Revisiting the relationship between transformational leadership and employee psychological empowerment: A more holistic view using organisational culture

AbstractEmployee psychological empowerment has become an essential determinant of overall organisational performance. This is mainly caused by business organisations competing on a very detailed level to drive their advantageous position on their competitors. Transformational leadership (i.e. idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individual consideration) is considered as a core motivator to the predictors of employee psychological empowerment (i.e. meaning, self-determination). However, research is still scarce about how this relationship can be optimised; by whom it should be led and within which organisational environment it provides more effectiveness. This paper aims to examine the mediating role of organisational culture in the relationships between transformational leadership practices and behaviours and the level of employee psychological empowerment. To collect the research data, an online questionnaire was developed and distributed on a random sample of 600 employees from several Jordanian five-star hotels. This resulted in 201 fully answered questionnaires that were then validated and analysed using Analysis of a Moment Structures (AMOS) software. The empirical analysis has shown that transformational leadership is positively connected to employee psychological empowerment, with a significant positive mediation effect of organisational culture on the relationship between both constructs. The research concluded by explaining how organisations with the right ethics, values, beliefs, attitudes and norms provide a natural environment for transformational leaders to empower employees to perform their work duties with a sense of responsibility, autonomy, trust and confidence