transformational leadership research paper

• Open access
• Published: 09 December 2020

Impact of transformational leadership on work performance, burnout and social loafing: a mediation model

• Hira Khan 1 ,
• Maryam Rehmat   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3377-0082 2 , 3 ,
• Tahira Hassan Butt 3 ,
• Saira Farooqi 2 , 3 &
• Javaria Asim 2 , 3  

Future Business Journal volume  6 , Article number:  40 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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The aim of this research was to study the effect of transformational leadership on employees’ work outcomes which include their work performances and working burnout, and their working behavior such as social loafing at workplace. Also, it studies the impact of intrinsic motivation as a mediator between transformational leadership and other stated variables. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect data from 308 employees working in the telecommunication sector. To test the hypotheses, Model 4 of Process Hayes was used to test direct and mediating effects among transformational leadership and employees’ work outcomes and working behavior. The results showed that transformational leadership has a significant positive relationship with mediator intrinsic motivation. The results also concluded that work performance has positive significant relationship with transformational leadership. However, there is indirect and insignificant relationship of transformational leadership with working burnout and social loafing. Therefore, it can be stated that organizational leaders must have transformational attributes by getting informed of their employees well because transformational leader can inspire employees to achieve anticipated or significant outcomes. It gives employees self-confidence over specific jobs, as well as the power to make decisions once they have been trained.

Introduction

During the last two decades, transformational leadership has gained most conspicuous place in philosophy of leadership [ 81 ]. Therefore, it is not surprising that the current evolution in leadership theory and practice has attracted the interest of both practitioners and researchers and they exhibited great deal of interest toward exploring its ascendancy for organization and individuals as well [ 72 , 87 ]. Particularly, the studies conducted during the previous decades recommends that transformational leadership is considerably related to followers’ behaviors and performance [ 20 , 65 ]. In a review on progress in the domain of leadership printed in “Annual Review of Psychology,” Avolio et al. [ 8 ] stressed the need to establish mechanisms that connect leadership to vital organizational and individual outcomes. They further stressed the need to investigate the role of mediators, so as to clarify the noteworthiness of leadership for organizations. Chan and Mak [ 20 ] in their research contended that “a variety of different influence processes may be involved in transformational leadership yet there is still room for research to further examine the process of the relationship between transformational leadership and follower attitudes and behaviors.” Transformational leadership defined as leadership approach in which a leader transforms his followers, inspires them, builds trust, encourages them, admires their innovative ideas, and develops them [ 12 ], is presently the most extensively acknowledged definition in the leadership literature.

Transformational leadership can be implicated to managerial context. Transformational leadership which is the leader’s competency to get performance of employees beyond expectations, can be more helpful and beneficial in enhancing one’s ability to intrinsically motivate them. It can improve psychological empowerment as well [ 85 ]. Transformational leadership has four components which are: (i) idealized influence, (ii) inspirational motivation to enhance confidence, (iii) intellectual stimulation, and (iv) individualized consideration [ 13 ]. Idealized influence is shown when a leader efficiently makes provision of accurate sense of mission and appropriately visualizes it. Inspirational motivation can be defined as leadership attitude which deals with emotional traits of employees, builds confidence in employees about their performances, appropriately communicates and provides actual feedback [ 68 ]. Individual consideration refers to the support of leader for each follower. It may include training and coaching, allocating tasks according to the competence of each individual and supervision of performances [ 92 ]. Intellectual stimulation describes the effort of leader to motivate and encourage his employees to be more adaptive and follow new technical approaches according to the varied situation. It may be advantageous to overcome the cues and hindrances which occur at multi stages [ 14 ]. Transformational leaders can anticipate that employees will need transformational leadership when the work is more stressful and when the work is more meaningful [ 84 ].

Extant research on the transformational leadership tried to explore its “black box” and presented empirical confirmation of its direct fruitful consequences for followers’ outcomes including work performance [ 16 , 44 , 52 , 90 ], burnout [ 40 , 82 ], and social loafing [ 5 ]. Nevertheless, there exists some room for further research, explaining the specific mechanisms by which transformational leadership influence such individuals’ behavior and psychological state particularly at organizational level [ 16 ]. Hence, this study aims at providing new comprehension of how and why and under what circumstances transformational leadership influences work performance, burnout and social loafing of employees, in Pakistani context.

Transformational leadership tends to maximize the level of professional performance of work In addition to provided literature on association of transformational leadership and work performance; researchers indicate that organizations of diverse structures highly depend upon the performance of its workers. Past studies have empirically established the positive association between work performance and transformational leadership [ 9 ]. Transformational leaders inspire their followers to have shared vision of targeted goals and standards of performance defined by the organization and also facilitate them achieve it [ 4 ]. Another factor which is highly influenced by transformational leadership is employee’s burnout which may be decreased through this particular style of leadership. Prevalence of stress is highly probable in any organizational sector [ 73 ]. Transformational leadership is most influencing factor which enhances the employee’s ability to deal with all kind of circumstances as such leader provide supportive circumstances to employees so that they can maintain the optimum level of mental health through inspirational motivation and also enhances their confidence level [ 28 , 93 ].

“Social loafing is the inclination of putting less effort while working in a team than working alone” [ 5 ]. Transformational leader, while working in a group, follows a strategy in which he can allocate various assignments and tasks according to the competencies of employee and he must evaluate performances of each individual. Social loafing is a psychological aspect of an individual which may differ from situation to situation and individual to individual [ 55 ]. Leadership literature has established that individualized consideration by the leader may deflate the degree of social loafing [ 45 ].

Building on the previous literature, this research incorporated employee intrinsic motivation as a factor that explains the linkage of transformational leadership with employee work performance, burnout and social loafing. Intrinsic motivation which is “the implementation of an action for the inherent satisfaction rather than for external reasons” [ 63 ]. Undeniably, the motivation of current workforce is not much reliant on extrinsic rewards. Rather material rewards may decline job performance in complex jobs with diverse responsibilities [ 30 ]. Further, in order to perform their duties effectively in today’s dynamic work environment, the employees need to have an elastic and highly flexible work arrangement. For that reason and for instilling good motivation among workers, organizations not only offer extrinsic rewards to them but also plan to enhance their intrinsic motivation [ 63 ]. Transformational leadership is the leadership approach which contributes to present a clear and justified organizational vision and mission by motivating workers to work toward idea through developing association with employees, consider employees’ requirements and assisting them to exert their potential positively, participates to positive outcomes for an organization [ 31 ]. Employees whose work competencies are encouraged by the leader are more likely to have higher intrinsic motivation and resultantly perform better at work. They become more focused and try to accomplish organizational goals by taking their own interests. There also exists indirect association between employees’ burnout and transformational leadership through mediating effect of intrinsic motivation [ 28 ]. Transformational leaders focus more on individual requirements and they build strong association with their employees who are supposed to perform with higher objectives, which enhances employees’ intrinsic motivation. Such motivation keeps them away from burning out [ 6 ]. We further argued that intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and social loafing. Previous studies indicate that role of intrinsic motivation discourages social loafing as it does not happen circumstantially only, but it also happens whenever an employee is low in intrinsic motivation [ 5 ].

This research makes provision of significant contribution in the literature of organizational behavior by enriching our understanding of the conditions under which transformational leadership influences employee performance, burnout and social loafing. The findings of our research allow organizations and its management to comprehend how efficiently and effectively they can follow a policy or some kind of advanced strategy in order to intrinsically motivate their employees so that they can increase the level of work performance and deflate burnout and social loafing in employees.

Literature review

Transformational leadership and intrinsic motivation.

Envisioning visions and motivating are two core jobs of effective leadership [ 24 ]. According to traditional transformational leadership literature, transformational leaders guide and encourage employee mindfulness by enunciating a vision that escalates employees’ consciousness and consideration for the significance of organizational values, goals, and performances [ 42 ]. Thusly, fundamental to the theory on transformational leadership is a strong accentuation on the part of a combined vision; that is, an idealized arrangement of objectives that the organization seeks to accomplish one day [ 18 ]. Transformational leaders, through clear enunciation, have their utmost influence on the followers’ sentiments by cultivating a feeling of success and proficiency in them. Transformational leaders are much capable to improve organizational outcomes according to the market requirements by developing human resources and creating justified modifications [ 34 ]. The reason to acquire specific knowledge is associated with the degree that what is the level of intrinsic motivation of a person and how he is keen to get knowledge by developing particular competencies and meaningful learning [ 78 ]. Transformational leadership has power to enhance the ability of psychological empowerment which is referred as intrinsic motivation [ 85 ]. According to [ 74 ], the idea of motivation is known as “the set of reasons why people behave in the ways they do”, for example, intrinsic motivation is “the motivational state in which the employees are driven by their interests in the work rather than a contract-for-rewards approach to completing a task” [ 24 ]. A study by Koh et al. [ 51 ] identified that intrinsic motivation is highly influenced by the transformational leadership, as the transformational leader guides and supports effectively, self-motivation to be an effective and beneficial part of an organization increases as well.

Transformational leadership comprises four interconnected behavioral dimensions including “idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration” [ 11 ]. All behavioral dimensions can influence employees’ intrinsic motivation. First, transformational leaders utilize idealized influence and offer inspirational motivation through communicating an alluring collective vision [ 91 ]. This collective vision provides a meaningful idea of team’s tasks by a leader which increase the intrinsic motivation of employees [ 75 ]. Transformational leadership can develop positive outcomes such as optimism and high self-interests in all members of team which ultimately increase the pleasure and job satisfaction relevant to the task [ 26 ]. Second, the intellectual stimulation of transformational leaders boosts team members’ confidence to develop more effective emotional and situational stability and resolving their problems by their own selves [ 11 ]. They are also motivated to understand and encourage the basic knowledge and skills of other coworkers to share new ideologies. Third, transformational leaders differentiate individuals’ ideas and interests, promote their ideas to describe their uniqueness, and consider them through individualized consideration [ 11 ]. When employees observe the behaviors of their leaders, all of them feel motivated and try to construct one another’s ideas and competencies to create innovative solutions of problems. Therefore, in this article, we expect that all dimensions of transformational leadership encourage employees to invest higher willingness and energy in their work and tasks which exhibit their higher intrinsic motivation. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that:

Transformational leadership relates positively to intrinsic motivation.

Transformational leadership, intrinsic motivation and work performance

Intrinsic motivation is highly associated with the work performance. Intrinsic motivation may be defined as “the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfactions rather than for some separable consequence but it is rare for employees to experience intrinsic motivation in all of their tasks” [ 76 ]. Intrinsic motivation is generated for self-developing attributes that refers to make an individual ready to be the part of learning procedure without having interests of extrinsic rewards [ 83 ]. Intrinsic motivation is basically the degree of an individual’s interest in a task completion and how he engages himself in work [ 3 ]. It describes the psychological development process with an employee’s performance [ 85 ].

According to recent operational settings, enhancing the employees’ motivation has become one of most impactful human resources strategy. Most of the organizations are tending to build up, sustain and grow their HR strategies, just to motivate their employees so that short-term and long-term goals and objectives can be achieved. In recent researches, there are numerous variables which can be influenced by employees’ intrinsic motivation like performance, creativity, and relevant outcomes. For example, it has been stated that behavior of an individual influences the work outcomes which are performance and quality as well [ 10 ]. It is strongly evidenced that motivation has a most important role between cognitive abilities and work performance. Gist [ 37 ] suggested that short term goals can be achieved through self-interest of an individual. Also, a research indicates that there is a significant and direct relationship of intrinsic motivation and job performance [ 43 ]. Furthermore, an employee’s intrinsic motivation illustrates an important contribution in organizational progress and growth [ 39 ]. The work performance indices are constructed for the degree of performance, not only for the individual level always; it also includes group and organizational performances [ 2 ]. In most employment situations, where intrinsic motivation of an employee is supposed to be high, the employee usually tries to acquire continual employment,and he/she develops interpersonal associations with his subordinates, perform better at job as they take pleasure in the process of finishing their tasks effectively [ 38 ]. Conversely, if the worker feels de-motivated, it can be resulted in low performance of work. Thus intrinsic motivation may be concluded with better performance of work while meeting organizational targets and goals [ 7 ].

As we propose the direct relationship of intrinsic motivation and performance, it may be stated that the intrinsic motivation can actively influence the performance of work as a significant workplace outcome [ 19 ]. Therefore, we hypothesize that:

Intrinsic motivation relates positively to employee work performance.

In current research, we posit that intrinsic motivation is one of the main mechanisms by which transformational leaders influence employees’ job performance. Transformational leaders may help to ensure individual’s inner motivation to perform a task efficiently which in turn increases their work performance .These leadership approaches are advantageous for both individual and organizational growth [ 36 ]. In fact, it is justified to examine how leaders motivate their employees and this motivation enhances their performance [ 12 ]. In line with the previous literature [ 22 , 23 ], we expect that transformational leadership enhances individuals’ intrinsic motivation which in turn will significantly predict employee job performance. Intrinsic motivation is known as self-directed type of motivation and represents the highest commitment and stability with the self [ 25 ]. A variety of researches indicate that higher intrinsic motivation result in better performance [ 89 ] as intrinsic motivation inspires and encourages employees to work more efficiently. Therefore, it can be hypothesized:

Intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and work performance.

Transformational leadership, intrinsic motivation and employee’s working burnout

Intrinsically motivated employees persistently focus on their tasks and jobs because they find themselves more focused, attentive and exert their best efforts while being a part of an organization and in achieving the goals of their employing organization [ 76 ]. Burnout is a psychological and mental condition which happens in response to high stress level at job; it is a multi-dimensional concept which covers the following three aspects: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased personal focus for accomplishment of goals [ 77 ]. Burnout affects the interpersonal relationship of employees too [ 58 ].

Prior research indicates that there is contrary effect of intrinsic motivation on employee’s working burnout [ 70 ]. Intrinsically motivated employees find their jobs more interesting, are more optimistic, put more effort in their work, and have higher perseverance level because they gain contentment and fulfillment from performing a task itself [ 15 ]. Vallerand [ 88 ] in his study exhibit that “employees with high intrinsic motivation have higher level of vitality, positive effect, self-esteem, absorption, concentration, effort, and persistence” and when such employees went through the felling of burnout, they have more personal resources to surmount this situation. Such employees feel less exhausted, less stressed and more focused toward contributing in organization’s progress [ 49 ]. Intrinsically motivated employees feel less pressure and low stress level rather than the employees who are low in motivation [ 69 , 71 ]. Intrinsic motivation of employees’ can be negatively associated with their burnout [ 70 ].Therefore; the employees who are high in intrinsic motivation can decrease their burnout at workplace [ 50 ]. Thus, it can be hypothesized that:

Intrinsic motivation is negatively associated to employee’s working burnout.

In current research, we propose that intrinsic motivation plays a mediating role between transformational leadership and burnout. Burnout is the major concern for organizations as it influences the relevant outcomes. It results in low productivity and commitment. Hence, it causes the high turnover and absenteeism in employees [ 82 ]. Studies indicate that leaders highly contribute to employees’ health and welfare as well [ 80 ]. But the relationship between leadership behaviors and employee burnout is less studied yet [ 41 ]. As mentioned earlier, there exists a positive relationship between transformational leadership and intrinsic motivation which in turn make them more competent, teach them how to handle and manage stressful conditions and reduce their burnout. Therefore, we hypothesize that:

Intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship of transformational leadership and employee’s working burnout.

Transformational leadership, intrinsic motivation and social loafing

Social loafing is defined as the tendency of individuals who exert less effort and their productivity decreases when working in groups than working individually [ 21 , 33 , 57 , 79 ]. It is a negative employee behavior and is particularly shown by individuals with lower motivation [ 1 ]. These kinds of behaviors can be resulted in low productivity and poor commitment toward a task [ 62 ] and organization as well.

Social loafing is common practice and can be observed in every organizational setting, across age and gender and in different professions and various cultures [ 46 ]. This is more alarming that it can be seen at every single workplace and considered as misconduct. The variety of factors is studied in influence of social loafing, but there is still an insufficiency of individual inherent factors such as intrinsic motivation which is part of this research framework.

“Intrinsic motivation which describes an inherent tendency that individuals engage in activities due to their inner interests, pleasure and satisfaction” [ 70 ] is negatively linked to Social loafing. George [ 33 ] established in his study on 221 salespeople that intrinsic task involvement is negatively linked to social loafing. He further exerted that intrinsically motivated individuals may have self realization that their efforts are vital for the success of their team/group and for organization as well and therefore they are less likely to be engaged in social loafing. He/she would try his/her own best to exert extra effort to accomplish the goals and tasks assigned by the leader.

Therefore, we hypothesize that:

Intrinsic motivation is negatively linked to social loafing.

Intrinsic motivation may be described as the inherent process that initiates attributes, behaviors and what defines people to moves or act [ 27 ]. Self-determination theory indicates that there are different levels of motivation. Intrinsic motivation is at the most independent end of the scale because an individual opts to get engaged in any conduct according to his own choice [ 32 ]. A leader motivates his employees by incorporated strategies which results in better achievement of goals and objectives of a firm or organization. Gilbert et al. [ 35 ]. Social loafing is defined as a reduced amount of effort and motivation while being a part of group or working in a team as compared to working individually [ 46 ]. Social loafing is well-known phenomena and can be found in all of the organizations, across gender, and age and in various occupations and different cultures [ 46 ].

Social loafing is considered as a big hindrance in organizational growth as well. It causes low potential [ 61 ], low productivity [ 29 ], and low motivation of other team members too [ 67 ]. It decreases the overall efficiency, productivity and performance of the team [ 47 ]. Social loafing is widely spread term which is also known as social disease [ 54 ].

In line with this connection, social loafing is a big moral and social issue since it is an option that “involves modifying the life plan of another individual or group of individuals” [ 60 ]. On contrast, if a transformational leader motivates his employees and encourages their performance on individual basis, then through individualized considerations and inspirational motivation, social loafing can be decreased. Therefore, it can be hypothesized:

Intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship of transformational leadership and social loafing.

Mediating role of intrinsic motivation between transformational leadership and social loafing

(Fig.  1 ).

Theoretical framework

Sample and data collection

The data was collected through survey via emails, online surveys and printed questionnaires through convenience sampling from individuals working in the telecommunication sector. The participants were informed about the objective of this study and the assurance of confidentiality and anonymity of their responses. Respondents were assured that their information will not be assessed by any individuals except those who are authorized. After removing the duplicates, outliers and responses with missing data, we obtained 308 valid responses for further data analysis Table  1 depicts the demographic characteristics of the respondents.

• Transformational leadership

Transformational leadership was measured by McColl-Kennedy and Anderson [ 59 ] four-item scale. Six-point Likert scale (1—strongly disagree to 6 —strongly agree) was used to measure responses. This is the most widely used scale to measure transformational leadership. Cronbach’s alpha for transformational leadership scale is 0.84.

• Intrinsic motivation

In this study, Liu et al. [ 56 ] four-item scale was adopted to measure intrinsic motivation. To record the responses five-point Likert scale was used (1 —strongly disagree to 5—strongly agree). Cronbach’s alpha for intrinsic motivation scale is 0.89.

• Work performance

To measure work performance [ 19 ] four-item scale was adopted. Five-point Likert scale (1—much worse to 5—much better) was used to measure responses. Cronbach’s alpha of work performance scale is 0.80.

• Working burnout

Working burnout was measured by Kristensen et al. [ 53 ]. Seven items with five-point Likert scale (1 –never to 5—always) was used. Cronbach’s alpha of burnout scale is 0.88.

• Social loafing

Social loafing was measured by Akgunduz and Eryilmaz [ 1 ]. Four items with five-point Likert scale (1—strongly disagree to 5—strongly agree) was used. Cronbach’s alpha of social loafing scale is 0.80.

Data analysis

After data collection, the reliability, correlation was calculated by using SPSS software. Research model was tested using Hayes Process Model 4.

Descriptive statistics

Table  2 describes descriptive statistics of all the study variables including the mean, standard deviation, and correlation. Correlation coefficients are in the anticipated directions and provide preliminary support for our study hypotheses. Our results depicts that transformational leadership and intrinsic motivation ( r  = 0. 29, p  < 0.01) are positively and significantly correlated. Further intrinsic motivation is significantly associated with work performance ( r  = .30, p  < 0.01); working burnout ( r  = − 0.59, p  < 0.01); social loafing ( r  = − 0.15, p  < 0.01).

Reliability analysis

To examine the consistency of the variables, reliability analysis is calculated. The reliabilities of all the variables with number of items are summarized in Table  3 . The values between 0.84 and 0.8 indicate good reliability. The reliability of transformational leadership is 0.84 which is good, and intrinsic motivation shows another good reliability which is 0.89. Working burnout shows 0.88 reliability. The reliability of work performance is 0.8 and the reliability of social loafing is 0.8 which is also good. So this explains that the data used is reliable.

Hypothesis testing

Results of mediation for work performance.

Firstly, we investigated the impact of Transformational Leadership (X) on Work Performance (Y) through mediating factor of Intrinsic Motivation (M). Results justify that total effect of transformational leadership on work performance (path c, Fig.  2 ) is significant ( β  = 0.13, t  = 3.07, p  < 0.01) as shown in Table  4 . The relationship between transformational leadership and intrinsic motivation (path a, Fig.  4 ) is highly significant and positive which support Hypothesis 1 also ( β  = 0.31, t  = 5.20, p  < 0.01). Furthermore, the findings showed that the relationship between Intrinsic Motivation and Work Performance (path b, Fig.  2 ) is positive and significant relationship ( β  = 0.19, t  = 4.79, p  < 0.01).

Mediation model—work performance

Our overall findings represent that there is positive and significant impact of transformational leadership on work performance (path c ′, Fig.  2 ) through the mediation of intrinsic motivation ( β  = 0.07, t  = 1.68, p  > 0.01) which accepts Hypothesis 3.

Results for mediation for working burnout

In this model we studied the relationship of Transformational Leadership(X) and Working Burnout (Y) through mediating role Intrinsic Motivation (M). Results indicated that total effect of transformational leadership on working burnout is significant ( β  = − 0.19, t  = − 3.51, p  < 0.01 We examined the relationship between the mediator, Intrinsic Motivation and the dependent variable, Working Burnout (path b , Fig.  3 ). The findings showed a significant and negative relationship ( β  = − 0.50, t  = − 11.98, p  < 0.01). This finding supports Hypothesis 4. As it is shown in Table  5 the final results determined a significant relationship between transformational leadership and working burnout with mediation of intrinsic motivation (path c ′, Fig.  3 ) ( β  = − 0.03, t  = − 0.66, p  > 0.01). Therefore Hypothesis 5 is accepted.

Mediation model—working burnout

Results for mediation for social loafing

Our third and last finding for studied relationship between transformational leadership and social loafing through mediator intrinsic motivation, are presented in Table  6 . According to the total effect model, the relationship between transformational leadership and social loafing (path c , Fig.  4 ) is significant and negative ( β  = − 0.32, t  = − 9.57, p  < 0.01) as shown in Table  6 .

Mediation model—social loafing

The outcomes showed that intrinsic motivation and social loafing (path b , Fig.  4 ) are insignificantly and related relationship ( β  = − 0.01, t  = − 0.31, p  > 0.01) which opposes Hypothesis 6.

Our last finding determined that transformational leadership does not have a significant negative impact on social loafing (path c ′, Fig.  3 ), while controlling intrinsic motivation ( β  = − 0.32, t  = − 9.07, p  < 0.01). Thus Hypothesis 7 is not accepted. Thus, it can be resulted that there is no mediation.

Theoretical contributions

Although, previous researches have vastly recognized the direct impact of transformational leadership on positive employee work outcomes [ 17 , 48 ], yet not all employees do not respond to transformational leadership optimistically [ 66 ]. This study overall, made an important contribution to the available literature mainly by including variables that are very essential for all work environments that are aiming toward high employee motivation and performance. The current study is a unique attempt to look at the relationship between of transformational leadership, employees’ work performance, working burnout, and social loafing and intrinsic motivation in Asian context. This study contributes to the existing literature on transformational leadership since it is among the first to investigate the indirect impact of transformational leadership on employees’ work performance, working burnout, and social loafing through intrinsic motivation. Providing empirical evidence for association between transformational leadership (independent variable), work performance, working burnout and social loafing (dependent variables) through the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation. Our empirical results provide support for our hypothesized model except for the indirect effect of transformational leadership on social loafing through intrinsic motivation. Transformational leadership consists of four elements which are idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and Individualized consideration [ 13 ]. All of these elements showed very good reliability and consistency with each other. These elements actively participate to affect the outcome of intrinsic motivation [ 85 ].

This study shows that transformational leadership has a significant and positive relationship with employees’ intrinsic motivation. Previous literature supports this finding that transformational leadership promotes motivation in employees and develops positive psychological states such as meaningfulness of work, experienced responsibility for the outcomes and knowledge of work results. It indicates that transformational leadership directly exerts its influence by helping employees or followers to think more positively about themselves and their tasks, by enhancing the quality of their relationships, and by creating environments that are fair, respectful, and supportive [ 86 ] and all of these factors contribute positively toward employee’s self motivation toward his/her work (i.e., intrinsic motivation).

The positive elements of transformational leadership bring out positive psychological states by escalating intrinsic motivation among employees. Employees with increased intrinsic motivation are more effective and efficient toward their work performances. They are supposed to be converted into responsive and perform efficiently in their work [ 64 ].

This study results showed significant positive relationship of transformational leadership on working burnout through intrinsic motivation. When a transformational leader indicates support for honest and fair matters associated with employees, the employee feels less exhausted and motivated. Intrinsically motivated employees who are driven by enjoyment and interest in their work are more likely to work hard at their jobs and feel less fatigue, less emotional exhaustion, and increased desire to participate in the organization [ 49 ].

Finally, it was examined that how transformational leadership impact social loafing through Intrinsic motivation. Findings depicts that although Social loafing has a significant and negative relationship with transformational leader, but their indirect relationship through intrinsic motivation is not significant The reason behind can be that the direct strong association between transformational leader and social loafing as “transactional leaders effectively inspire followers to identify with a mission while rallying them to work together to achieve organizational objectives.” Further, social loafing in employees is also effected significantly by other factors such as workload, organizational culture, tenure of job. etc.

Practical implications

Our study also provides several practical implications for organizations. Transformational leaders who realize the significance of intrinsic motivation for employees will adopt such behaviors that are conducive for development employees’ intrinsic motivation at the workplace. The results of current study confirmed that transformational leadership through fostering intrinsic motivation create such environment which is stress free and fruitful for employee effective performance. One way to exhibit these behaviors by managers is to aim at encouraging motivation among employees based on their inherent happiness and enjoyment. Another way to enhance employees’ intrinsic motivation and involvement toward organizational success is to value their contributions and sharing organizational goals and objectives with their workers. Further, it is very essential for organizational leaders to be transformed by being informed of their employees well because transformational leader can inspire people to achieve unexpected or remarkable results. It gives workers autonomy over specific jobs, as well as the authority to make decisions once they have been trained. In that the leader can inspire workers to find better ways of achieving a goal as leadership can mobilize people into groups that can get work done, and morale, in that transformational leaders raise the well-being and motivation level of a group through excellent connection. The findings of this study also stressed the need of designing leadership coaching and training programs in order to develop transformational leadership which may include “programs for communication, motivation, and brainstorming, to train employees with the necessary resources to be more articulate and inspirational as well as to think out of the box”.

Limitations and future directions

The first limitation of this research is that cross-sectional survey has been conducted. There may be ambiguity in establishing causal direction. Results may vary while collecting data at various times. It is suggested to conduct longitudinal study design in future research to see how impact of transformational leadership on employee outcomes varies over time. Next, it represented data from only the telecom sector of Lahore, Pakistan which may limit the study generalizability it would have been advantageous to conduct this research across the diverse sectors and n different context. Another limitation of this research is that there can be a probability of response bias as all the data was collected through same source i.e., employees. For example, a person can have deliberate falsification by quoting false responses of statements, just to attain social desirability. An employee in the organization may have high degrees of social loafing but he may not state it appropriately as well. Future researchers may collect data from different sources like work performance data can be collected from supervisors.

Existing literature and this research too is having high tendency toward constructive and significant outcomes to discover impact of transformational leadership so it is suggested that in future studies impact of transformational leadership should be examined in relation to more negative employee outcomes such as turnover intention and cyber loafing.

It is also recommended to see the impact of other mediators like emotional stability between transformational leadership and employees’ various outcomes.

Furthermore, future studies can also observe the effect of different moderators such as performance appraisal politics and contingent awards on the existing research model. It might prove valuable.

Future studies can also respond to the limitations of current research by collecting data across different business sectors (education, banking, etc.) of diverse locations.

This research contributes to the field of organizational behavior by enhancing our knowledge on how a transformational leader upgrades employees’ positive work outcomes by improving their intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, their increased intrinsic motivation will develop their positive work outcomes by increasing employees’ work performance and the same time reducing their burnout and work stress. We hope that our study will stimulate future endeavors to advance our understanding in this domain.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Khan, H., Rehmat, M., Butt, T.H. et al. Impact of transformational leadership on work performance, burnout and social loafing: a mediation model. Futur Bus J 6 , 40 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-020-00043-8

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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

The dimensions of transformational leadership and its organizational effects in public universities in saudi arabia: a systematic review.

• Department of Public Administration, College of Business Administration, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Organizations are dynamic entities, such that they are constantly developing and changing. As such, these entities require leadership capable of managing transformations. Transformational leadership is an effective leadership model that focuses on adapting to existing environmental circumstances whether through internal information, human and monetary resources, or different external variables. This study aims to highlight the characteristics of transformational leadership and their effects on the public universities in Saudi particularly, this study enlightens the urgent need to test the behavioral intentions in the public universities in Saudi Arabia. To achieve this goal, many major databases were used. The period of the study was set from 2011 to 2020 as the topic of the study is the current transformational leadership within the public universities in Saudi Arabia. There was a total of 47,400,000 studies on transformational leadership on Google, however, only 22 studies were reviewed which were entirely conducted in Saudi Arabian Universities. The results demonstrated that in the public universities in Saudi, transformational leadership is practiced across four dimensions: ideal effect, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration. The documentary research approach was used to review the most recent aspects of administrative literature on the theory of transformational leadership and its organizational outcomes. In addition, NVIVO 11 was used to make a thematic analysis of the linkages between transformational leadership and organizational outcomes: organizational commitment, knowledge management practices, morale, employee empowerment, level of job satisfaction, administrative creativity, organizational citizenship behavior, and the level of transformation toward quality and job enrichment. Therefore, behavioral tendencies such as organizational commitment, empowerment, job satisfaction, and knowledge management practices have been studied more interestingly and critically. Furthermore, these behavioral aspects need to be explored more in public universities in Saudi Arabia.

Organizational success and the effectiveness in achieving goals based on a clear mission and vision usually correspond to leadership approaches that target raising service levels, the introduction of modern organizational development trends, and adaptation to internal and external environments. Accordingly, choosing administrative leaders who will take on the responsibility of making change and bearing its risks is of high importance to organizations. Transformational leadership involves factors, characteristics, and tasks that enable leaders to face current and future challenges and effectively manage the organizational changes resulting from continuous external changes. As such, this study will address the topic of transformational leadership with an emphasis on the characteristics of transformational leadership and its effects on the public universities in Saudi. The researcher reviewed the articles which were ultimately done within the universities in Saudi Arabia. The number of research studies on Google was 47,400,000 which were conducted globally, however, this case was completely conducted with Saudi Arabian universities so, only 22 studies, purely based on transformational leadership and its possible outcomes, were selected for the systematic review.

The Roots of Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership theory is one of the oldest psychological and methodological approaches used in understanding and interpreting leadership itself. It is described by Burns (1978) as a process related to the internal relations and values in which a leader influences others and adapts their behavior to meet challenges, ultimately enabling them to participate in the process of organizational change ( Tengi et al., 2017 : 79). The emergence of the transformational leadership theory can be traced back to Burns (1978) , who was the first to address: “…the distinction between transactional leaders, who attempt to satisfy the current needs of followers by focusing attention on exchanges, and transformational leaders, who attempt to raise the needs of followers and promote dramatic changes of individuals, groups, and organizations” ( Yammarino et al., 1993 : 81–82). Burns (1978) suggested that leadership, in addition to the ability of the leader to influence followers, includes the ability to motivate others and develop their moral values to help bring about change in the behaviors, attitudes, values, and expectations of the followers, and then change the behavior of the organization as a whole ( Tengi et al., 2017 :794). Transformational leaders generally tend to show four main characteristics: charisma, inspirational leadership, intellectual stimulation, and the consideration of the needs of followers ( Dubinsky et al., 1995 :317).

By the mid-eighties, the concept of transformational leadership received significant attention from scholars in the field of management, especially when many organizations realized the need for major changes in the ways in which business is carried out as a means of addressing the changes in the environment. Bass (1985) reviewed Burns' theory on the effect of transformational leadership and proposed a more detailed model for describing the transformational processes in organizations, where the transformational leader was defined as the one who transforms a vision into reality by motivating the followers to substitute their personal interests for the interest of the group. The focus in this study is on the characteristics of a transformational leader in transforming followers by meeting their needs, making them more knowledgeable about the importance and value of the outcomes of their jobs, and persuading them to sacrifice their individual interests for the interests of the organization. As a result, the followers express an increase in job satisfaction levels, respect toward leaders, and motivation in task execution ( Tengi et al., 2017 :794).

The Concept of Transformational Leadership

Dubinsky et al. (1995) explained that the concept of transformational leadership is a reflection of several characteristics found in leaders, such as the acknowledgment of future needs and issues, handling of long-term problems and opportunities, holistic examination of internal and external organizational factors, handling of organizational issues from a broad perspective, elevation of follower awareness regarding the importance and value of specific job outcomes, ability to motivate employees to substitute their personal interests for those of the organization, and ability to influence followers to change their needs to higher-order concerns. In the same context, a transformational leader is a leader who has influence and can interact directly with followers to change various aspects of an organization through vision, action, and impact. Leadership involves the attitude and behavior of a person to influence a team to be able to work together more efficiently and effectively to achieve a required level of productivity ( Tengi et al., 2017 :792).

It is essentially the process through which leaders and followers are committed to achieving goals within a framework of vision, shared values, and mutual trust. In this process, the leaders encourage the followers to pursue personal development and adaptation skills, and as a result, the leaders and followers raise each other to the highest level of motivation. It is through this focus on human behavior and motivation that transformational leadership has a significant transformational effect on leaders and followers, as well as on the performance and development of the organization as a whole.

The Dimensions of Transformational Leadership

Both Savovic (2017) and Wood (2019) asserted that one of the most important tasks of transformational leadership involves enhancing the participation between leaders and followers in terms of motivation and values, while also enhancing the awareness of the followers on existing problems and providing support, encouragement, and developmental experience. This requires that leaders focus on developing the abilities of the followers to creatively find solutions to problems, providing them with a blueprint for the future that inspires them and provides them with the support they need to face the challenges of change, ultimately increasing their commitment to efficient task implementation. Ultimately, transformational leaders inspire changes in the attitudes and core values of their followers to foster its alignment with the organizational vision.

According to Burns, transformational leadership can be seen when the leaders and followers push one another to higher levels of morals and motivation. Through the power of their vision and personality, transformational leaders can inspire followers to change their hopes, perceptions, and motivations, and work toward common goals. Transformational leaders must be able to define and communicate the vision of an organization, while subordinates must acknowledge the credibility of their leaders as transformational leaders who are charismatic and play a central and strategic role in helping the organization achieve its goals. Transformational leaders must also be able to balance their future visions with those of their subordinates while attributing greater importance to the needs of their subordinates than what may exist at present. Furthermore, transformational leaders must be able to persuade their subordinates to carry out tasks beyond their interests for the greater good of the organization ( Gunawan, 2020 ).

Therefore, the role of administrative leaders in managing change is of great importance because organizations are dynamic entities undergoing rapid development, and are therefore in need of leadership that is capable of managing transformations. Hence, the administrative leader who continuously strives to improve their performance and personal skills and simultaneously deals with the rapidly-changing modern global variables can be identified as a transformational leader. The administrative leader who wants to achieve extraordinary things at a level that exceeds expectations must be updated on the new trends in management and technology, while also acquiring new skills that help anticipate and internalize future changes.

Organizational Effects of Transformational Leadership

The transformational leadership approach contributes to keeping organizations abreast of all the surrounding changes, as their leaders and members have a clear vision of the future that they are working hard to achieve. Many studies on transformational leadership indicate a positive correlation between transformational leadership and positive organizational outcomes. Therefore, this systematic review significantly analyzes the individual characteristics and effects of transformational leadership on organizational outcomes such as: It is clear from each perspective of the dimensions of transformational leadership that it makes a significant contribution to the actual performance of academic educational institutions. This is because all the dimensions possess motivational and cognitive abilities that are considered necessary for the development and evaluation of academic performance in academic institutions ( Al Gabri, 2018 ); According to Al Amiri (2002) , transformational leadership in public institutions in Saudi promotes a high level of staff opinions and results in higher academic performances; it has the best practices in developing and generating novel ideas that facilitate the process of knowledge sharing in terms of knowledge management ( Al Madhahaji, 2017 ); it is the best practice to satisfy employees at work, and as a result, the employees go above and beyond to satisfy their employers ( Al Madhahaji, 2017 ). According to Al Miman (2013) , transformational leadership has an influential effect on organizational creativity in terms of knowledge sharing practices, developing novel ideas, and doing best practices and processes in private and public higher institutions in Riyadh ( Al Rashidi, 2017 ); it enables corporate social responsibility among the faculty members of King Saud University ( Al Regeb, 2017 ); it helps to empower knowledge management system in public universities in Saudi ( Al Saleh, 2019 ); and it is the ultimate antecedent of both organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior ( Al Ubiri, 2016 ) because it enhances faculty commitment and citizenship behaviors among the faculty members of public higher institutions.

The Effect of Transformational Leadership on Employee Performance

Some studies, such as the empirical study of Buil et al. (2019) on the impact of transformational leadership on employee performance, have investigated the effect of transformational leadership on employee performance and its related aspects. Measures were used to assess transformational leadership among 323 employees. They included: organizational identification, work engagement, job performance, and proactive personality. The findings supported a link between the transformational leadership approach and the level of job performance. They stated that “both identification and engagement, as mediator variables, govern the underlying mechanism of the relationships between transformational leaders and their followers' behaviors.” Their findings suggest that the use of the transformational leadership approach can predict job performances because those leaders “motivate their followers to identify with their organizations, which, in turn, increases their level of engagement.”

Wood (2019) compared three leadership theories, namely, transformational leadership, situational leadership, and reciprocity, to examine the suitability of these theories to the environment of contemporary business and he found that transformation leaders were undoubtedly more capable of improving the performance of an organization by empowering employees and enabling change. Similarly, the lack of success of institutions was related to the absence of effective leadership that promotes the necessary behaviors for achieving organizational goals. Thus, it was found that although transformational leadership was proposed many decades ago, it is still considered the most appropriate for present times due to its ability to facilitate organizational innovation and learning while promoting a shared and inspiring vision for the future.

Savovic (2017) also studied the impact of transformational leadership on job performance, considering the variables of organizational change, growth, integration, and expansion of activities. The previous study was based on a sample of 344 employees in a Serbian company. The results showed that transformational leadership, in all its dimensions, has a positive effect on job performance during the change process, as it leads to a reduction in uncertainty, making employees more accepting, and increasing their commitment to the organization. They found that transformational leaders influence job performance positively through their charismatic performance, individual support for employees through guidance and education, provision of incentives, inspiration, and optimism, as well as encouraging their employees to be innovative and find new ways to solve problems. Additionally, transformation leadership encourages the subordinates to be more productive to the firm regardless of whether their appraisal is measured by unit level or firm level ( Buil et al., 2019 ). Similarly, Yang et al. (2019) supported the influence of transformational leadership on the task performance and contextual performance of employees in the Chinese context. The study also indicated that one of the main factors of the growth, diversification, and access to new markets of a company is the use of transformational leadership during the process of change, especially in the critical stages of adaptation and trying to achieve difficult goals. In an earlier study, Yammarino et al. (1993) developed a model of transformational leadership to investigate its impact on the level of performance. The model was tested in a longitudinal study on a sample of 186 officers in the US Navy who were graduates of the Naval Academy in the United States. The study found a positive relationship between academic and military performance and transformational leadership, which generally reflects positively on the level of job performance in the fleet.

Tengi et al. (2017) also conducted a review on the school leaders in Malaysia based on the theory of transformational leadership, which was widely applied in the Malaysian school leadership system. The study showed that transformational leadership increases organizational effectiveness and that the transformational leader is an influential leader who can interact directly with followers. They asserted that transformational leaders have the ability to inspire organizational change through vision, action, and influence. This style of leadership is about the attitude and behavior of a leader, and how it influences the followers to work together efficiently and effectively to achieve productivity. It was found that the shift to a transformational leadership style plays an important role in increasing the employee performance of school leaders.

Gareth and Gill (2012) investigated transformational leadership across the hierarchical levels in manufacturing organizations in the United Kingdom (UK). The study sample was 367 managers from all organizational levels (upper, middle, and low) working in 38 UK organizations in the industry sector. One of the most prominent results of the study was that the transformational leaders were the most productive and that this leadership style was equally effective across all the hierarchical levels in the organizations that were studied. However, transformational leadership was found to be more widespread at the higher managerial levels.

The Behavioral Effects of Transformational Leadership

Real leaders positively influence the behavior of their followers because these leaders provide support for the self-determination of their followers, thus, they are more effective in enhancing the self-motivation of their workers, which in turn leads to an increase in the job satisfaction of their followers ( Penger and Cerne, 2014 ). Some studies investigated the behavioral effects of transformational leadership, such as Purnomo and Novalia (2018) . They were interested in the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction in the context of organizational commitment. Their study targeted a sample of 70 Indonesian Airlines employees and found that transformational leadership plays a critical role in influencing the organizational commitment of the employees. The findings of these studies, directly and indirectly, indicated that leaders may increase the performance of the employees and stimulate the creativity of their followers. Whereas, these conclusions indicated the effect of leadership on the performance of employees by the moderating role of proactive personality ( Buil et al., 2019 ). Transformational leaders are found to influence organizational commitment by: (a) promoting higher levels of commitment to goal achievement; (b) creating a higher level of personal commitment to the vision, mission, and shared organizational goals on the part of leaders and followers; and (c) motivating employees to work more effectively, leading to higher levels of organizational commitment. Buil et al. (2019) have conducted a study on transformational leadership and its ultimate outcomes. They supported that transformational leadership, directly and indirectly, influences the performance of employees by the mediating role of work engagement. They further supported that work engagement is only possible when the leaders transparently involve themselves in the tasks of their subordinates at the workplace. Transformational leadership was also studied in relation to job satisfaction. Bruch and Walter (2007) investigated the hierarchical effect of transformational leadership and organizational development by surveying 448 managers from several multinational corporations in Sweden. The aforementioned study covered four basic dimensions of transformational leadership: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. The study concluded that idealized influence and inspirational motivation occurred more frequently with the upper- rather than mid-level management, and no differences were found in intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. The results also indicated that idealized influence, inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation are more effective in enhancing job satisfaction for the followers at the upper management levels rather than the middle management levels. Individual consideration was effective in both the groups of upper and middle management. The study emphasized the need to encourage the use of transformational leadership approaches at the lower management levels.

Transformational leadership was also studied in relation to organizational health. Thibault et al. (2019) discussed transformational leadership within Occupational Health Psychology, pointing out that it is associated with positive effects on the performance, well-being, and safety of employees. Leaders can help their followers cope with the negative consequences of work stress and create a positive atmosphere, thus, serving as an intervention for improving organizational health. Several factors affecting organizational health and knowledge sharing were identified by Tuan (2013) . In his study, a questionnaire was distributed to 635 middle managers working in 127 Vietnamese companies who were selected because they were able to observe the job behaviors displayed by the senior and lower management better. The study findings showed a strong relationship between transformational leadership and organizational health. Transformational leadership was found to be a healthy management approach that activates the “dynamic interaction” and “stimulates change” among the members of the organization, thus strengthening organizational health.

Al Amiri (2002) conducted a study on transformational leadership in public institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on a sample of 466 employees. The findings indicate that transformational leadership positively affected many organizational aspects such as job satisfaction and sense of organizational justice of employees, and organizational citizenship behavior. The study found that personal factors such as age, educational qualification, and job experience did not affect the perceptions of employees on transformational leadership. The study emphasized that government agencies should conduct training courses for managers to establish their leadership skills in change and transformational leadership.

The Effect of Transformational Leadership on Organizational Change

Many studies, such as that of Gunawan (2020) on the effect of transformational leadership, school culture, and work motivation on school performance and effectiveness, looked at the role of transformational leadership in organizational change. The data sample included 343 teachers in junior high schools in 44 government high schools in Medan City. The results showed that transformational leadership was an effective approach in initiating organizational change and development. Transformational leaders were found to strive to make a difference and take responsibility for organizational transformation. Moreover, the findings showed that transformational leaders involve their followers in achieving the goals and objectives set by the management of the organization. All in all, it was found that transformational leadership had a positive effect on the motivation level of followers and the organizational culture, thus making it an important variable in the context of organizational effectiveness.

Al Qatawenh (2018) investigated the relationship between transformational leadership and change management in Jordan. The study focused on several dimensions, including idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and empowerment. The data was collected from 500 employees in several Jordanian insurance companies. The findings confirmed that the dimensions of transformational leadership were indeed present in the Jordanian insurance companies and that a positive impact could be observed regarding change management. Therefore, transformational leadership behaviors were recommended to be implemented as they will increase the perception of employees to manage change.

On the other hand, Al Qura'an (2015 ) aimed to identify the impact of transformational leadership on managing organizational change from the perspective of the managers. The subjects were 50 branch managers of Jordan Ahli Bank. The findings showed that transformational leadership affects the management of organizational change. A positive correlation was found between transformational leadership dimensions (ideal influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individual thinking, and empowerment) as independent variables, and structural change, technological change, and organizational change of personnel as dependent variables. There is a positive relationship between the dimensions of transformational leadership (ideal influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and empowerment) and the management of change. This shows that transformational leadership is very effective in developing and changing organizations because transformational leaders work to make a difference and take on the responsibility of creating change.

Transformational Leadership in Public Universities in Saudi

Universities are one of the foundational elements in building societies and contributing to progress and development. This is accomplished through university leaders who support the effective achievement of the strategic plans, visions, and goals of the university ( Al Shammari, 2020 :2). The effective achievement of the desired visions and goals requires leaders who have special capabilities that enable them to face contemporary challenges and deal with them efficiently (Alsomaly and Metoly, unpublished:19). Universities are considered one of the most important tributaries for influencing and changing the attitudes and behaviors of employees while urging them toward the achievement of visions and aspirations. This is why universities need conscious leaders equipped with the characteristics of transformational leadership, such as inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, ideal influence, and individual considerations to achieve their development plans (Alaklobee, unpublished:422).

The academic and administrative leadership of the universities in Saudi requires the skills to deal with contemporary challenges, future aspirations, and internal/external changes. This must be balanced with the active management of development due to the pivotal role that Saudi Arabian universities play in the achievement of sustainable, comprehensive development, and the 2030 vision of the Kingdom under new university regulations. This necessitates leaders to assume a transformational leadership approach with its four dimensions (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration), as this style of leadership is associated with the ability to keep up with rapid developments while influencing the behavior of organizational members and improving their capabilities through encouragement, involvement in problem-solving, empowerment, and participation in decision-making.

Methodology

In this study, the documentary research approach was used to review administrative literature on the theory of transformational leadership, its concepts, historical roots, tasks, and dimensions. The study also reviewed empirical research on the organizational effects of transformational leadership. Finally, a systematic review of the practice of transformational leadership among the academic leaders in the public universities of Saudi was conducted through extensive research on Arabic and English literature in academic online databases. The resources accessed contained a wealth of information databases available on “Google Scholar” and the “Saudi Digital Library,” such as Proquest, Sage Business Cases, Dar Almandoumah, Almanhal, Arabic Book Collection, and e-Marefa. These databases were chosen due to their comprehensive lists of studies on transformational leadership carried out in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, thus encompassing the target population of the academic leaders in Saudi Arabian universities.

The systematic review of transformational leadership and its predicted organizational outcomes has been screened and skimmed by doing a thematic analysis using NVIVO 11 (QSR International, Melbourne, Australia). The contextual and thematic analyses were organized to see the most required organizational outcome in the studies conducted in Saudi Arabian universities between 2011 and 2020. Twenty-two studies on the scope and application of transformational leadership in Saudi Arabian universities were obtained as seen in Figure 1 . The extraction of data included: the author, journal, study design, study sample, study measurement tools, measures of validity and reliability, independent and dependent variables, methods of statistical analysis, and study results with respect to the practice of transformational leadership among the academic leaders in Saudi Arabian universities. The regulatory and behavioral implications were also considered.

Figure 1 . Prisma flow diagram (2011–2020).

A Systematic Review of Literature Findings

In this section of the study, we discuss several recent studies published between 2011 and 2020 that investigated the practice of transformational leadership in Saudi Arabian universities. The goal of this is to explore the extent of the application of transformational leadership, as well as its organizational and behavioral implications.

Quantitative Literature Findings

Initially, the studies obtained through the databases were reviewed to ensure that they followed robust scientific methodological procedures. Accordingly, 22 studies were included as shown in Table 1 , summarizing the study sample, degree of response, validity and reliability measurements of the study tool, and statistical methods used in the study.

Table 1 . Characteristics of the literature studies.

Using Likert Scale and Mean Score of Response Rate (Likert Scale)

The arithmetic means and SD were calculated to measure the degree of response of the sample individuals, as well as to gauge their opinions on the paragraphs of transformational leadership dimensions featured in the questionnaires of the studies that were applied to Saudi Arabian universities. With regards to determining the level of transformational leadership practice, a criterion divided into three equal categories was adopted, where the value was calculated by dividing the difference between the upper and lower value of the scale into three degrees and filling the number of levels [(5–1)/3 = 1.33]. The three categories were divided into the low level (1–2.33), medium level (2.34–3.67), and high level (3.68–5). Reviewing the field studies conducted on the public universities in Saudi provides a clear summary of the current evidence on the topic of transformational leadership practices over 10 years. Table 2 shows the synthesis of studies according to a measurement scale of the “level of practice.” The results show that the studies investigated transformational leadership practices and that the level of practices found in the sample on the four dimensions of transformational leadership—idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration—ranged between two levels such as high and medium. This indicates that there is a high level of agreement among the participants from different studies on the level of practice of transformational leadership of academic leaders. In light of the earlier discussion on transformational leadership, its characteristics, and positive effects, this finding suggests that the academic leaders believed that this method fits the organizational work environment in their universities and their improvement objectives to achieve the vision of Saudi Arabian universities on development, effectiveness, quality, and academic excellence.

Table 2 . The mean score of the opinions of the participants of the studies on the extent to which their managers possess transformational leadership characteristics within the dimensions of idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration.

Correlation Coefficient Between Transformational Leadership and Organizational Outcomes

Table 3 shows the results of the review of studies regarding the organizational and behavioral effects of the practice of transformational leadership by leaders in Saudi Arabian universities in its various dimensions: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. The results indicate that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between the practice of transformational leadership and employee empowerment, employee creativity, managerial creativity, knowledge consultation, and the practice of knowledge management (obtaining knowledge, sharing knowledge, organizational learning), organizational commitment, job enrichment, morale, the level of job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, orientation toward change to achieve the 2030 vision of the Kingdom, and the level of transformation toward quality. These results, which indicate that the practice of transformational administrative leadership in Saudi Arabian universities has positive effects, are similar to the previous studies that have been mentioned in the review of the literature.

Table 3 . Linkages between transformational leadership and organizational outcomes.

Qualitative (Thematic and Contextual) Findings Using NVIVO

After screening the systematic review of the literature studies, this study extracted the thematic linkages of transformational leadership with organizational outcomes. The thematic linkages have been found and extracted from the literature studies in Saudi Arabian universities. The next step was organized to develop different “nodes” from the themes of the linkages between transformational leadership and organizational outcomes. Therefore, the present research followed the step by step procedure of NVIVO data analysis as suggested by Alabri et al. (unpublished) in the following circumstances:

1. Converting audio interviews into manuscripts.

2. Unorganized transcription converted into organized manuscripts.

3. Data coding.

4. Generating “themes” and developing “Nodes.”

5. Generating “treemaps” and “charts.”

6. Applying contextual queries:

I. A text search query for “ word tree”

II. Word frequency query for “ tag clouds”

III. Coding queries for “ textual data codes in each theme”

Figure 2 shows the coding of both the (1) source (S) and (2) reference (R) against generating each theme. The S and R are explained below:

Figure 2 . Nodes of contextual linkages.

• Source (S): It demonstrates the numbers (frequency) of the participants who provided information about a particular theme (factor).

• Reference (R): It demonstrates the total number of themes coded in a particular factor about a particular participant. The total number of R is greater than the total number of S because sometimes, one participant talks about a particular theme twice. It means that the present study codes the participant discussion on one theme twice as R and the participant as S.

Figure 2 presents the coding nodes of the linkages between transformational leadership and organizational outcomes. The links between transformational leadership and different organizational outcomes have been identified in literature studies in the public sector universities in Saudi Arabia. For example, the total source of the coding was S = 22 research articles in public Universities. Additionally, the references of the coding were R = 195. The nodes of the linkage (S = 4, R = 15) for transformational leadership and organizational citizenship (S = 5, R = 22), for transformational leadership and job satisfaction (S = 7, R = 24), for transformational leadership and empowerment (S = 2, R = 7), for transformational leadership and moral (S = 1, R = 5), for transformational leadership and job enrichment (S = 9, R = 39), for transformational leadership and organizational commitment (S = 4, R = 43), administrative creativity and (S = 5, R = 40) for transformational leadership and knowledge management practices. This shows that most of the studies in Saudi Arabian universities had been conducted to assess the organizational commitment (emotional attachment) of the professors in these Universities.

Hierarchy Chart

The hierarchy charts help the readers to visualize the coding patterns and see the values attributing to the cases and sources. Hierarchy charts are proven to be beneficial when the readers aim to explore the views on data and show different opinions. There are two types of charts including hierarchy charts and treemaps. A treemap is used to analyze hierarchies and compare them according to their sizes in data aspects. In addition, it is easier to compare with the rectangular shape of the hierarchy chart than curved shapes. Therefore, in Figure 3 , the readers can see and finally analyze that the literature studies that mostly shed light on the linkages between transformational leadership and administrative creativity in the public universities of Saudi Arabia. Second, the researchers focused on the knowledge management practices of the transformational leaders in the public universities of Saudi Arabia. Third, the researchers explored the impact of transformational leadership on organizational commitment. Fourth, the researchers focused on individual empowerment to lead the University culture into the most advanced. Fifth, job satisfaction was assessed by hiring transformational leaders in public universities. Job enrichment was the factor that the researchers focused on the least in the public universities of Saudi Arabia.

Figure 3 . Hierarchy chart.

The treemap is a diagram presenting hierarchical segments into a set of nested rectangles of different values and sizes. The reader can use a rectangular size to understand the number of coding in each node. A treemap was used to verify the best-defined area in rectangular form and to link the factors. The larger areas are presented on the left side and the smaller rectangular areas are presented on the right side (as shown in Figure 4 ). The words “leadership” and “transformational” were mostly used in the studies on the public universities of Saudi Arabia and the weightage of the words was 2.39 and 1.73%, respectively. However, organizational commitment and knowledge management were the second-highest practices in the public universities, and the weightage of the words was 0.75 and 0.60%, respectively, etc. Therefore, the reader can easily imagine the values counted for the rectangular areas in the treemap and the weightage percentage.

Figure 4 . Treemap.

This study presents the results of the word cloud by applying the technique of word frequency query ( Figure 5 ). The word cloud signifies the words in the study which were mostly used by the researchers and social scientists in their studies. It highlights the words “transformational leadership” which was mostly applied in the studies on public universities. Second, the organizational commitment was the second-highest base of the public universities in Saudi Arabia.

Figure 5 . Word cloud query.

A mind map was used to brainstorm the ideas of the researchers defined in the studies. The mind map depicts the thinking level from a single theme and is casually presented immediately and spontaneously. Mind maps can be used to explore the related linkages between transformational leadership and organizational outcomes such as organizational commitment, job satisfaction, administrative creativity, organizational citizenship behavior, job enrichment, individual empowerment, morale, and knowledge management practices ( Figure 6 ). Therefore, the main thematic base is transformational leadership that explores the multiple sub-themes including the parent nodes and child nodes. This study also presents the text search queries (as shown in Appendixes ).

Figure 6 . Mind map.

Administrative leadership has been greatly affected by global changes at both organizational and national levels. Therefore, the need for an innovative leader who can lead the development and adapt to various changes in the globalized and continuously changing world has become vital in government and private organizations, particularly as it relates to a leadership capable of managing transformations and transforming visions into action. Interestingly, transformational leadership behavior has become a basic requirement for all organizations that aim for continuity and excellence. Therefore, instilling transformational leadership can now be viewed as a prerequisite for managers at various administrative levels. This approach aids in the development and adaptation of different environmental challenges, while also motivating the followers to achieve the goals of their organizations effectively and efficiently.

As shown in this study, it has been established that transformational leadership has certain dimensions and characteristics, which may be personal or those that deal with others within an organization or its surrounding environment. These characteristics, whenever found in the leaders of an organization, give a strong indication of how effectively an organization is approaching its goal, maintaining development, and dealing with internal and external environmental challenges. This is what government and private organizations alike need to transform into advanced organizations that adapt to changing environments in all dimensions, may they be social, economic, cultural, political, informational, or technological. The results show 22 studies that investigated transformational leadership practices in Saudi Arabian public universities. The levels of practice of the four aforementioned dimensions of transformational leadership found in the sample ranged between two levels. Interestingly, the organizational commitment was found to have the highest leverage (9 studies out of 22 of the conducted research in the public Universities of Saudi Arabia). It shows that the researchers practiced transformational leadership to assess the organizational commitment (emotional attachment) of the faculty members in Saudi Arabian Universities ( Dubinsky et al., 1995 ; Bruch and Walter, 2007 ; Tengi et al., 2017 ; Purnomo and Novalia, 2018 ). Furthermore, organizational commitment was proven to be the most critical and researched behavior in Saudi Arabian Universities ( Al Ubiri, 2016 ).

Out of 22, seven studies found that transformational leadership had a significant contribution to individual empowerment (Alsomaly and Metoly, unpublished). It means that empowerment is the second highest and critical behavior of the individuals in Saudi Arabian public universities such that the researchers have examined it in latest two decades. Out of 22, five studies have been found concerning the linkages between transformational leadership and both job satisfaction ( Penger and Cerne, 2014 ) and knowledge management practices ( Tuan, 2013 ). This means that job satisfaction and knowledge management practices were parallel and offered the same opportunity for researchers to explore them by using transformational leaders. Additionally, out of 22, four studies were conducted on the linkages between transformational leadership and both organizational citizenship behavior ( Al Ubiri, 2016 ) and administrative creativity ( Ayyad, 2013 ; Al Rashidi, 2017 ; Atoum, 2018 ). This shows that in terms of the importance of the predicted variables, these behavioral factors were the least important in Saudi Arabian Universities and were quite different from the actual behavioral tendencies (Alsomaly and Metoly, unpublished). The least important behavioral tendencies such as morale and job enrichment have been studied in the context of Saudi Arabian Universities by hiring transformational leaders.

The findings of the studies asserted the importance of transformational leadership practice as a leadership method in government universities due to its characteristics that are most suitable for the development of the universities, and its multiple positive effects on the organizational structure of universities, the behavior of their employees, their job performance, the quality of academic research, and community service outcomes. The results are consistent with the studies: each dimension of transformational leadership significantly contributes to the actual performance of the academic educational institutions because all dimensions have motivational and cognitive abilities which are considered necessary for the development and assessment of academic performance ( Al Gabri, 2018 ); transformational leadership in Saudi Arabian public institutions promotes higher levels of staff opinions and generates higher academic performance ( Al Amiri, 2002 ); it has the best practices in developing and generating novel ideas that enable the process of knowledge sharing in terms of knowledge management ( Al Madhahaji, 2017 ); it is the best practice to satisfy the employees at a workplace and in turn, the employees do more to compensate their goodwill so there is a higher job satisfaction in educational institutions ( Al Mandil and Shawi, 2018 ) as well as in Saudi Arabian technical educational institutions ( Al Miman, 2013 ); it has an influential effect on organizational creativity in terms of knowledge sharing practices, developing novel ideas, and doing best practices and processes in private and public higher institutions in Riyadh ( Al Rashidi, 2017 ); it enables corporate social responsibility among the faculty members of King Saud University ( Al Regeb, 2017 ); it helps to empower the knowledge management system in Saudi Arabian public universities ( Al Saleh, 2019 ); and it is the ultimate antecedent of both organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior ( Al Ubiri, 2016 ) because it enhances faculty commitment and citizenship behaviors among the faculty members of public higher institutions. The results also showed that the level of transformational leadership practice in Saudi universities is mostly high and that several recommendations were made to enhance the practice of this leadership method in a way that helps improve the government universities, enabling them to effectively achieve their goals. These recommendations can be summarized as follows:

• The necessity of providing an appropriate supportive environment for university leaders to practice transformational leadership in its various dimensions and to motivate, encourage, and empower leaders at all organizational levels in the interest of change and development. It is also important to develop and nurture the skills and leadership characteristics of the members of an organization through material and moral incentives. It can be seen that the personal characteristics and individual capabilities that exist in academic leaders create an encouraging environment that fosters the practice of transformational leadership while developing academic departments, influencing the performance of their fellow faculty members, and building new cohorts of leaders ( Al Gabri, 2018 ; Al Shammari, 2020 ; Al Zahrani, 2020 ).

It is important to develop the generalized and transformational thinking skills of academic leaders, along with providing specialized training programs and mandatory workshops on the various dimensions, skills, and behaviors of transformational leadership for university leaders, using the best global practices and programs in which the leaders from the different universities can exchange experiences ( Ayyad, 2013 ; Burqan, 2013 ; Al-Shammari, 2015 ; Al Madhahaji, 2017 ; Al Rashidi, 2017 ; Al Gabri, 2018 ; Al Saleh, 2019 ; Al Zahrani, 2019 ; Al Shammari, 2020 ).

• Considering the characteristics of transformational leadership as an important trait when appointing new academic leaders at universities, and setting specific measures by which people who have transformational leadership credentials are chosen. Accordingly, those individuals must have inspirational personalities that stimulate and motivate the employees and ultimately, become efficient leaders capable of creating a clear future vision. This highlights the importance of establishing clear criteria for selecting leaders in universities and involving experienced faculty members in the process of selecting academic leaders ( Ayyad, 2013 ; Al Ubiri, 2016 ; Al Sharari, 2017 ; Al Mandil and Shawi, 2018 ; Al Saleh, 2019 ; Wazrah, 2019 ).

• Activating the role of academic leaders in transforming knowledge into a competitive advantage by employing the dimensions of transformational leadership with its positive impact on knowledge sharing and organizational learning. Focusing on their role in elevating the trends of knowledge sharing, exercising idealized influence, motivating faculty members to share their knowledge and experience, providing intellectual stimulation for more creativity and innovation, and supporting them to excel in administrative and academic work and training ( Al Madhahaji, 2017 ; Al Zahrani, 2019 ).

• University leaders must exhibit transparency and justice in all administrative aspects and decisions while reaching high levels of proficiency and discipline in work. This is achieved through participation in decision-making and understanding the implications of those decisions on the workers. The leaders must be role models in their behavior and discipline at work in order for the workers to learn these values. Universities must ensure that academic leaders lead by example and exhibit exemplar behaviors, practices, and decisions that serve the public interest ( Al Regeb, 2017 ; Al Aklibi, 2019 ; Al Zahrani, 2020 ).

• Leaders must appreciate the efforts of employees, encourage and inspire them to succeed, and give them enough freedom to find new solutions to existing problems. This kind of approach leads to success in creative thinking and employee empowerment. It is also necessary that the transformational leadership methodology and administrative creativity are in harmony with the strategic goals of universities ( Al Subaie, 2013 ; Atoum, 2018 ; Somali and Motwali, 2018 ).

• A supportive organizational environment for transformational leaders must be established in Saudi Arabian universities to attract creative minds. More work is needed to conduct meetings and scientific seminars that promote the application of the transformational leadership dimensions by university leaders, and work to create an organizational culture that is consistent with the requirements of transformational leadership, encouraging creative ideas, team spirit, accountability, and exemplary work values ( Al Regeb, 2017 ; Al Rashidi, 2017 ; Al Aklibi, 2019 ).

• Finally, it is recommended that effort be put into measuring the level of job satisfaction and the morale of organization members while promoting the practice of transformational leadership among leaders. Such an approach is considered as one of the factors that help in raising the levels of job satisfaction and morale among faculty and administrators, while also helping universities to achieve their goals ( Al Miman, 2013 ; Al Mandil and Shawi, 2018 ; Al Zahrani, 2020 ).

Organizations need transformational leaders who believe in the culture of change and development and seek such a culture with sincerity and determination. The characteristics of the leader and the application of the transformational leadership dimensions are positively correlated with the commitment of the followers to achieve goals in a framework of trust, shared values, and a shared vision. The dimensions can be summarized in the following points:

(a) Leaders must have a clear vision and mission, consistent values, high standards, and a clear sense of purpose, confidence in self and others, and the ability to gain the trust and respect of followers. They must also demonstrate the importance of the human element in development and progress by paying attention to the needs of individuals, harnessing the potentials of said individuals, and aiding individuals in self-improvement and achievement.

(b) Leaders must pursue new ideas and approaches to getting a job done effectively. This entails influencing the motivation and enthusiasm of the team with charisma, exhibiting exemplary behavior, inspiring, and providing creative encouragement and intellectual stimulation.

(c) Leaders must demonstrate individual traits, such as the ability to focus, pay attention, change, and take risks by establishing consistency between words and actions. They must also set an example in handling workloads, and demonstrate the ability to communicate and reach out to others by showing empathy and maintaining a high degree of harmony and cooperation between the members of the group to raise the morale among the members.

Following a review of both theoretical and empirical research in the field, this study has found that this pattern of administrative leadership, “transformational leadership,” has multiple positive effects on individuals and the organizations for which they work. Accordingly, transformational leaders can motivate their followers to develop feelings of acceptance, take greater ownership of their work, and transfer their personal interests to a collective interest that is integrated into the interests of their organizations, leading to higher levels of organizational commitment. Adopting transformational leadership techniques also allows for integration, harmony, learning, and innovation in human resource management. Transformational leadership positively affects organizational health and can be used as an intervention technique to improve the organizational environment, ultimately affecting performance levels.

Transformational leadership has a positive impact on many behavioral variables, including job satisfaction among organization members, the sense of organizational justice among followers, organizational citizenship behavior, follower motivations, and emotional commitment to change and to the organization (i.e., facing the negative consequences of work stress, creating a positive work environment, and spreading optimism). In addition, the transformational leadership style is teachable. As such, it is possible to hold training courses for followers at various organizational levels to deepen their awareness of the concept of transformational leadership behavior to help foster the rapid internalization of such ideals in various organizations. This could lead to performance improvement at the organizational level, preparing firms better to confront new challenges head-on.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/ Supplementary Material , further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks the Deanship of Scientific Research and RSSU at King Saud University for their technical support and funding.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.682092/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords: transformational leadership, the effects of transformational leadership, Saudi public universities, academic leadership, organizational sustainability

Citation: Saad Alessa G (2021) The Dimensions of Transformational Leadership and Its Organizational Effects in Public Universities in Saudi Arabia: A Systematic Review. Front. Psychol. 12:682092. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.682092

Received: 17 March 2021; Accepted: 20 September 2021; Published: 10 November 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Saad Alessa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Ghuzayyil Saad Alessa, galaisa@ksu.edu.sa ; orcid.org/0000-0002-1150-7152

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Transformational leadership: is this still relevant to clinical leaders?

Affiliations.

• 1 ST8 Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, East Midlands South, Integrated Paediatric Respiratory Fellow, Health Education East Midlands, Leicester LE3 5LW.
• 2 Professor of Medical Education and Director of Strategic Educational Development, Swansea University Medical School, Swansea.
• 3 Psychiatric Core Trainee, Health Education North West (Mersey), Leadership and Management Fellow, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, Swansea University Medical School, National Medical Director's Clinical Fellow 2016-17.
• PMID: 29894243
• DOI: 10.12968/hmed.2018.79.6.344

Transformational leadership theory has been at the centre of health-care leadership research for the past three decades, has had a tangible influence on the evolution of NHS leadership development strategies, and is still evident in current frameworks. This article provides an overview of the key concepts and weaknesses of transformational leadership theory and discusses its relevance within the context of the NHS working environment.

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Green transformational leadership and employee organizational citizenship behavior for the environment in the manufacturing industry: A social information processing perspective

1 Department of Police Management, Sichuan Police College, Luzhou, China

2 School of Economics and Management, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China

Associated Data

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

The employee organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE) contributes to the improvement of the organization’s environment, its study is increasing in number. However, the psychological mechanism of promoting employee OCBE is still a missing link. Drawing on the theory of social information processing, this study seeks to establish the impact of green transformational leadership on employee OCBE and the mediating role of green organizational climate in this nexus. In addition, we have integrated environmental concerns to better explain the impact of this differentiation. The results show that: green transformational leadership has a significant positive impact on employee OCBE, and green organizational climate has a mediating effect on the impact of green transformational leadership on employee OCBE. Furthermore, environmental concern not only has a positive moderating effect on the influence of green transformational leadership on green organizational climate, but also positively moderates the impact of the influence of green transformational leadership on employee OCBE. This paper reveals the internal psychological mechanism of improving employee OCBE and provides ideas for promoting the sustainable development of enterprises.

Introduction

With rapid economic development, resource consumption and environmental problems have become increasingly severe, with environmental protection becoming one of the most urgent social priorities throughout the world ( Ones and Dilchert, 2012 ; Imbrogiano and Nichols, 2021 ). Academia discussed how to improve organizational environmental performance from formal environmental management control and informal environmental management control perspectives ( Pondeville et al., 2013 ). Meanwhile, it is undeniable that employee organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE) is one of the important paths to environmental sustainability ( Khan and Khan, 2022 ). OCBE as a voluntary green behavior is not explicitly recognized by the official reward system but helps organizations to carry out more effective environmental management ( Boiral, 2009 ). When employee exhibits OCBE, they participate in voluntary environmental actions beyond work requirements ( Daily et al., 2009 ; Ojo and Fauzi, 2020 ). A growing number of studies also shown that environmental management practices can only be sustainable when they are supported by the participation of employees ( Paillé et al., 2013 ; Pinzone et al., 2015 ). However, the discussion on the antecedents of employee OCBE is still insufficient ( Andersson et al., 2013 ; Nurwahdah and Muafi, 2022 ). This article specifically attempts to address what factors affect employee environmental organizational citizenship behavior and how they work.

Leadership is one of the main factors affecting employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Accordingly, scholars have studied different leadership styles affect employee OCBE. For example, Zhang et al. (2016) found that supervisors’ ethical leadership have a positive relationship with organizational environmental citizenship behavior, this research was echoed in a follow-up research by Khan et al. (2019) and Saleem et al. (2020) ; Moreover, Luu (2019 , 2020) indicated environmentally specific charismatic leadership and environmentally specific servant leadership demonstrated a role in shaping employee OCBE. Nurwahdah and Muafi (2022) indicated that green transformational leadership has a significant impact on employee green organizational citizenship behavior. It should be noted that some scholars emphasized that transformational leadership could promote employee OCB better than transactional leadership or other leadership styles ( Podsakoff et al., 1990 , 2003 ). Similarly, the advantages of environmental transformational leadership are reflected in the green leadership literature ( Egri and Herman, 2000 ; Robertson and Barling, 2017 ). Green transformational leadership refers to the extension of transformational leadership style to the field of environmental protection, which can motivate subordinates to exceed the expected environmental goals ( Chen and Chang, 2013 ). This leadership style is critical to employees’ pro-environment behaviors in the workplace ( Robertson and Barling, 2013 ). When leaders adopt democratic and open communication on matters related to the environment, employees are more willing to take environmental measures ( Ramus and Steger, 2000 ; Ramus, 2001 ). Therefore, the encouragement and support of environmental protection initiatives by green transformational leaders can motivate employee to actively engage in green behaviors ( Chen and Chang, 2013 ; Robertson and Barling, 2013 ). However, these studies have not been able to reveal enough about the potential mechanisms that affect employee OCBE, there is a lack of in-depth discussion on the process and boundary conditions despite the fact that existing studies have provide a preliminary insight into the role of leaders in predicting OCBE.

At the same time, most studies in the green leadership literature have focused on the perspective of normative behavior theory ( Norton et al., 2014 ; Robertson and Carleton, 2017 ), the theory of planned behavior ( Omarova and Jo, 2022 ); social exchange perspective ( Daily et al., 2009 ; Paille and Boiral, 2013 ) and sociological learning theories ( Khan et al., 2019 ; Saleem et al., 2020 ). These views provide a valid explanation for understanding how leadership style affects employees’ positive environmental behaviors but ignore the role of social information processing theory. Social information processing theory states that individuals must weigh their own judgments when processing different information, which can be affected by surrounding events and social interaction ( Schneide et al., 1998 ). Therefore, when employees observe that people around them are engaged in positive environmental behaviors, they may also engage in these positive green behaviors through social interaction with leaders or colleagues out of the desire to integrate, establish or strengthen social relations with people around them, which helps to form a green organizational climate ( Kim et al., 2017 ; Khan and Khan, 2022 ). Green organizational climate refers to the atmosphere formed by a series of sustainable development policies implemented by the organization, that is, employees’ common views on the organization’s environmental management policies, practices, and processes ( Zientara and Zamojska, 2016 ). Green transformational leadership helps organization members understand the concept of environmental protection through the green guidance of organizational policies and personal behaviors ( Zhou et al., 2018 ; Khan and Khan, 2022 ). This kind of leadership contributes to the formation of green organizational climate and promotes the generation of employee environmental behaviors ( Khan et al., 2019 ). Therefore, this study selects green organizational climate as the mediator variable in explaining the impact of green transformational leadership on employee OCBE.

In addition, situational factors have a significant impact on organizational and individual behaviors and may even be embedded. The rise of new environmental paradigms has stimulated scholars’ interest in understanding how people view and pay attention to environmental issues ( Zhu et al., 2020 ). Environmental concern represents an individuals’ concern for and understanding of environmental problems, as well as their willingness to solve problems and make efforts ( Daily et al., 2009 ). Studies have shown that managers’ environmental awareness explains enterprises’ environmental behavior from an internal micro perspective and is an important factor influencing enterprises’ green practices ( Stern and Dietz, 1994 ; Zhang et al., 2015 ). Managers with higher environmental awareness and concern tend to assume higher social/environmental responsibilities, actively deal with environmental problems, and produce environmentally friendly behavior ( Tseng et al., 2013 ). Omarova and Jo (2022) proposed environmental awareness mediated the relationship between environmental leadership and employee pro-environmental behavior from the theory of planned behavior. But Bamberg (2003) believes that environmental concern should be an indirect factor rather than a direct factor in the process of influencing environmental behavior. Because it works by influencing the production of context-specific cognition. This view is echoed in the work of Saleem et al. (2020) , so as Cao and Chen (2019) . Therefore, this paper selects environmental concern as a moderating variable to explore the role of green transformational leadership in the green organizational climate and employee OCBE.

Based on the above discussion, this study took green organizational climate as the mediator variable, introduced the moderating variable of environmental concern, respectively, analyzed and investigated the impacts of green transformational leadership on employee OCBE, to provide better guidance for theoretical research and organizational practice. The hypothetical framework is shown in Figure 1 .

The proposed model of the study.

Theoretical background and hypothesis

Green transformational leadership and employee ocbe.

OCBE is a kind of spontaneous out-of-role behavior ( Boiral, 2009 ; Paillé et al., 2013 ; Khan and Khan, 2022 ), that is usually not rewarded or required by the formal system of an organization. Thus, it is a kind of voluntary behavior outside the work tasks and responsibilities ( Ehrhart and Naumann, 2004 ). However, it can effectively supplement the defects and deficiencies of the formal environmental management system ( Boiral, 2009 ; Daily et al., 2009 ) to promote the green development of an organization. Green transformational leadership is an extension and application of transformational leadership theory in the field of environmental responsibility. It mainly focuses on encouraging and supporting proactive environmental protection measures to motivate individuals and organizations to collectively produce environmental behaviors beyond expectations and achieve environmental goals ( Chen and Chang, 2013 ; Robertson and Barling, 2013 ; Saifulina and Carballopenela, 2017 ). According to its characteristics and connotations, Robertson and Barling (2013) divided it into four aspects: environmental idealized influence, environmental inspirational motivation, environmental intellectual stimulation and environmental individualized consideration Robertson.

Green transformational leadership influences employee voluntary pro-environment behaviors through internal motivations and emotional states ( Graves et al., 2013 ; Robertson, 2017 ). Specifically, green transformational leaders can be an example in organizations for employees to get used to a working system that can care about the environment ( Srour et al., 2020 ), exert an idealized influence of environmental protection, advocate and practice environmental protection concepts to create a “role model” effect, and shape behaviors that are consistent with environmental vision ( Robertson and Barling, 2013 ). Importantly, in these processes, environmental inspirational motivation can convey signals to employees that environmental protection must be prioritized, as it can build confidence environmental passion ( Li et al., 2020 ) which can inspire employees to think about environmental issues ( Robertson and Barling, 2013 ). At the same time, green transformational leaders provide necessary resources (organizational structure, staffing and technical support, etc.) in the workplace to develop employees’ potential and skills, it related to environmental protection and improve their ability to think of solutions to environmental problems through environmental intellectual stimulation ( Robertson and Barling, 2013 ; Zhou et al., 2018 ). In addition, through personal care for environmental protection, employees can be empowered to undertake challenging environmental protection work and responsibilities ( Robertson and Barling, 2017 ), thus enhancing their control ( Afsar et al., 2019 ), and the opportunity/ability of OCBE. Based on the abovementioned ideas, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1 : Green transformational leadership will be positively associated with employee OCBE.

The mediating role green organizational climate

Green organizational climate refers to the atmosphere formed by a series of sustainable development policies implemented by the organization, that is, employees’ common views on the organization’s environmental management policies, practices, and processes ( Zientara and Zamojska, 2016 ). Meanwhile, green organizational climate shapes an implicit code of conduct. It shows which behaviors are effective and appropriate, and which do not meet the expectations/requirements of the organization ( Norton et al., 2017 ). This comes from the precondition of atmosphere formation. Organizational climates are formed by individuals in interactive learning, and in this process, the formation organizational climate also depends on the behaviors of employees’ superiors or managers and how they explain the framework of policy formulation to the former ( Kuenzi and Schminke, 2009 ). Following the conceptualization of social information processing theory, individuals often receive multiple information sources in the workplace and seek to explain uncertain information around them through social interaction ( Schneide et al., 1998 ). When employees face the dilemma of how to balance economic goals and environmental goals, green change leaders can guide employees to clearly perceive the organization’s environmental value orientation and strategic goals ( Robertson and Carleton, 2017 ; Zhou et al., 2018 ). Specifically, in organizational environmental management practices, green transformational leaders convey environmental values through the issuance of policy statements, assignment of environmental tasks to subordinates, and explaining the reasons for the specific plans of the organization ( Zientara and Zamojska, 2016 ). A positive green cultural climate can be created among different levels by building a common vision within the group ( Alt and Spitzeck, 2016 ). Therefore, the formation of green organizational climate is influenced by the attention and support of managers to environmental management policies ( Kuenzi and Schminke, 2009 ). At the same time, green transformational leadership has a demonstration effect on employees’ behaviors, providing organizational members with charisma and the representation of direct observational learning. This can shift their focus from the one-way influence of formal leadership, enabling them to feel the collective influence of the organization.

Green organizational climate can induce employee green behavior by allowing them to conduct social interactions (staff with colleagues, staff and leadership) with extra effort and in ways that are consistent with environmental protection behaviors ( Pondeville et al., 2013 ; Khan et al., 2019 ). On the one hand, the process of social interaction will strengthen employees’ social learning, through their actions and behaviors, and participate in environmental protection behaviors, such as recycling, energy conservation and encouraging others to protect the environment ( Khan et al., 2019 ). On the other hand, the atmosphere of implementing environmental protection practices can affect employees’ environmental resonance ( Zientara and Zamojska, 2016 ; Biswas et al., 2022 ). These can promote the implementation of employee green behaviors by green transformational leadership establishing a common environmental vision among members ( Graves et al., 2013 ; Alt and Spitzeck, 2016 ). This comes from the environmental values and environmental protection practices displayed by green transformational leadership can be easily perceived by employees. Further, a transmission of psychological resources after information processing can be internalized. Such an influence process can create an atmosphere that encourages employee OCBE and the formation of a relatively consistent environmental orientation in the group ( Saez-Martinez et al., 2016 ). This also can promote mutual dependence and learning among members, thus motivating their colleagues to produce OCBE ( Ramus and Steger, 2000 ; Zientara and Zamojska, 2016 ). Based on this information, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2 : Green organizational climate has a mediating effect on the relationship between green transformational leadership and employee OCBE.

The moderating role of environmental concern

Environmental concern represents an individuals’ concern for and understanding of environmental problems, as well as their willingness to solve problems and make efforts ( Daily et al., 2009 ). Under the new environment paradigm, managers’ inherent values and beliefs are different, and their choices of corporate environmental behaviors may also vary. Managers with a higher degree of environmental concern are more likely to realize the seriousness and urgency of environmental problems. They are also more inclined to emphasize common environmental goals and emotions in their work, thus improving collective environmental awareness among organization members and intensifying the formation of green organizational climates ( Ardoin et al., 2015 ). This can also be achieved by initiating and participating in environmental cooperation as well as sharing and exchanging relevant environmental knowledge through open discussion. All these efforts can create a more pro-environment organizational climate ( Norton et al., 2017 ). At the same time, high environmental concern means that managers are better able to actively acquire and master relevant information to help the organization better deal with uncertainties/risks ( Cao and Chen, 2019 ). Environmental policies formulated under this condition are more likely to gain support and trust, and thus more likely to form a consensus on environmental issues ( Todaro et al., 2019 ; Luu, 2020 ). On the contrary, low environmental concern makes it difficult for organization members to feel its firm determination to solve environmental problems, and they may even detect hesitation. It is not conducive to the formation of a strong organizational climates ( Ojo and Fauzi, 2020 ). Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H3 : The higher its environmental concern, the stronger the impact of green transformational leadership on green organizational climate.

Accordingly, employees will selectively engage in behaviors supported by leaders due to the latter’ environmental concern. In turn, this will directly affect whether employees are willing to make additional environmental protection efforts ( Daily et al., 2009 ). Research shows that attitude is a direct predictor of actual behavior, and those managers who pay more attention to the environment are more likely to change from being in the initial consciousness stage to possessing deeper values. Such leaders take the initiative in environmental protection behavior by setting an example and inducing a role model effect in their work ( Boiral et al., 2015 ). To a certain extent, it is easier to form descriptive norms, convey strong environmental value orientation to organization members, and clarify to the employees the corresponding behavior scope, which can motivate them to take the initiative in environmental protection efforts ( Dumont et al., 2017 ). Based on such information, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H4 : The higher the environmental concern, the stronger the influence of green transformational leadership on OCBE.

Materials and methods

Participants and procedures.

The data collection was conducted in two ways: on-site and online. Questionnaires were collected from manufacturing enterprises in Southwest and Eastern China engaged in electronics and information, biotechnology, environmental protection and other high-tech fields. Middle and senior managers and grass-roots managers related to environmental management were selected as the study’s subjects. Considering the availability and validity of data, the nearest sampling method and target sampling method in non-probability sampling were mainly used to distribute questionnaires. First, a small sample test was conducted, and items with factor loadings lower than 0.5 were removed before the formal questionnaires were issued. Finally, 377 questionnaires were obtained, from which 312 valid samples were retained after excluding those with missing information samples, abnormal samples, and samples of industries and positions that did not conform to the scope of the research object.

Among the respondents, male managers accounted for 73.72%, middle managers accounted for 39.42%, and top managers accounted for 26.28%. Furthermore, 76.92% had a bachelor’s degree or above. Regarding ownership of the business, state-owned enterprises accounted for 22.76%. Among the established years of enterprises, 74.68% of the enterprises have been established for 7 years or more, 13.46% for 3–7 years, and 11.86% for less than 3 years. Regarding the scale of enterprises, companies with less than 100, 101–500, 501–1,000, and over 1,000 employees comprised 28.53, 28.53, 28.85, 11.22, and 31.41% of the sample, respectively.

In this study, a foreign maturity scale with good credibility validity in existing literature was selected as the measurement scale. After it was translated into Chinese, two English doctors were invited to back-translate the scale. After discussion with three enterprise managers, the final scale was formed. A 5-point Likert subscale was used for all scales (5 = “strongly agree” and 1 = “strongly disagree”).

Measurement of green transformational leadership

The research scale of green transformational leadership was adopted form Robertson and Barling (2013) , who used a research scale with 8 items. A sample item is “Leader communicates a clear and positive vision of the future.” Its Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.928, the composite reliability (CR) was 0.928, and the average variance extracted (AVE) was 0.618.

Measurement of OCBE

As this paper studied the OCBE of employees at the organizational level, the research scale of OCBE was adopted from Pinzone et al. (2016) and appropriately revised. Eight items were used to measure the contents of environmental active behavior, environmental citizen participation behavior and environmental help behavior. A sample item is “Employees stay informed on environmental activities in the Trust.” Its Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.953, the CR was 0.953, and the AVE was 0.717.

Measurement of environmental concern

The 4-items research scale of environmental concern was adopted by Kim et al. (2017) . In this study, the correlation between the item “plants and animals have as many rights as human beings” and the total score was 0.355. This indicates that this item has weak homogeneity with the overall scale, so it is considered to be removed. Cronbach’s Alpha value of the scale is 0.813, and CR was 0.782, the AVE was 0.545.

Measurement of green organizational climates

The research scale of green organizational climates was adopted by Norton et al. (2014) with four items, and the managers evaluated the overall environment of the enterprise’s green organization. A sample item is “our company is worried about its environmental impact.” Cronbach’s Alpha value of the scale was 0.895, and CR was 0.900, the AVE was 0.695.

Control variables

It has been found that differences in enterprises’ size and nature as well as the managers’ age and educational background have varying impacts on enterprises’ environmental practices. To this end, we took it as a control variable and controlled it in the regression analysis.

Data analysis

The main statistical software used in this study were SPSS23.0 and AMOS24.0. AMOS is mainly used for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and model testing. In the first stage, the polymerization validity of the study was explained by factor load, complex reliability (CR), and average variation extraction (AVE), in accordance with the study of Fornell and Larcker (1981) . Factor loading and AVE must be greater than 0.7 and 0.5, respectively, to indicate that the polymerization validity is relatively ideal. Moreover, the correlation coefficient of variables must be less than the square root of AVE to indicate that the discriminant validity is ideal. We chose chi-squared fit statistic (χ2/df); absolute fitting indexes, including the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA); the standardized root means square residual (SRMR); and the relative fitting indexes, including the comparative fit index (CFI) and the Tucker–Lewis Index (TLI), as the basis for the model fitting test. In the second stage, the relationship between variables was analyzed by hierarchical regression method, and the mediating effect was further verified referred to Hayes (2015) . To enhance the robustness of the effect test, the PROCESS macro plug-in by Hayes (2015) was used in this study to test the mediation effect. If the 95% confidence interval (CI) does not include zero, the mediating effect is significant.

Descriptive statistics

Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics and correlations for the study variables. The mean and standard deviation of each variable show at the data structure is good and that there is no violation of the normal distribution hypothesis.

Descriptive statistics and correlations of study variables.

Tests of hypotheses are two-tailed tests; * p  < 0.05; ** p  < 0.01; GTL green transformational leadership, EC environmental concern, OCBE organizational citizenship behavior for the environment, GOC green organizational climate. The bold value is the arithmetic square root of the AVE value of each variable.

Green transformational leadership correlated moderately with green organizational climates ( r  = 0.604, p  < 0.01) and green organizational climates ( r  = 0.547, p  < 0.01), but is not correlated with environmental concern ( r  = 0.10, p > 0.05). The correlation between the study variables is moderate or weak. The correlation between the study variables is moderate or weak, which supports subsequent hypothesis testing. Supports subsequent hypothesis testing.

Reliability and validity

Table 2 exhibits the discriminant validity. As can be seen, the Cronbach’s α and CR values of each variable are higher than 0.7, the factor loading of each item is higher than 0.7, and all the average variance extracted (AVE) value is higher than 0.5, indicating that the reliability and convergence validity of each scale are good. Moreover, the correlation coefficient between each variable and other variable in the Table 1 is less than square root of AVE for each construct, indicating that the whole measurement tool has good discriminant validity.

The discriminant validity.

We used AMOS24.0 software to conduct CFA. The fitting index of each model is shown in Table 3 . The analysis results indicate that the four-factor model is significantly better than other models. Its goodness of fit (χ2/df = 2.956, RMSEA = 0.079, TLI = 0.913, CFI = 0.925, and SRMR = 0.064), indicate that the entire measurement tool has good discrimination validity.

Confirmatory factor analysis results.

Regression analysis

The hypothesis test of this study used the hierarchical regression method to introduce control variables, green transformational leadership, OCBE and green organizational climates into the equation. The test results are shown in Table 4 . In the collinearity diagnosis results, the highest VIF value of each regression model is 2.629, indicating that the multicollinearity problem among variables is not serious.

Results of hierarchical regression analysis.

Tests of hypotheses are two-tailed tests; * p  < 0.05; ** p  < 0.01; *** p  < 0.001.

From Model 4, it can be seen that after adding control and prediction variables, green transformational leadership can significantly and positively affect OCBE ( β  = 0.680, p  < 0.001), Thus, H1 is verified.

The current study adopted the three-step method proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986) to verify the mediating effect. First, the significant positive impact of green transformational leadership on employee OCBE has been verified. In the second step, as shown by Model 1 in Table 4 , it can be seen that green transformational leadership can significantly and positively affect green organizational climates ( β  = 0.575, p  < 0.001). In the third step, as can be seen from Model 6, after joining green organizational climate, these significantly affect employee OCBE ( β  = 0.474, p  < 0.001), Furthermore, green transformational leadership can still significantly and positively affect employee OCBE, but the significant decline ( β  = 0.407, p  < 0.001), and the adjusted R 2 increases by 0.212. Therefore, green organizational climate plays a partial mediating role between green transformational leadership and employee OCBE. Thus, H2 is verified.

Due to the limitations of the three-step mediating effect test method, this study further uses the bootstrapping analysis to verify the mediating effect. In the specific operation, PROCESS plug-in was used, the number of repeated sampling samples was set at 5000, and the 95% CI of deviation correction bootstrap was obtained. The total, direct, and indirect impact results under the mediating effect are shown in Table 5 . As can be seen, the total impact of green transformational leadership on employee OCBE is 0.743 (LLCI = 0.633, ULCI = 0.852), The direct impact of green transformational leadership on employee OCBE is 0.429 (LLCI = 0.315, ULCI = 0.544), and the indirect impact of green transformational leadership on employee OCBE through green organizational climates is 0.313 (LLCI = 0.222, ULCI = 0.405). The CI does not include 0, further verifying the mediating role of green organizational climates.

Bootstrapping test results of mediating effect.

Next, hierarchical regression was used to test H3. The product terms of independent variables and moderating variables, which were, respectively, standardized, were used to eliminate collinearity. The test results are shown in Table 4 . As shown in Model 3, the product terms of green transformational leadership and environmental concern have a significant positive impact on green organizational climate ( β  = 0.117, p  < 0.05), Furthermore, R 2 increases from 0.317 to 0.327 in Model 2, indicating that environmental concern positively moderates the impact of green transformational leadership on green organizational climate. Thus, H3 is verified. From Model 8, it can be seen that the product terms of green transformational leadership and environmental concern have a significant positive impact on OCBE ( β  = 0.218, p  < 0.001). Meanwhile, R 2 increases from 0.393 to 0.421 in Model 7, indicating that environmental concern positively moderates the impact of green transformational leadership on organizational citizenship behavior. Thus, H4 is verified.

To understand the moderating effect of environmental concern more intuitively, this study used the simple slope analysis method, in which the average value of environmental concern is taken one standard deviation on the left and right, the sample data are divided into high and low environmental concern groups, and then the two groups are regressed, respectively. As shown in Figure 2 , under the condition of high environmental concern, green transformational leadership has a stronger influence on the green organizational climate. In comparison, under the condition of low environmental concern, green transformational leadership has a weak impact on green organizational climate. This finding further verifies that environmental concern positively regulates the impact of green transformational leadership on green organizational climates. As shown in Figure 3 , under the condition of high environmental concern, green transformational leadership has a stronger influence on employee OCBE. Meanwhile, under the condition of low environmental concern, green transformational leadership has a weak impact on employee OCBE. This further verifies that environmental concern positively regulates the impact of green transformational leadership on employee OCBE.

Interaction of GTL and EC on GOC.

Interaction of GTL and EC on OCBE.

This study draws the following conclusions: (1) Green transformational leadership has a significant positive impact on employee OCBE. (2) Green organizational climates play a mediating role between green transformational leadership and employee OCBE, and (3) environmental concern has a positive moderating effect on the influence of green transformational leadership on employee OCBE and green organizational climates.

First, we find that green transformational leadership has a significant positive impact on employee OCBE in Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Leaders as a key factor of enterprise environmental protection, play an important role in influencing employee behavior. However, the existing research on leaders and employee OCBE cannot fully explain such a mechanism. Thus far, most studies on the relationship between green transformational leadership and employee OCBE have focused on the perspective of normative behavior theory ( Norton et al., 2014 ; Robertson and Carleton, 2017 ) and sociological learning theories ( Khan et al., 2019 ). In comparison, the main theoretical basis of this study is the theory of social information processing. According to this theory, individuals shape their attitudes and behaviors according to their social environments ( Schneide et al., 1998 ). As an important information source of employees in the workplace, leaders are bound to have a certain impact on employee behavior. Green transformational leaders serving as “role models” can be felt by employees, which in turn, stimulates their environmental awareness and encourages them to show more proactive environmental behaviors. Therefore, based on the theory of social information processing, this study provides a new perspective for understanding how the intensity of transformational leadership motivates employee OCBE. As for management practice, on the one hand, enterprises can help existing leaders to change their minds and become green transformational leaders by training them. Through unified training and external learning opportunities, enterprises can help these managers learn from other enterprises’ experiences or relevant knowledge ( Farrukh et al., 2022 ), understand implementation measures of green transformational leaders, and gradually change their leadership styles. Strengthen education and promotion, so that members of the organization can have great resonance with the current environmental situation ( Nurwahdah and Muafi, 2022 ). On the other hand, enterprises can also select green transformational leaders. Enterprises can change their leadership style by looking for employees with relevant green transformational leadership characteristics from external and subordinate employees to promote their positions.

Second, green organizational climate plays a mediating role between green transformational leadership and employee OCBE. This study found that green organizational climate can explain 45% of the relationship between green transformational leadership and employee OCBE, which enables enterprises to recognize the importance of green transformational leadership on employee green behaviors. Therefore, whether employees can actively respond to environmental problems and generate OCBE not only depends on the awakening of personal environmental awareness as well as the systematic learning of environmental protection knowledge and skills, but also relies on positive green organizational climates and good demonstration effect. A good green atmosphere can help employees clearly recognize the green values and development direction of the organization, help then increase their awareness of environmental protection, and encourage them to exert extra efforts during work or non-work situations, thus enhancing the willingness of OCBE. This view is consistent with ( Zientara and Zamojska, 2016 ). Therefore, enterprise managers must clearly indicate their attitude toward environmental issues, encourage all departments to adopt and improve their green policies and practices, and attach importance to the specific implementation of and support for green practices within the organization. For example, employees’ knowledge and awareness of the environmental protection should be strengthened through various measures, such as staff training ( Khan and Khan, 2022 ), seminars and decoration of the actual workplace environment. These can improve employees’ active participation and encourage them to continuously study, think, and explore. Timely affirmation and praise should also be given to the positive pro-environment behaviors expected by the organization. Doing so can foster a good internal environment for stimulating employees’ proactive environmental behaviors.

Third, this study explores the important moderating effects of environmental concern on green transformational leadership of the green organization climate and employee OCBE. As mentioned above, different managers have different attitudes toward the resource support provided by an organization and its employees ( Ardoin et al., 2015 ). However, in the existing studies, we rarely know how much leaders pay attention to environment-related issues. To some extent, this ignores the common situational perception in the interaction between leaders and employees, which is a response to the research of ( Stern and Dietz, 1994 ). Therefore, starting from the situational factor of environmental concern, this study explores the differences in the intensity of managers’ environmental values and beliefs, as well as the differences in the formation of green organization climate and employee OCBE. The boundary conditions and control mechanism of green transformational leadership on the green organizational climate and employee OCBE are thus clarified. This work also explains the more the mechanism of the transformation of environmental concern into employee OCBE, thus extending the past research is extended ( Tsai et al., 2016 ). In addition, organizational managers should pay more attention to external environmental pressure and learn about the successful environmental practices of competitors to maintain sensitivity to environmental problems.

Finally, our research can also be extended to government-linked companies, non-enterprise organizations, such as government organizations and non-profit organizations. In these organizations, there is also a relationship between leadership style and the active environmental behavior of organizational members. However, due to different management systems, the internal mechanisms that affect employees’ environmentally friendly behaviors within these organizations may be different. Our research provides some reference ideas.

Conclusions and limitations

Based on of 312 managers, this paper explores the relationship between green transformational leadership and OCBE. The results show that green transformational leadership is significantly positively correlated with employee OCBE, which indicating that leaders’ transformational style can improve employee s’ environmental behavior. To further discuss the mechanism between green transformational leadership and employee OCBE, this study proposed the green organizational climates as the mediator variable of the two and combined with the internal environmental characteristics of the organization. The results reveal that almost half of the relationship between green transformational leadership and OCBE is mediated by the green organizational climates. However, the mediating effect is influenced by the intensity of leaders’ environmental concern, that is, green transformational leaders with high environmental concern are more likely to form green organizational climates inside the organization. This study concludes that employee OCBE in manufacturing enterprises is the result of a complex and comprehensive process. To encourage employees to take care of the organizational environment and save resources, the behavior style of leaders and the internal characteristics of the organization must play important roles together.

This study has some limitations that also provides a new direction for future research. First of all, the data in this study are all from individual managers’ reports. Although there is no serious homologous bias after the test, the matching sample data of leading employees can be considered in the subsequent study to minimize the impact of homologous bias and improve the accuracy of the research results. Secondly, employee OCBE is a complex process that is not only affected by leadership style and the internal environment of the organization but is also limited by external or individual resource conditions. Future studies may consider including this in the model to ensure the completeness of the research results.

Data availability statement

Ethics statement.

Upon request, we present a letter of ethical approval from the school/institution.

Author contributions

XL wrote the manuscript and analyzed the data. XY contributed to study design and critical revisions. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This research was funded by Luzhou Key Research Base of Philosophy and Social Sciences Luzhou Social Public Security Research Center project Research on the path of urban public safety management and resilience governance (SHAQ202209), 2022 Annual project of Sichuan Party History and Party Construction Research Center: Research on the Application of “Lucky Party Building” Group Guidance in University Students’ Party Building Work (DSDJ22-14), 2022 Annual Project of Regional Public Management Informatization Research Center: Research on the path of new cloud computing service System supporting Sichuan Digital Village Construction (QGXH22-05), Chengdu social Science Planning project: The impact of industrial metaverse on the development of digital industry in Chengdu and risk prevention and control research (2022CS053).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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