Leadership, trust, and job satisfaction in the public sector: A study of US federal employees

Abstract

This study employs survey data on US federal employees to investigate whether employee perceptions of trust in leaders mediate the relationship between employee perceptions of transaction a land transformational leadership behaviors and employee perceptions of job satisfaction. The findings suggest that both transactional and transformational leadership behaviors and employee trust in leaders are positively related to employee job satisfaction. Also, while trust marginally mediates the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership and job satisfaction, it plays a more significant role in the relationship between individualized consideration and job satisfaction. Further, the study finds that transformational leadership and individualized consideration have a significantly larger positive impact on satisfaction compared to transactional leadership. Thus, the study suggests that public organizations, especially those managed by transactional leaders, need to focus on developing the transformational and individualized consideration leadership competencies of their leaders to build a more satisfied and productive workforce for serving the public.

Keywords:

• Transactional leadership
• transformational leadership
• trust in leaders
• job satisfaction
• US federal employees
• mediation

Notes

1. The author conducted a review that involved searching each volume and issue of the following public administration journals for the period 2000–2014: Public Administration Review, American Review of Public Administration, Review of Public Personnel Administration, Public Administration Quarterly, International Review of Public Administration, Administration and Society, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Management Review, Public Administration, International Journal of Public Administration, Public Performance and Management Review, and State and Local Government Review. For the period 1990–1999, advanced searches were conducted through Google Scholar.

2. Although Trottier et al. (2008) included individualized consideration as one of the elements of transactional leadership – see also, Avolio et al., 1999 –, in this study, Bass’ (1985) original conceptualization of transformational leadership was employed. Thus, individualized consideration is considered to be an element of transformational leadership.