Transformational leadership and employee championing behavior during organizational change: the mediating effect of work engagement

Abstract

Purpose

The research aims to investigate the impact of transformational leadership on employee championing behavior and to determine the mediating effect of work engagement in the context of organizational change.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a quantitative approach, which is based on cross-sectional data. In total, 300 available cases are processed through structural equation modeling in order to infer the results.

Findings

The results indicate that transformational leadership is significantly related to championing behavior during organizational change. Moreover, work engagement fully mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and championing behavior in the context of organizational change.

Practical implications

Managers should emphasize the practice of the transformational leadership approach, as well as should stress the antecedents of work engagement in order to foster the employee championing behavior in the context of organizational change.

Originality/value

The research contributes to the change management and human resource management literature by providing a plausible explanation of the mediating role of work engagement in connecting transformational leadership and employee championing behavior in the context of organizational change.

Citation

Islam, M.N., Furuoka, F. and Idris, A. (2022), "Transformational leadership and employee championing behavior during organizational change: the mediating effect of work engagement", South Asian Journal of Business Studies, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1108/SAJBS-01-2020-0016