Contradictory results on the mediating roles of two dimensions of trust between transformational leadership and employee outcomes
Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance
ISSN: 2051-6614
Article publication date: 24 November 2017
Issue publication date: 29 March 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating roles of cognitive and affective trusts between the transformational leadership (TL) and employee outcomes (task performance (TP), organizational commitment (OC), and employee turnover intention (ET)).
Design/methodology/approach
This study samples 384 bank employees and records their self-reported responses for closed-ended items in the survey. SmartPLS 3.0 is used for the analysis.
Findings
The results indicate that affective trust (AT) and cognitive trust (CT) mediate between the transformation leadership and OC positively. Moreover, AT and CT both mediate negatively between TL and TP. Finally, both dimensions of trust as second-order constructs mediate positively between the TL and ET. The results related to the ET and TP are highly intriguing and in conflict with the simple and non-contextual statement of the social exchange theory.
Practical implications
TL, AT, and CT have greater importance for the managers to increase the positive work-related outcomes of employees. Moreover, the results related to TP and ETs are highly applicable to the managers and business.
Originality/value
The originality of the study lies in use of the SmartPLS 3.0 for analysis as it offers unique and precise measures of the measurement model like HTMT ratio and does not rely on the co-variance. Moreover, mediating roles of AT and CT have never been tested before in the given settings. Finally, results defy the simple statements of the theory and call for the context-based theorized empirical studies. In doing so, it calls for the post-modernist stage (case-by-case contextual treatment of theory) of HR and management literature.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the Professor Aino Kianto, School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland, for providing the paper of Sergeeva and Andreeva (2015) for another study, which was helpful in conducting the discussion and conclusion sections on the contra-findings of the four hypotheses of this research paper.
Citation
Hussain, S., Shujahat, M., Malik, M.I., Iqbal, S. and Mir, F.N. (2018), "Contradictory results on the mediating roles of two dimensions of trust between transformational leadership and employee outcomes", Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 39-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOEPP-11-2016-0063
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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