Transformational leadership as related to team outcomes and contextual moderation

Purpose – On the basis of the full‐range theory of leadership of Bass and Avolio, several hypotheses designed to examine the relationships of transformational leadership style with group outcomes in army training teams, in differing contexts were tested. These outcomes consisted of cohesion, learning culture and members' self‐efficacy. It is the purpose of this paper to determine whether the effects of leadership style of trainers is universal across teams from various contextual backgrounds. Design/methodology/approach – The population comprised 890 cadets in the basic, operations and support, and infantry tracks in an officers' training school of the Israeli Defense Forces. They were organized into 66 teams. Data were collected in two stages, by means of Form 5X of the multi factorial leadership questionnaire (Bass and Avolio). The moderation of track context on the relationships between leadership style and group outcomes was analyzed, by means of moderated regressions. Findings – Findings do not support the universality of relationships predicted according to the theory. Only in the case of the basic track was transformational leadership style related to the group outcome of learning culture. In this track as well, transformational leadership was slightly related to group cohesion. The study points to the importance of the moderation of context in the relationships of leadership styles and group outcomes, and raises questions regarding the universality of leadership style relationships in groups according to the full‐range theory. The possible importance of group background as a moderator is discussed. Originality/value – The study emphasizes recent research indications as to the importance of contextual considerations in the study of relationships of transformational leadership to group aspects.