Leadership Styles of Russian Enterprise Managers: The Effect of Transactional and Transformational Behaviors on Employees' Evaluation of Managerial Performance

The purpose of this research was to identify leadership styles of today's Russian enterprise managers and to determine how these styles are related to employees' subjective evaluation of managerial performance. The survey was based on Bass and Avolio's MLQ5x leadership styles instrument. Valid responses were received from 1,216 managers and employees at three large manufacturing enterprises located in Moscow. The study results suggest that Russian managers used three well-known leadership styles—transactional, transformational, and laissez-faire. However, the laissez-faire style was not prevalent. Overall, transactional leadership was used more often than transformational leadership. Transactional contingent ceward leadership was used more often than any other approaches. Charisma and Individualized Consideration have received the lowest scores among the transformational leadership style dimensions. Tests of the relationship between leadership styles and managerial performance measures indicate that transformational leadership-and one of its components, Charisma-had the strongest relationship with positive outcomes. Implications for developing leadership training programs in Russia and for the transfer of Western training and development approaches are discussed.