Transformational Leadership in Extreme Contexts: Associations with Posttraumatic Growth and Self-Efficacy Among Combat Veterans

Decades of research have established transformational leadership as an encompassing leadership approach with broad applications across organizational contexts. Despite dozens of meta-analyses and many empirical studies demonstrating the direct performance effects of transformational leadership, ways in which transformational leaders shape follower personal development and well-being remain largely unexplored, particularly in extreme contexts such as military combat. Based on a sample of 130 combat veterans of multiple conflicts, we examined the impact of transformational leadership in combat on follower posttraumatic growth and follower self-efficacy after deployment, including the moderating effects of the duration and intensity of combat. Moderated regression modeling and analyses demonstrated that transformational leadership was associated with follower posttraumatic growth among lengthier combat deployments, as well as with follower self-efficacy independent of combat duration and intensity. Our findings suggest that transformational leaders frame extreme contexts as opportunities for growth, and further implications for research and practice are discussed.