Supervisor leadership style, employee regulatory focus, and leadership performance: A perspectivism approach

Abstract

[EN] Drawing on regulatory focus theory, this research proposes that transformational leadership performance depends on followers' circumstances. The analysis of 125 people from two Spanish service firms reveals that, apart from transformational leadership, the presence of academic education, intrinsic job satisfaction and high customer contact, and the absence of family responsibilities, are core conditions for the presence of high leadership performance. The first contribution of this study is the direct inference of follower's regulatory focus from the observation of individuals' circumstances. The second contribution is that leaders should consider followers' circumstances to adopt a suitable leadership style while they enhance followers' regulatory focus.