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This study has two purposes. Firstly, it aims to investigate whether self-efficacy constitutes one of the mechanisms by which transformational leadership impacts on employee positivity in reacting to change. Secondly, it aims to investigate whether the extent of change moderates the relationship between transformational leadership, self-efficacy and reactions to change. This study also explores the possibility that when the extent of change is higher, the effectiveness of transformational leadership may be lower.

This study used a sample of employees where the organization was going through significant change. Employee ratings on specific scales were used to measure transformational leadership, self-efficacy, affective commitment to organizational change, and intention to support change. A cumulative change index was used to assess the number of changes employees had experienced during the change process.

The results confirmed hypothesis 1 that transformational leadership was related to affective commitment and intention to support change and this was to a high level of statistical significance. Testing hypothesis 2 that self-efficacy mediated the effect of transformational leadership on commitment and intention to support change indicated that self-efficacy did mediate in this relationship confirming both hypothesis 2a and 2 b. The results did not support hypothesis 3a, with no significant interaction effect showing that the interaction between transformational leadership and self-efficacy did not differ between low versus high extent of change. However, the results did support hypothesis 3 b with the strength of the positive relationship between self-efficacy and reactions to change differing across high versus low extent of change. For both affective commitment and intention to support change, the interaction of self-efficacy and change index was significant.

Current weaknesses in the transformational leadership research include: a bias towards heroic leadership and away from collective and shared process of leadership, the underlying processes have not been clearly identified, lack of precision about situational variables that may impact on these processes. This paper does not address the first weakness.

Self-efficacy gains importance when the extent of change is high. The results suggest that change managers should adopt a transformational style of leadership to enhance recipients’ self-efficacy to generate positive attitudes and behaviours during change. They also suggest the selection and training of managers in transformational leadership attributes and also the inclusion of this in the monitoring of managers’ behaviours in post. The research outlined in this paper makes a significant contribution to an organization’s capacity to achieve change, particularly when the extent of change is high.

This research provides ways in which organizations can better achieve change through positive processes.

Transformational leadership can create a vision of the future and inspire followers to work to achieve it and to build hope and confidence for the future. This can prevent or overcome resistance to or reluctance about change. Lack of alignment of values between employees and the organization can result in change failure. This paper provides original insight into how change can be achieved by transformational leadership building self-efficacy.

This study aims to explore the role of frontline service employees’ (FSEs) awareness that their job can be substituted by smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics and algorithms (STARA) in their job autonomy and proactive service performance and when these relationships can be buffered. Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress, the study examined the mediating relationship between FSEs’ STARA awareness, job autonomy and proactive service performance and the moderating effects of self-efficacy and resilience on this relationship.

The authors administered two-wave online surveys to 301 South Korean FSEs working in various service sectors (e.g. retailing, food/beverage, hospitality/tourism and banking). The Time 1 survey measured respondents’ STARA awareness, self-efficacy, resilience and job autonomy, and the Time 2 survey assessed their proactive service performance.

FSEs’ STARA awareness negatively affected their subsequent proactive service performance through decreased job autonomy. The negative association between STARA awareness and job autonomy was weaker when FSEs’ self-efficacy was high than when it was low. While the authors observed no significant moderation of resilience, the author found a marginally significant three-way interaction between STARA awareness, self-efficacy and resilience. Specifically, STARA awareness was negatively related to job autonomy only when both self-efficacy and resilience were low. When either self-efficacy or resilience was high, the association between STARA awareness and job autonomy became nonsignificant, suggesting the buffering roles of the two personal resources.

Given that the measurement of variables relied on self-reported data, rater biases might have affected the findings of the study. Moreover, the simultaneous measurement of STARA awareness, self-efficacy, resilience and job autonomy could preclude causal inferences between these variables. The authors encourage future studies to use a more rigorous methodology to reduce rater biases and establish stronger causality between the variables.

Service firms can decrease FSEs’ STARA awareness through training in the knowledge and skills necessary to work with these technologies. To promote FSEs’ proactive service performance in this context, service firms need to involve them in decisions related to STARA adoption and allow them to craft their jobs. Service managers should provide FSEs with social support and exercise empowering and supportive leadership to help them view STARA as a challenge rather than a threat.

Distinct from prior research on STARA awareness and employee outcomes, the study identified proactive service performance as a key outcome in the STARA context. By presenting self-efficacy and resilience as crucial personal resources that buffer FSEs from the deleterious impact of STARA awareness, the study provides practitioners with insights that can help FSEs maintain their job autonomy and proactive service performance in times of digitalization and automation.

This study aims to investigate how social entrepreneurial role models influence social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social entrepreneurial intent and social entrepreneurial action, with moral obligation as a moderator.

A cross-sectional survey of 261 pupils in the South African province of the Eastern Cape was used in the research study. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.

The research revealed that having social entrepreneurial role models has a positive impact on both social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and social entrepreneurial intent. In addition, a connection was found between social entrepreneurial intent and entrepreneurial action. The influence of moral obligation was found to be a positive and a significant moderator. Moreover, the association between social entrepreneurial role models and social entrepreneurial intent was mediated by social entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

The findings are not generalizable to nonstudent samples because students constituted the sample for gathering data. Future study therefore requires considering nonstudents to generalize the outcomes. This research should be replicated in other South African provinces and other developing countries for comparative outcomes.

Since social entrepreneurial role models have been practically linked to social entrepreneurship intent and entrepreneurial efficacy, understanding the factors that influence student’s decision to start a social enterprise is critical in South Africa to develop targeted interventions aimed at encouraging young people to start new businesses. Policymakers, society and entrepreneurial education will all benefit from the findings.

This study contributes to bridging the knowledge gap as it investigates how social entrepreneurial role models influence social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social entrepreneurial intent and social entrepreneurial action, with moral obligation as a moderator. Encouraging social entrepreneurship among South African youth would also help address societal issues. This is a pioneering study in the context of an emerging economy such as South Africa, where social entrepreneurship is so integral.

Building on the social cognitive theory, a mediation model was examined to understand the role of teacher self-efficacy as the underlying mechanism for the relationship between instructional leadership and teacher job satisfaction.

The study tests a mediation model between instructional leadership, teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction. The data were collected via online survey from primary school teachers (N = 320) working for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MDC) in India. The mediation model was tested using the AMOS 22.0 after establishing the reliability and validity of measures.

Regression analyses using the bootstrapping method indicated that teacher self-efficacy mediates the relationship between instructional leadership and teacher job satisfaction.

This is a cross-sectional study. The scope for causal inferences is, thus, limited.

In the Indian setting, the study examines the association between instructional leadership and job satisfaction. The results show that the instructional leadership of the school principal is strongly related to teachers' self-efficacy, which, in turn is positively associated with teacher’s job satisfaction. Further, the findings confirm that instructional leadership, emphasizing instructional improvement, improves teachers' self-efficacy and job satisfaction.

The study explains the underlying process through which a school principal’s instructional leadership is related to teacher job satisfaction. This study is perhaps the first to focus on an Indian or a non-Western context.

Leadership for learning emerged as an integrated leadership framework; however, attempts to establish an empirical measurement model have been limited. Critically, not much is known about how much teachers' beliefs (e.g. self-efficacy) can mediate leadership for learning impact on teacher behaviors. This study establishes a leadership for learning measurement model and examines whether teacher self-efficacy mediates the effect of leadership for learning tasks on teacher collaboration, instructional quality, intention to leave current schools and their confidence in equitable teaching practice.

Drawing on the most recent 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), the study employed a structural equation modeling mediation approach.

Results suggested that teacher self-efficacy statistically significantly mediated 16 out of 20 of the relationships between leadership for learning task domains and teacher outcomes. Especially, in explaining the variance in instructional quality and teacher confidence in implementing equitable teaching practices, considerable proportions of the predictive power of leadership for learning tasks were accounted for (i.e. mediated) by teacher self-efficacy.

School-wide efforts to craft the school vision for learning must be coupled with enhancing teacher self-efficacy. Critically, leadership efforts may fall short of implementing equitable teaching practice and quality instruction without addressing teacher confidence in their ability in instruction, classroom management and student engagement.

This study is the first of its kind to evidence teacher self-efficacy mediates leadership for learning practice impact on teacher behaviors.

Leadership is an essential contributor to employee creative self-efficacy, and past research suggests a positive relationship between servant leadership and creative self-efficacy. However, the relationship is complex and contingent upon moderating variables, and this research examines the moderating effect of role clarity by drawing on social exchange theory and social cognitive theory.

Data collected from a survey among 116 emergency room employees is used to test the research model using moderated ordinary least squares regression.

The results confirm a positive relationship between servant leadership and creative self-efficacy and suggest a U-shaped relationship between role clarity and creative self-efficacy. Furthermore, role clarity positively moderates the relationship between servant leadership and creative self-efficacy.

The sample used for this research mainly consisted of highly educated employees within a specific setting. Future research is needed to study if the relationships found in this research can be generalized to other organizational settings.

This research suggests that leaders can support employees' creative self-efficacy through servant leadership, particularly when coupled with high role clarity.

Rapidly changing work environments are characterized by decreased role clarity, so attention is needed to its moderating role on the relationship between servant leadership and creative self-efficacy.

The aim of this study was to observe how a user’s individual factors in a commercial weight-loss treatment app affect their perceived usefulness of its features and how they relate to each other.

The information was obtained from an online survey with a sample of 412 users from a branded app for a commercial weight-loss treatment using body mass index (BMI), self-efficacy, social support and perceived usefulness as variables.

Users with higher self-efficacy perceived the app’s features as more useful. However, BMI was not a factor except for the psycho-emotional support features, which individuals with obesity perceived as more useful. Likewise, it was found that there weren’t any significant differences in self-efficacy based on their BMI. Lastly, it was found that social support could not be used as a factor to predict self-efficacy.

This study helps understand how individual factors for behavioural change may affect the perceived usefulness of a weight-loss app. Furthermore, the significance of self-efficacy as an influencing factor provides useful information for companies and app developers alike when developing their branded apps.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge on factors affecting user perceptions of weight-loss apps. It also adds to the literature of branded apps as complimentary resources for companies, which has not been studied in detail.

This study aims to explore the relationships between career competencies and job search self-efficacy via the serial multiple mediation effect of career adaptability and self-perceived employability within multiple theoretical frameworks.

This study adopts a cross-sectional design to collect data at a specific point in time and employs self-report questionnaires to collect data from participants. In total, 302 students from the “management and organization department” in a vocational school of a public university completed the survey forms. To test the hypothesized model, a serial multiple mediation analysis was performed using structural equation modeling (SEM) via SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) AMOS (Analysis of Moment Structures).

The results indicated that career competencies, career adaptability, job search self-efficacy and self-perceived employability all had significant and positive relationships. Additionally, the relationship between career competencies and job search self-efficacy was serially mediated by career adaptability and self-perceived employability as anticipated.

Considering the growing importance of the subject of how universities might better prepare their graduates for the job market, the study's findings have important policy implications. University students should also be provided with career management resources, specifically adaptation resources, to help them navigate their individual characteristics and transfer more successfully into the existing job market. This is the cause of the need for constant planning, adaptation, assessment and evaluation of career competencies in current labor markets.

The study contributes to international career development and vocational education research by filling a gap in the literature by demonstrating that job search self-efficacy, which is a predictor of job search behavior, can be promoted by career competencies, career adaptability and self-perceived employability. These findings are particularly significant because they highlight the importance of career-related knowledge, skills and abilities in engaging university students seeking employment in a developing country with a highly competitive labor market.

Identifying the best predictors of environmental citizenship behavior (ECB) has been a major concern of both researchers and educators aimed at protecting environmental quality and sustain person-environment transactions. This study aims to examine the unique contribution of personality traits and self-efficacy beliefs to the ECB of university youth in Sri Lanka.

Quantitative research approach used. The internet-based survey method was used to collect data from undergraduates studying at six state universities and two nonstate universities. The measurement items of five personality traits, ECB and academic self-efficacy were adopted on established scales from the literature.

Multiple regression results revealed that the personality traits of extraversion, agreeableness and openness to experience, as well as academic self-efficacy, are significant predictors of ECB. Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience significantly influenced academic self-efficacy. Model 6 of the PROCESS macro results indicated that academic self-efficacy partially mediated the contribution of extraversion, agreeableness and openness to experience traits to ECB.

These findings have broad implications for interventions aimed at enhancing youth environmental behavior. Whereas personality traits represent stable individual characteristics that mostly derive from individual hereditary endowment.

The study showed a holistic approach in explaining ECB that combined both personality traits and self-efficacy beliefs, indicating that they are interrelated and should not be treated in isolation.

This study aims to examine the relationship between the institutional environment, entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, which affect small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs’ social entrepreneurial intentions.

A self-administered survey was used to collect data from 600 owner-managers of tourism and hospitality businesses on the Khon Kaen-Nong Khai railway route. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses using a two-step modeling approach.

Normative and cognitive environments positively influence entrepreneurial passion. However, regulatory environment was not significantly related to entrepreneurial passion. Entrepreneurial passion relies on entrepreneurial self-efficacy, a major mechanism that creates social entrepreneurial intention. Interestingly, entrepreneurial self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and intention.

This study provides an original contribution to social entrepreneurship in terms of the role of self-efficacy in mediating the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and intention. The findings enhance theoretical viewpoints and aid in the practical implementation of the roles of small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs in social enterprises, supporting the entrepreneurial sector.