Employee performance under transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: A mediated model

Abstract

Globally, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) compete and work on their sustainability in order to survive and thrive. SMEs rely only on their internal strength, and this strength lies mainly in their employees. Maintaining employees and their engagement increases productivity not only in terms of employee performance but also in terms of organizational performance. Based on social bond theory, the link between leaders and employees empowers the employees; in this context, the present research addresses how SMEs’ potential effectiveness is derived from the employees when leadership plays its role efficiently and promotes voluntary work among employees. Using a sample of 405 employees from Pakistani SMEs, this paper assesses the effect on them of organizational citizenship behavior and transformational leadership, in terms of engaging them in voluntary work that ultimately improves performance; this helps SMEs flourish domestically and internationally. The present research also expands the literature by examining the mediating effect of organizational citizenship behavior and provides new directions for researchers to study transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior.

Keywords

• SMEs
• Performance
• Transformational leadership
• Organizational citizenship behavior
• Mediation
• Social bonding