Managers can and do behave differently in similar organizations and within similar jobs. Role theory is proposed to be useful in understanding and determining how managers' perceptions of the organizational setting influence their leadership behaviors. This paper seeks to: (1) introduce role theory as a mechanism for explaining the relationship between organizational context and leadership behavior; (2) integrate transformational and transactional leadership theories with research on organizational context and role theory; and (3) identify organizational contextual and personality variables that influence transformational and transactional leadership behaviors.
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