Challenge stressors and transformational leadership: the mediating role of leaders’ state core self-evaluations

This study explored situational antecedents of transformational leadership by (a) studying the effect of time pressure on the emergence of transformational leadership behaviors, and (b) examining the mediating role of leaders’ state core self- evaluations. For ten consecutive working days, 42 leaders reported on their state core self-evaluations, transformational leadership behaviors and experienced time pressure twice a day, yielding 531 observations. Using multilevel analyses, we showed that time pressure has an indirect effect on transformational leadership through leaders’ state core self-evaluations. Moreover, this mediated relationship is a curvilinear one with time pressure having little to no effect on transformational leadership via state CSE when time pressure is below the leader’s common level of time pressure. However, once this common level is exceeded, time pressure has a negative effect on transformational leadership via its relationship with state CSE, and this relationship becomes stronger and stronger for increasing levels of time pressure.