Leadership, decision making, and organizational justice

Abstract

The article integrates three lines of research with regard to leadership, decision making, and organizational justice. First the theoretical perspective, it is argued that transformational and transactional leaders adopt different approaches to decision making. Transformational leaders appear to prefer a comprehensive style of decision making that uses many input sources and considers many optional pathways. Transactional leaders, by contrast, are more prone to use a more limited information base, and consider fewer alternative routes. The study reported on here concludes that transformational and transactional leaders focus on different aspects of organizational justice. Transformational leaders tend to emphasize the social dimensions of fairness in the workplace. Transactional leaders are oriented toward the structural features of workplace justice. Some practical issues are addressed, such as what should be considered when managers are selected for specific assignments with leadership requirements, and issues pertaining to changing leadership styles.