The antecedents and outcomes of transformational leadership: leader's self-transcendent value, follower's environmental commitment and behavior

Abstract

Purpose

The primary purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedent (i.e. leader's self-transcendent value) and outcomes (i.e. follower's environmental commitment and behavior) of transformational leadership. The second purpose is to examine the mediating role of transformational leadership plays in the relationship between leader's self-transcendent value and follower's environmental commitment and behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

Multi-source data were collected at multiple times in China. A total of 262 employees and their 64 supervisors completed the survey. The authors conducted a series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) to verify the validity of the constructs and adopted the SPSS PROCESS macro with bootstrapping techniques to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The authors find that leader's self-transcendent value is an important antecedent of transformational leadership, and transformational leadership can enhance followers' environmental commitment and foster their environmental behavior. Besides, transformational leadership plays a significant mediating role between leader's self-transcendent value and follower's environmental commitment and behavior.

Originality/value

This study has developed an integrated model of the antecedents and outcomes of transformational leadership in the Chinese context. It also confirmed that transformational leadership mediates the process through which leader's self-transcendent value has a positive impact on follower's environmental commitment and behavior.

Citation

Zhang, S., Sun, W., Ji, H. and Jia, J. (2021), "The antecedents and outcomes of transformational leadership: leader's self-transcendent value, follower's environmental commitment and behavior", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 42 No. 7, pp. 1037-1052. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-10-2020-0471