Impact of the relationship between transformational and traditional leadership styles on Iran's automobile industry job satisfaction

Purpose - This study aims to look into the ways in which leadership styles including transformational and traditional (independent variable) affect employee job satisfaction (dependent variable), focusing on six production lines in the Iranian automobile industry. Design/methodology/approach - The study focused solely on the production line workers and used questionnaires to obtain the relevant data. Implementation of the questionnaires was done using the proportional stratified random sampling method, whereby questionnaires were distributed to the target population over the period June to August 2010. Of the 600 questionnaires distributed 540 were returned completed. Findings - The survey results showed the dominant leadership style practiced in the industry to be the transformational styles. The employees reported moderate satisfaction with their jobs. The findings revealed that different employee job satisfaction components were impacted in different ways depending on the leadership style. Originality/value - Overall it was shown that job satisfaction factors were strongly predicted by the Individualized consideration factor.