Leadership Behaviors and Their Impact on Organizational Performance in Governmental Entities

One factor that researchers regularly cite as one of the most important contributors to organizational performance is leadership. However, despite the widespread speculation that leadership is important for organizational success, there has been relatively little research regarding the impact of leadership behaviors on organizational performance in governmental entities. More specifically, there is little research examining the impact of transformational leadership behaviors on organizational performance within governmental entities. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to empirically examine whether transformational leadership styles of leaders in governmental settings impact public sector organizational performance. Further, the study examines whether transformational leadership styles of leaders in governmental settings augment the impact of transactional leadership on public sector organizational performance. Data was collected from chief executives in 372 county governments in the United States. Overall, the results show that transformational leadership behaviors have a significant impact or organizational performance. In addition, the results show that leaders who use transformational leadership as their primary or dominant leadership style have an impact on organizational performance over and beyond the impact of those leaders who mostly use transactional style