As an indigenous leadership style, paternalistic leadership is common in Chinese business organizations. However, few studies have examined the effects of paternalistic leadership in education administration, especially as compared to transformational leadership. In this study, 157 principals and 509 teachers from 157 elementary schools in north Taiwan were sampled to examine the effect of leadership style. The results showed that: (1) paternalistic leadership has significant effect on the extra-role behavior of teachers; (2) paternalistic leadership and transformational leadership individually have significant unique effects on leader-member exchange qua1ity; and (3) the relationship between the principal’s leadership and the teacher’s extra-role behavior is mediated by leader-member exchange quality. Implications are discussed and issues for further study indicated.