Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between transformational leadership and a transactional leadership component (management by exception-active), and fulfillment of the basic needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on cross sectional data from 661 employees who completed validated questionnaires such as the the multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) and the basic need satisfaction at work (BNSW). The data were analysed using structural equation modeling in AMOS 18.0. Findings: The results show that both transformational leadership and the transactional behavior management by exception active are significantly related to fulfillment of the basic needs. Significant regression weights of 0.50 (p less than 0.01) 0.46 (p less than 0.01), and 0.21 (p less than 0.01) from transformational leadership to relatedness, autonomy and competence were also found. Negative and smaller paths were revealed from management by exception to relatedness (= -0.12, p less than 0.01), competence (= -0.12, p less than 0.05), and autonomy (= -0.18, p less than 0.01). Squared multiple correlations (R[superscript 2]) for relatedness, competence and autonomy were 0.28, 0.06, and 0.27, respectively. Originality/value: The paper empirically addresses the theoretically suggested link between transformational leadership and need fulfillment. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)