Executive Summary The roles of age, educational level, work experience, gender and needs for connection in predicting workers' ideal preferences for relational and job-centered leadership behaviors within the workplace were investigated. Most importantly, the role of workers' needs for connections as a mediating variable between gender and their ideal preferences for worker-centered and job centered leadership behaviors was examined. Measures of ideal leadership behavior preferences and needs for connection along with demographic information were completed by 1009 participants from three mid-western organizations. Controlling for organizational variables, regression analyses revealed that age and educational level were negatively correlated with workers' ideal preferences for worker-centered leadership behaviors; age, educational level and work experience were positively correlated with ideal preferences for job-centered leadership behaviors. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that after the effect of age and educational level had been controlled for, employees' gender accounted for a significant portion of the variance in explaining workers' ideal preferences for worker-centered leadership behaviors and mediated the relationship between gender and ideal preferences for worker-centered relational leadership behaviors. Post hoc analyses revealed no significant gender differences in ideal preferences for job-centered leadership behaviors. The findings are discussed in light of self-in-relation theory and with regard to how leaders may tailor their leadership styles to more effectively meet workers' needs and preferences.
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