Transformational leadership and service performance for civil servants of public organizations in China: a two-path mediating role of trust
ISSN: 1750-614X
Article publication date: 10 March 2022
Issue publication date: 2 January 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Transformational leadership and service performance of civil servants greatly affect the government’s administrative effectiveness. However, there are few studies on the influence mechanism of transformational leadership on service performance in the context of public organizations. Based on the social exchange theory, this study aims to construct and examine the dual path mediating process of affective trust and cognitive trust for the effects of transformational leadership on service performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing from 268 supervisor–subordinate dyads civil servants at the municipal level in China across three waves.
Findings
Both affective trust and cognitive trust partly mediated the relationships between transformational leadership and service performance, which supported the underlying theoretical mechanism of social exchange theory and transformational leadership theory in explaining the dual relationship between leaders and subordinates. This study innovatively and empirically examined the effects of transformational leadership on service performance through dual trust in civil servants in China, thus bridging the gap in this knowledge.
Originality/value
This study innovatively and empirically examined the effects of transformational leadership on service performance through dual trust in civil servants in China, thus bridging the gap in this knowledge.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper was granted by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71402067), the Humanities and Social Sciences Planning Project of the Ministry of Education (No. 19YJCZH029) and Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. ZR2019MG002).
Citation
Fan, L., Feng, C., Robin, M. and Huang, X. (2023), "Transformational leadership and service performance for civil servants of public organizations in China: a two-path mediating role of trust", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 215-230. https://doi.org/10.1108/CMS-02-2021-0050
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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