Impact of the relationship between transformational and traditional leadership styles on Iran’s automobile industry job satisfaction Ali Yaghoubipoor Islamic Azad University, Sirjan, Iran, and Ong Puay Tee and Elsadig Musa Ahmed Faculty of Business, Multimedia University, Selangor, Malaysia Abstract Purpose – This study aims to look into the ways in which leadership styles including transformational and traditional (independent variable) affect employee job satisfaction (dependent variable), focusing on six production lines in the Iranian automobile industry. Design/methodology/approach – The study focused solely on the production line workers and used questionnaires to obtain the relevant data. Implementation of the questionnaires was done using the proportional stratified random sampling method, whereby questionnaires were distributed to the target population over the period June to August 2010. Of the 600 questionnaires distributed 540 were returned completed. Findings – The survey results showed the dominant leadership style practiced in the industry to be the transformational styles. The employees reported moderate satisfaction with their jobs. The findings revealed that different employee job satisfaction components were impacted in different ways depending on the leadership style. Originality/value – Overall it was shown that job satisfaction factors were strongly predicted by the Individualized consideration factor. Keywords Transformational leadership, Traditional leadership styles, Job satisfaction, Iran automobile industry, Iran, Leadership Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction Organizational effectiveness is influenced mainly by leadership and employee job satisfaction (Kennerly, 1989). Further, leadership is also considered to be the most important factor in determining employee job satisfaction, as it has a great impact on employee motivation and dedication. This relationship between leadership style and job satisfaction has been the subject of study in varied fields and settings but has been somewhat neglected in the industrial environment. This study thus covers new ground as unlike the earlier studies which were primarily focused on western establishments it will focus on the Iranian automobile industry. It will be based on the effects of leadership styles on the full-time workers in the production lines in this industry, based on methodology adapted from Bass and Avolio’s (1997) Leadership Model on employee job satisfaction, which is in turn based on the Maslow (2000) Job Satisfaction Survey Model. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/2042-5961.htm World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development Vol. 9 No. 1, 2013 pp. 14-27 r Emerald Group Publishing Limited 2042-5961 DOI 10.1108/20425961311315692 14 WJEMSD 9,1