An Examination of Perceived Leadership Behaviors and Employee Engagement in the US Federal Government: An Exploratory Study

Jason Barker

Abstract

Leadership can exist in any organization or entity. It has been studied extensively and examined comprehensively. There have been various theories of what type of leadership is ideal or suitable for a group or organization. From transformational to transactional leadership, leadership styles exist that can contribute to organizations and the style they employ. Employee engagement can be based on either or both transformational and transactional leadership factors. Transformational leadership behaviors generally show an increase in employee engagement. Employee engagement has an association with job satisfaction and leadership perception. Leadership styles will be defined, in addition to factors in the employee’ perception of their leadership. The association between employee engagement and leadership behaviors will be measured based on the perceptions that exist. The question that is the basis for this study will answer what is the correlation between perceived transactional and transformational leadership behaviors in federal agencies and employee engagement?