Pruning and refining leadership theories through meta-analytic structural equation modeling

Although the leadership domain encompasses dozens of different leadership constructs, there are five that are the most heavily-studied: consideration, initiating structure, contingent rewards, transformational leadership, and leader-member exchange (LMX). In the literature associated with each of these constructs, leadership researchers rely upon a variety of theories and theoretical mechanisms when explaining how each is related to follower performance, suggesting a lack of theoretical precision. In this study, we rely upon meta-analytic structural equation modeling to integrate and compare these various theoretical mechanisms in an effort to identify which are the most primary for each leadership construct and thus enhance the theoretical precision involved in the relationships between each major leadership construct and follower performance. Through both deductive and inductive investigations, we identify LMX as the most primary theoretical mechanism in the relationship between each leadership construc...