Leading toward harmony : Different types of conflict mediate how followers’ perceptions of transformational leadership are related to job satisfaction and performance

Conflict has negative effects on employees' job satisfaction and performance. Transformational leadership, on the other hand, has been shown to have strong positive relations with both job satisfaction and performance, but is negatively related to conflicts at the workplace. However, up to now how these different factors influence one another remains unclear. With this study, we take a closer look at the role of conflict and focus on task and relationship conflicts as possible mediators between transformational leadership and job satisfaction on the one hand and performance on the other. Data from professional orchestra musicians in German-speaking countries were used, as transformational leadership is often likened to the method of leadership found in orchestras. Structural equation modeling indicated that task conflict mediated the effect of transformational leadership on performance and relationship conflict mediated the effect of transformational leadership on job satisfaction. Implications and limitations are discussed.