Relationships between leadership style and vision content: The moderating role of need for social approval, self-monitoring, and need for social power John J. Sosik a, ⁎ , Sandi L. Dinger b,1 a Department of Management, Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, 30 East Swedesford Road, Malvern, PA 19355, United States b Campolo College of Graduate and Professional Studies, Eastern University, 1300 Eagle Road, St. Davids, PA 19087, United States Abstract This study examines the relationship between leaders' personal attributes, leadership style and vision content. One hundred eighty three corporate managers from six industries, who completed a 14-week leadership development course, provided self- reports of their need for social approval, self-monitoring, and need for social power by the second week of the course. Eight hundred and nine subordinates provided ratings of their manager's leadership style by the third week of the course. Upon completion of the course, the managers wrote vision statements which were coded using Berson, Shamir, Avolio, & Popper's [Berson, Y., Shamir, B., Avolio, B. J., & Popper, M. (2001). The relationship between vision strength, leadership style, and content. The Leadership Quarterly, 12, 53–73] vision theme categories. Charismatic leadership was most positively associated with inspirational vision themes, whereas contingent reward leadership was most positively associated with instrumental vision themes. Leaders' need for social approval, self-monitoring, and need for social power moderated these relationships. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Leadership styles; Vision; Personal attributes When one thinks of vision in terms of leadership, more often than not, it conjures images of famous charismatics who, through their passionate orations, persuade followers to believe in and pursue radical change. Such images in the minds of researchers have given rise to the study of a pivotal tool charismatic leaders use to gain and maintain power through their influence on followers — the construction and delivery of visionary statements (Awamleh & Gardner, 1999; Berson, Shamir, Avolio, & Popper, 2001; Kirkpatrick,Wofford, & Baum, 2002). Vision represents a leader's idealized goal that is shared with followers. Vision is central to the concept of charismatic leadership; some researchers have inextricably linked the two by using charismatic and visionary leadership synonymously (House & Shamir, 1993). Charismatic or visionary leaders throughout history have used their gift of inspirational articulation making them catalysts for social, political or economic change and therefore, what are referred to as transformational leaders (Bass, 1985, Burns, 1978). Empirical evidence from the past 20 years has shown that such leaders, through their understanding of the people and events around them, construct and deliver compelling statements that inspire followers The Leadership Quarterly 18 (2007) 134 – 153 www.elsevier.com/locate/leaqua ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 610 648 3322; fax: +1 610 725 5224. E-mail addresses: JJS20@PSU.EDU (J.J. Sosik), SDINGER@EASTERN.EDU (S.L. Dinger). 1 Tel.: +1 610 225 5729; fax: +1 484 581 1276. 1048-9843/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.01.004