Leadership

Abstract

Abstract Leaders have a strong impact on employee motivation. Scholars have thus invested considerable effort toward investigating which leadership styles relate to employee motivation, as well as organizational dynamics that impact these relationships, using self-determination theory (SDT) as a guiding framework. This has led to two prevailing yet relatively disparate research streams, one heavily invested in the motivational effects of the more classic leadership frameworks typically examined in the industrial and organizational psychology literature (e.g., transformational leadership) and another descendant of early SDT research on the effects of motivating styles (e.g., autonomy support). This chapter seeks to bridge these two parallel streams, presenting an overview of the most important research findings in both traditions and highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. It concludes by presenting a way forward with recommendations for future research.