the purpose of this study was to determine whether transformational leadership has a positive impact on the cohesion of self-managed work teams (smwt) within a nursing home for elderly people. this was done by researching the viewpoints of members of smwt on the leadership given by their team leaders. it also investigates how the team members experienced the cohesion of the team. the research reflects on how the leadership style influences the cohesion of the smwt and proposes a way to improve this cohesion by focusing on tfl development. the grounded theory methodology was used in this qualitative research to explain how the interaction between the leadership style and team cohesion works and to develop a theory that emerges from the reality that the theory is developed to explain (jing, 2010).