Examining the Effects of Leadership Behavior on Employee Perceptions of Performance and Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Studies undertaken at Ohio State University and the University of Michigan nearly five decades ago identified two broad categories of effective leadership behavior: task-oriented and relations-oriented behavior. More recently, scholars from Scandinavia identified a third category of behavior associated with effective leadership: development-oriented leadership. This study measures these three types of leadership behavior and analyzes their relation to perceptions of performance and job satisfaction as reported by federal employees responding to the 2002 Federal Human Capital Survey. The results show that all three types of leadership behavior are positively related to perceptions of performance, while relations-oriented and development-oriented behavior are positively related to job satisfaction. In short, leadership behavior matters when it comes to predicting perceived performance and job satisfaction.