The domino effect: how leader job characteristics as antecedents of transformational leadership facilitate follower job characteristics

Leaders influence their followers directly through interactions and role modelling, and indirectly by providing resources and managing demands. However, to lead accordingly, leaders require adequate working conditions. So far, little is known about the contextual antecedents of leadership and its subsequent impact on follower job characteristics. To address this research question, we asked 711 employees and their 82 direct leaders about their autonomy and their workload at three points of time (time lags: 12–14 months between T1 and T2 and 6–7 months between T2 and T3). Followers also rated their leaders on transformational leadership. The analysis accounted for the nested data structure. Results showed that leader autonomy and workload are linked to transformational leadership behaviour, which is significantly related to follower autonomy but not follower workload. The findings of this longitudinal study highlight the importance of leader job characteristics for establishing transformational leadership behaviours and designing their followers’ job characteristics.