A Newly tested Transformational Leadership - Organizational Citizenship Behavior model: Among the Employees of the Jordanian Universities: An Empirical Study

Abstract

The optimizations of a university’s achievement require an effective leadership style to create an organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), as the excellence of such universities relies on mutual and collaborative efforts among their leaders, faculty members, employees, and students. The main objective of this study is to address and identify the impact of the transformational leadership style (TLS) on (OCB) in the universities in Jordan. The author has focused on five key aspects of (TLS) which are idealized behaviors, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individual consideration, and idealized influence, and five key aspects of (OCB), which are Conscientiousness, Sportsmanship, Civic virtue, Courtesy, and Altruism. This was achieved by validating the predesigned constructs of (Bass and Avolio, 2004) and (Podsakoff, et al., 1990) for the Jordanian university context by using structural equation modeling (SEM), both CFA and path analysis. Indeed, this required testing for the unidimensionality, reliability, and validity of the data which was randomly collected from 392 participants from the universities of Jordan, alongside testing the 5-5 model fit of (OCB) and (TLS) constructs in the Jordanian universities context and finally the path analysis to uncover the impact of (TLS) on (OCB). The results revealed that the pre-designed model was modified to include 18 items for the five components of (TLS) rather than the original 20 items, and 17 items for the five components of (OCB) rather than the original 24 items. Moreover, the five latent components of (TLS) loaded successfully into (TLS) general construct, whereas the five latent components of (OCB) loaded successfully into (OCB) general construct as well, where the respecified model was accepted based on the overall assessment of the model fit indices. Finally, (TLS) appeared to have a significant effect on (OCB), where (OCB) = 0.411*(TLS)+ 3.480+e, which means that (TLS) is a good predictor of (OCB), i.e., when TLS goes up by one unit, (OBC) goes up by 0.411 unit. Consequently, the author suggests practical implications for organizations and business practitioners, where, first, organizations should encourage their employees to recognize (TLS) and second, leaders should recognize their potential effect on employees’ behavior and attitude, especially in the individual consideration to be fully engaged in their citizenship behavior for the good of their organizational success.