Regulatory Focus, Transformational Leadership, and Job Satisfaction

Research has suggested people have two distinct hedonic self-regulatory systems, promotion self-regulatory focus and prevention self-regulatory focus. Individuals in promotion focus are sensitive to the presence of gains and positive results. On the other hand, individuals in prevention focus are sensitive to the absence of losses. In this paper we integrate recent theories of regulatory focus and leadership. We propose that promotion focus will significantly influence job satisfaction through moderating transformational leadership. Further, promotion focus is positively related to job satisfaction, and promotion focus has a significantly positive influence on transformational leadership. The implications, limitations and directions of future research are discussed. Our framework and propositions are meant to provide a starting point for future theorizing and empirical testing of the moderating effects of regulatory focus on transformational leadership and job satisfaction.