Transformational leadership, perceived union support, and union citizenship behaviors: A social exchange and social identity perspective

The objective of this dissertation is to empirically assess the relationship between transformational leadership and union citizenship behaviors from a social exchange and social identity perspective. The relationship was studied through a covenantal relationship perspective. Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, and Bachrach (2000) suggested that there were conceptual similarities and differences in the relationships between transformational leadership, perceived organizational support, trust, intrinsic satisfaction, and commitment in an organizational citizenship behavior framework. This dissertation has developed and tested a model that provides a framework to describe the mechanism by which transformational leadership behaviors effect union citizenship behaviors through perceived union support, felt obligation, trust in the union, union-based self-esteem, and union commitment. The mechanism by which transformational leadership behaviors relate to citizenship behaviors is complex (Podsakoff et al., 2000) and the factors that can affect citizenship behaviors are many (Van Dyne, Graham, & Dienesch, 1994). Due to the complex and emergent nature of this study, a two-step approach was used to evaluate the proposed hypotheses and framework. First, hypotheses were formulated and empirically tested using mediated regression analysis (Baron & Kenny, 1986). All the proposed hypotheses were supported or partially supported. The results gave confidence that the framework may be appropriate for testing. Finally, structural equation modeling was employed to provide further evidence that the proposed model was valid. The data analysis and the statistical results support the multidimensional nature of covenantal relationships and their mediation effects between transformational leadership and union citizenship behaviors. Additionally, this study provides empirical evidence that social exchange and social identity perspectives can be used in organizational support studies. The results further suggest that union leaders may positively affect member\u27s behavior by promoting a supportive environment that will increase member\u27s obligation to the union, trust in the union, and union-based self-esteem. Union members that exhibit greater citizenship behaviors will promote the union\u27s ideals, recruit more members, and help provide a more harmonious atmosphere in the work place