How is leadership related to employee self-concept?

In the field of leadership research, the relationship between leadership styles and follower self-concept was of great interests to researchers. The purpose of this study is to investigate how leadership styles such as transformational leadership, passive leadership and leader-member exchange (LMX) relate to employee self-concept. A total of 585 valid responses were collected from hotel front line employees in mainland China. The results showed that the effect of transformational leadership on self-concept was mainly mediated by LMX. The strong direct effects of LMX on levels of self-concept were also identified in this study. Theoretical and practical implications were provided based on the results of this study.