How does transformational leadership impact employees' psychological strain? Examining differentiated effects and the moderating role of affective organizational commitment

Although transformational leadership has received much empirical attention over the last few years, there is little research linking it to health. Previous studies have predominantly used overall measures of transformational leadership, and have neglected to specify effects of the sub dimensions. Therefore, in this study, the relationships between transformational leadership and perceived strain were examined on the level of dimensions with two independent samples. Moreover, moderating processes were addressed. As expected, we found specific relations for the different leadership dimensions with perceived strain. Particularly, individualized consideration and idealized influence (attributed) appeared to be the most important predictors, whereas inspirational motivation and idealized influence (behavior) did not explain incremental variance in strain. It was revealed that the relation between leaders' individualized consideration and idealized influence (attributed) and perceived strain is moderated by affective organizational commitment.