Contingent Reward Leader Behaviour: Where Does It Come From?

As many academics have pointed out, while researchers have learned a great deal about the effects of contingent reward (CR) leader behaviour, relatively little is known about its genesis. CR transactional leadership is traditionally viewed as an independent variable which exerts influence downstream. However, if we are to understand how to influence, improve or modify these downstream effects, we need to shift our focus upstream towards the study of transactional leadership as a dependent variable. In line with this reasoning, we put forward the hypothesis that a contextual variable (organizational learning capability) and a subordinate's characteristic (employability) are antecedents of CR transactional leader behaviour. These original relationships will be empirically assessed, alongside the well documented relationship between CR leader behaviour and a worker's individual performance. Our hypothesis was tested on a sample of 795 professors from 70 university departments, using structural equation methodology. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.