Transformational leadership, subordinate experience, and subordinate organizational commitment: Different leadership strokes for different folks

We developed a nonlinear model of transformational leadership on organizational commitment and tested it in two field studies. Study 1, which consisted of 207 CEO direct reports, revealed that lower experienced executives expressed more organizational commitment when their CEOs exhibited high levels of leadership while more experienced executives appeared most committed at moderate levels. In Study 2, using a broader sample of 178 leader-subordinate dyads, we replicated the findings from Study 1 but further found evidence that role clarity fully mediated transformational leadership effects on organizational commitment. A supplemental analysis revealed that while elaboration of task relevant information was not a mediator for commitment, it was for supervisorrated employee performance. Our findings highlight the need to consider the different leadership demands of employees and the varying ways in which subordinates respond to transformational leadership.