Learning and adaptation of transformational leaders: Linking transformational leadership to leader self-efficacy for emotional regulation and work engagement

Abstract

Leadership approaches that positively affect employees and organizations, such as transformational leadership, are subject to questions regarding their costs to leaders. Recent studies have taken a more critical stance on transformational leadership, concerning its emotional costs on leaders themselves in the short term. Moving beyond the investigation of the transient effects of transformational leadership on leaders, we integrate a learning and adaptation perspective with social cognitive theory to explore transformational leadership behaviours as an agentic experience that develops leader self-efficacy for emotional regulation over time. In turn, the enhanced self-efficacy for emotional regulation promotes increases in leader work engagement. Using a latent change score approach with four-wave (with a 1-month interval), multisource field data from 243 leaders and 1807 followers, we found empirical support for our research model. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.