The Relationship between Transformational and Transactional Leadership Styles, and the Attitude towards Organizational Change

The main purpose of the study was to pursue the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership styles Concerning Fars Province Educational Office experts' attitude toward organizational change. The population and sample of the research consisted of all Fars Province Educational Office experts in academic year 2007-08. The sample consisted of 202 male and 28 female experts. Two instruments were used: one was designed for transformational leadership and the other for measuring attitude towards organizational change. The first questionnaire consisted of five dimensions: 1. Charismatic leadership 2.Intellectual stimulation 3.Individual consideration, 4.Contingent reward, and 5.Management-by-Exception. Of the five, the last two dimensions belonged to the transactional leadership. The second questionnaire consisted of three dimensions including 1.cognitive, 2.affective, and 3.behavioral. The reliability and validity of the instruments were measured and approved. In order to analyze the data, statistical techniques such as Pearson Correlation Coefficients and Multiple Regression were used. The results were indicative of several points: There were significant relationship between charismatic leadership (r=0.32, p<0.01)  and cognitive dimension; intellectual stimulation with cognitive(r=0.21, p<0.01) and behavioral (r=0.23, p<0.01) dimensions; contingent reward with cognitive (r=0.28, 0.01), affective (r=-0.15, p<0.01), and behavioral (r=0.23, p<0.01) dimensions; management-by-exception and affective (r=-0.20, p<0.01) dimension, but the relationship between dimensions of transactional leadership and affective dimension of the attitudes towards organizational change was negative. Results also showed that charismatic leadership dimension was capable to predict affective (β =0.52, P<0.003) and cognitive (β =1.1, P<0.001) dimensions and that contingent reward was capable to predict behavioral dimension (β=0.41, P<0.001) of the attitude towards organizational change.