Transformational leadership, job characteristics, and organizational citizenship performance

According to transformational leadership theory, one of the fundamental ways in which leaders influence followers is by creating meaningful work. Testing this notion, we conducted a field study in which we linked transformational leadership behaviors to employees' perceptions of their jobs (e.g., significance, meaningfulness, importance of the work), and job perceptions to employees' citizenship performance as rated by their manager. Results indicate a positive link between managers' transformational leadership behaviors and followers' citizenship performance. Furthermore, the effects of transformational leadership on citizenship performance are mediated through employees' perceptions of their jobs. Results of a follow-up analysis with employees in 1 organization holding the same job indicate that managers' transformational leadership behaviors predict employees' job perceptions, even when objective characteristics of the job are invariant.