Does leadership matter? CEO leadership attributes and profitability under conditions of perceived environmental uncertainty

Using data from 48 Fortune 500 firms, we assessed transactional and charism atic CEO leadership as predictors of financial performance. We also hypothe sized that the relationship between CEO leadership attributes and performan ce depends on perceived environmental uncertainty, as reported by immediate CEO subordinates, Uncertainty strongly moderated the relationships between performance (measured in later years) and both transactional leadership an d charisma. However, the interaction of transactional leadership and uncert ainty had no significant effect beyond that of the charisma-uncertainty int eraction. Consistent with expectations, charisma predicted performance unde r conditions of uncertainty but not under conditions of certainty.