The Effects of Leadership Styles on Employees' Resilience Level

The purpose of this study was to observe whether managers' leadership styles are related to the level of resilience of employees, considering their demographic characteristics. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire [MLQ], was applied to 680 academic and administrative workers belonging to one of the most important University of Colombia. The results showed that the perception of leadership style of subordinates is not significantly related to their level of resilience, which highlights the importance of studying whether resilience should be understood as a feature or as a state. Moreover, analysis of the difference between groups showed that the styles of transformational and transactional leadership engaged the middle and upper resilience level. If sociodemographic variables are related to leadership styles, then leadership is an interactional process that depends of the manager's opinion of his subordinates. The analysis supports the conclusion that the combination of high transformational and transactional leadership style with low levels of Passive / Avoider style improved organizational performance which were measured by high levels of extra effort, effectiveness and satisfaction. Other studies show that the measurements of styles of employees and managers are necessary; our results confirm these studies should incorporate instruments that measure resilience like a trait and resilience like a status. Also, these studies should include different and similar cultures, whether within a sector or different sectors to determine the potential impact of culture in the relationship between leadership styles and the subordinates' resilience level. Keywords: leadership styles, resilience of employees, full range leadership theory, psychological capital, organizational performance.