The influence of leader core self-evaluation on follower reports of transformational leadership Jia Hu a, ⁎, Zhen Wang b , Robert C. Liden c , Jianmin Sun d a 346 Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA b School of Business, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, 100081, People's Republic of China c Department of Managerial Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60607, USA d School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, People's Republic of China article info abstract Article history: Received 14 October 2011 Revised 14 May 2012 Accepted 15 May 2012 Available online 8 June 2012 The role of leader core self-evaluations (CSE) was investigated for its influence on follower perceptions of transformational leadership (TFL) dimensions in a sample of 464 employees and 150 leaders from three Chinese organizations. As hypothesized, after controlling for leaders' and followers' demographic variables and modeling fixed-effects to account for the potential impact of omitted variables, we found that leader CSE was significantly and positively related to follower perception of leader TFL. The result enhances the understanding of TFL antecedents. © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Transformational leadership (TFL) Core self-evaluation (CSE) 1. Introduction Transformational leadership (TFL) is considered one of the most influential contemporary leadership theories (Judge & Bono, 2000). Transformational leaders are theorized to enhance followers' motivation and performance by engaging in a class of behaviors: intellectual stimulation (i.e., challenging the status quo); inspirational motivation (i.e., articulating a compelling vision of the future); charisma or idealized influence (i.e., engaging in behaviors that build followers' trust in and identification with their leaders); and individualized consideration (i.e., attending to followers' needs and listening to their concerns) (Bass, 1985). Indeed, a large body of empirical research has demonstrated the positive value of TFL on follower attitudinal outcomes such as job satisfaction, supervisory satisfaction, motivation, and behavioral outcomes such as job performance and organizational citizenship behavior (see Judge & Piccolo, 2004; Wang, Oh, Courtright, & Colbert, 2011 for meta-analytic reviews). Given the critical role of TFL in building employee effectiveness, an important question naturally follows: Why are some leaders more likely to engage in TFL behaviors than others? Recently, a handful of studies has begun to explore several underlying personality bases for answers to this question (Bass & Bass, 2008; Judge & Bono, 2000; Judge & Long, 2012; Khoo & Burch, 2008; Rubin, Munz, & Bommer, 2005). Among many relevant personality variables, core self-evaluation (CSE), a fundamental evaluation of one's own effectiveness and worthiness (Judge, Erez, & Bono, 1998), appears to be particularly salient to leadership effectiveness (Judge, Piccolo, & Kosalka, 2009). Based on assessors' judgments of archival information gleaned from historical sources of chief executive officers (CEOs) from 1903 to 2002, Resick, Whitman, Weingarden, and Hiller (2009) suggested that CEOs with high CSE showed more TFL behaviors than those low in CSE. These historical findings concerning the leadership behavior of major league baseball CEOs suggest the possible relevance of CSE to contemporary leaders, including those at non- executive levels of the organization. This is important to examine given that although CEOs play a crucial role in making the strategic decisions for the organizations (Hambrick, Finkelstein, & Mooney, 2005), lower-level managers have a more direct influence on how employees feel and act through their daily interactions with employees. It is also important to consider that The Leadership Quarterly 23 (2012) 860–868 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 1 312 752 5336. E-mail address: Jasmine.Hu.36@nd.edu (J. Hu). 1048-9843/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.05.004 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect The Leadership Quarterly journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/leaqua