become a common approach in the transforma-
tional leadership literature (e.g., Bass, Avolio, Jung,
& Berson, 2003).
Practical Implications
If the association between transformational lead-
ership and core job characteristics does indeed rep-
resent a causal connection between the two, then
our results have important implications for jobs
that are low on those characteristics. Traditionally,
the job design literature has looked to potentially
expensive and time-consuming initiatives like job
enlargement or enrichment to boost core character-
istic levels. Our results suggest that leaders could
influence perceived core characteristic levels by
changing the language, imagery, and symbols used
to communicate meaning on the job. This is not to
assert that the manipulation of imagery should re-
place well-grounded enrichment of objective job
characteristics when feasible, only that task percep-
tions can be influenced by how leaders communi-
cate with followers. Indeed, both tangible, objective
characteristics of a job and an individual’s social
construction of information provided by a work
context determine task perceptions (Griffin et al.,
1987). Alternatively, day-to-day job assignments
and interactions could be altered with the goal of
using transformational actions to stretch followers
in such a way that perceptions of the core charac-
teristics are fostered.
Of course, such efforts would require specific
initiatives geared toward increasing leaders’ use of
transformational language and imagery. Transfor-
mational behaviors could be incorporated into the
training courses that new leaders are often required
to complete. Dvir and coauthors (2002) recently
demonstrated that transformational leadership
training could improve follower outcomes and that
transformational training yielded better results
than did eclectic leadership training (see also
Barling, Weber, & Kelloway, 1996). Such training
programs often occur after a detailed needs assess-
ment that identifies which units are most in need of
such training. Assessments of core job characteris-
tics could be used as one tool in such a needs
assessment. However, we would also suggest build-
2006 337Piccolo and Colquitt
ing a transformational component into the yearly
developmental assessments (e.g., managerial skills
surveys, 360-degree feedback instruments) that
leaders fill out, to make the improvement of trans-
formational behaviors more continuous.
Suggestions for Future Research
This study offers some suggestions for future re-
search. First and foremost, experimental and longi-
tudinal research in the laboratory and in the field is
needed to ascertain the causal nature of the rela-
tionship between transformational leadership and
the five core characteristics. Such work could also
bring a finer-grained approach to the topic by clar-
ifying the mediators of the relationship or by iden-
tifying which aspects of the transformational pat-
tern account for favorable task assessments. For
example, does intellectual stimulation have a more
or less powerful effect on job perceptions than in-
dividualized consideration or idealized influence?
Moreover, future research should broaden the job-
focused concepts connected to transformational
leadership, as leaders could manage meaning in
other respects. For example, transformational lead-
ers could alter the way stressors are perceived on
the job, potentially framing stressors as “chal-
lenges” rather than “hindrances” (LePine, LePine,
& Jackson, 2004). In addition, future studies could
examine the mediating role of goal commitment
with studies that manipulate or measure specific
goals, rather than the general goals referenced by
our measure.
Future research should also explore boundary
conditions for transformational relationships, both
with job characteristics and with beneficial job be-
haviors like task performance or OCB. If such re-
search replicated the LMX moderation effect found
here, and depicted in Figure 3, then a potentially
powerful boundary condition will have been iden-
tified. Of course, the quality of leader-member ex-
change is only one means of classifying follower-
authority relationships (e.g., Shore & Coyle-
Shapiro, 2003). Other examples include assessment
of psychological contract breach and of the amount
of support offered by the authority. These variables
could have moderating effects that mimic the LMX
results observed in our data. If so, such effects
would shed more light on when transformational
leaders can and cannot be expected to have the
most significant effects on follower reactions.
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Ronald F. Piccolo (rpiccolo@bus.ucf.edu) is an assistant
professor in management at the University of Central
Florida. He received a doctorate from the University of
Florida. His research interests include personality, lead-
ership, cross-cultural studies in organizational behavior
and human resources, emotion in the workplace, and risk
behavior.
Jason A. Colquitt is an associate professor in the man-
agement department at the University of Florida’s War-
rington College of Business. He received his Ph.D. from
Michigan State University’s Eli Broad Graduate School of
Management. His research interests include organization-
al justice, trust, team effectiveness, and personality in-
fluences on task and learning performance.
340 AprilAcademy of Management Journal
