Does CEO transformational leadership influence top executive normative commitment?

Grounded in social exchange theory logic, this study proposes that CEO transformational leadership causes high normative commitment among top executives but this relationship is nonlinear. Specifically, top executives in Turkey express less normative commitment when their CEOs exhibits moderate levels of transformational leadership than low or high levels of transformational leadership. Additionally, CEO transformational leadership exhibits a similar nonlinear relationship to affective commitment which fully mediated the J-shaped relationship between CEO transformational leadership and normative commitment. The findings highlight the need to consider the nonlinear effects of leadership types as well as implications for further exploration of antecedents of normative commitment. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.