The relationship between transformational leadership, task performance and job characteristics

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between transformational leadership, task performance and perceived measures of job characteristics in French firms. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was sent to employees working in the industry and service sectors. A sample of 100 respondents was collected. Findings – The results of the study show that there is a partial relationship between transformational leadership and follower task performance on one hand and, between transformational leadership and follower perceptions of core job characteristics on another hand. Research limitations/implications – The majority of the firms are big ones. Hence, we recommend that our findings be replicated across a sample of firms where small, medium and big ones are presented proportionally. Also, transformational leadership, job characteristics and task performance measures exhibited restrictions in that they depend on the perception of employees and leaders. Practical implications – This research showed that French leaders based in Northern France and in Paris and its suburbs cannot be considered as transformational leaders. Second, French firms need to take into account in the recruitment process the gender of the person especially for positions in the middle or top management level since the study revealed that the gender plays a role in the leadership style. Originality/value – In this study, we took also into account the gender of the leader when studying the relationship between transformational leadership, task performance and job characteristics.