Exploring the mediating effects between transformational leadership and organizational performance
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the possible mediating mechanisms (human resource management (HRM), learning and innovation) that could exist in the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational performance. This topic has been studied only by a few groups of researchers and these researchers have not analyzed all these concepts jointly.
Design/methodology/approach
This research explores the relationships using partial least squares with data from 200 Spanish industrial companies. Analyzing the mentioned relationships in the Spanish context has been done by few researchers before.
Findings
The study reveals that the adoption of transformational leadership styles improves performance when specific systems of HRM practices, learning and innovation are developed in an organization.
Originality/value
This study, therefore, contributes to the understanding of the link between transformational leaders and performance by proposing a model in which it is evinced that this leadership style produces synergies between HRM, learning and innovation, which in the end, affect performance.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding received from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness (Research Project No. ECO2012-37893) and Fundación CajaMurcia-BMN.
Citation
Para-González, L., Jiménez-Jiménez, D. and Martínez-Lorente, A.R. (2018), "Exploring the mediating effects between transformational leadership and organizational performance", Employee Relations, Vol. 40 No. 2, pp. 412-432. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-10-2016-0190
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited