Relationship between transformational leadership, work engagement, and organisational citizenship behaviour: the moderating effect of work engagement

ABSTRACT

We explored the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of transformational leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) in Taiwan’s six-year high schools and whether work engagement moderated the relationship between the principal’s transformational leadership and teachers’ OCB. A total of 310 valid questionnaires were collected from teachers in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. The six-year high school teachers’ perceptions of principals’ transformational leadership and work engagement were at the upper-middle level, with the sub-dimensions “inspiration and encouragement”, “focus”, and “dedication” ranking the highest. Their OCB was high and the sub-dimension, “active and helping behaviour”, ranked the highest. They felt that the principal’s transformational leadership, work engagement, and teachers’ OCB had a significant positive relationship and explanatory power. Their work engagement positively moderated principals’ transformational leadership and OCB. If the principal focused on transformational leadership and matched teachers with higher degrees of work engagement, a higher OCB of teachers would appear.

KEYWORDS:

• Work engagement
• organisational citizenship behaviour
• principal
• transformational leadership
• six-year high school

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Chien-Chih Chen

Chien-Chih Chen received his Ph. D. degree from the Department of Education at the National Chengchi University and is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Management at the National Taipei University of Education. His research interests include experimental education, educational leadership, organisational behaviour, and multivariate statistical analysis. He has recently been published in journals such as Knowledge Management Research & Practice, Asia Pacific Education Review, Journal of Educational Administration, and British Educational Research Journal.

Ting-Yang Liu

Ting-Yang Liu is currently a professor at National Kaohsiung Normal University. His research interests include leadership, organisational behaviour, and public relationship. He has recently been published in journals such as the International Journal of Organizational Innovation, Educational Gerontology, and the International Journal of Organizational Innovation.

Hsiag-Chun Chen

Hsiag-Chun Chen is a Master’s degree graduate from the Graduate Institute of Human Resource and Knowledge Management, National Kaohsiung Normal University.