The Impression Management Strategies Associated with Transformational Leadership at the World-Class Level

This study explored the extent to which the five basic impression management strategies of ingratiation, self-promotion, intimidation, exemplification, and supplication were associated with transformational leadership at the world-class level. The subjects were 81 undergraduate business students who read biographical materials about 1 of 27 world-class leaders, prepared term papers about their leader, and completed psychometric measures regarding the leader's behaviors. The measures included the Leader Impression Management Questionnaire (LIMQ) developed by the authors and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ, 5X-Short Form). Exemplification and ingratiation were positively related, and self-promotion and intimidation negatively related, to perceptions of transformational leadership, leader effectiveness, and follower satisfaction.