Transformational Leadership in Distributed Work Groups: The Moderating Role of Follower Regulatory Focus and Goal Orientation

Abstract

This study addressed the question of whether the benefits of transformational leadership extend to virtual environments. Furthermore, whether regulatory focus or goal orientation moderate the extent to which these benefits apply to virtual environments was also explored. A total of 165 employees completed a survey that assessed the leadership style of their supervisors as well their own regulatory focus, goal orientation, work engagement, and job satisfaction. When followers and leaders worked at different locations, visionary leadership was positively related to work attitudes, provided that promotion focus was sufficiently high or prevention focus was sufficiently low. Furthermore, when followers and leaders worked in the same location, personal recognition was positively associated with work engagement, especially if prevention focus or performance goal orientation was high. These findings align with the proposition, derived from construal level theory, that leadership advice and support in which only the essence needs to be extracted apply to virtual environments.