Abstract
This study aims at examining the relationship between transformational leadership, work engagement and performance among employees of the public service in Uganda. The study also reports an investigation into the mediating effect of work engagement on the relationship between transformational leadership and performance. To test the relationships between transformational leadership, work engagement and performance, the author applied the Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient. The mediating effect was tested using the three step regression analysis proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986). Data was collected from 132 employees of Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development in Uganda. The results show a positive and significant relationship between transformational leadership, work engagement and employee performance. Though, the inspirational motivation component of transformational leadership is not related to overall work engagement. And the transformational leadership component of individualised consideration is not related to overall performance. Work engagement is found to fully mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ performance. So even when the results of this study to a certain extent are explained by the social exchange theory, emphasis should be on creating an environment of work engagement by management because this has shown to increase employee performance. However, a possible limitation could be arising from the use of self-report questionnaires. That is, responses generated from the “employees only” could have been biased because they might have expected chastisement for negative responses. Keywords Transformational leadership, Work engagement, Performance DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-23-03 Publication date: August 31 st 2020
Highlights
Leadership is a critical component of good public governance (OECD, 2001)
There is hardly any study investigating the mediational role of work engagement between transformational leadership and employee performance in the public service of Uganda, this study proposes the following hypothesis: H4: Work engagement significantly mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and performance among employees of the public service of Uganda
The inspirational motivation component of transformational leadership was not related to overall work engagement(r = ..06, p > 0.05), unlike the other three components of intellectual stimulation (r = .27, p < 0.01), idealized influence (r = .24, p < 0.05) and individualized consideration (r = .22, p < 0.05)
Summary
Leadership is a critical component of good public governance (OECD, 2001). For this reason, leaders in public service have a major impact on the development of employee effectiveness; making leadership an essential element for organizations today (Schein, 2010). Bass (1990) suggests that leadership is characterized by an interactive process between a leader and their followers.The interactive process can be found in transformational leadership which this study focuses on. Leadership is a critical component of good public governance (OECD, 2001). For this reason, leaders in public service have a major impact on the development of employee effectiveness; making leadership an essential element for organizations today (Schein, 2010). Bass (1990) suggests that leadership is characterized by an interactive process between a leader and their followers. The interactive process can be found in transformational leadership which this study focuses on. Transformational leadership has been described as a set of behaviors that motivate followers to achieve performance beyond basic expectations (Bass, 1985). Work engagement as an effect of transformational leadership can be described by the conditions under which people work (Wright & Cropanzano, 2000). Employee performance implies an individual’s success after exerting effort on the job gotten through meaningful work and considerate colleagues as well as leaders around (Karakas, 2010)
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