Transformational Leadership and Emotional Labor: The Mediation Effects of Psychological Empowerment

Abstract

In order to survive the fiercer competition, more and more service firms emphasize front-line employees’ role of creating excellent customer experience by displaying positive emotions during the service interactions. However, the underlying mechanisms for the relationship between transformational leadership and front-line employees’ emotional labor remain unclear. Drawing upon the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study develops a conceptual model in which transformational leadership influences front-line employees’ emotional labor through the mediator of psychological empowerment. By collecting data from 436 employees in five call centers, we tested our model and hypotheses through PROCESS 3.3 macro for SPSS developed by Hayes. The results show that transformational leadership shows positive and negative effects on deep acting and surface acting, respectively. The positive effect on deep acting is partially mediated by psychological empowerment, while the negative effect on surface acting is fully mediated by psychological empowerment. Specifically, two dimensions of psychological empowerment (impact, self-efficacy) play negative mediating roles between transformational leadership and surface acting, while impact, self-determination, and self-efficacy play positive mediating roles of transformational leadership and deep acting. The findings advance our understanding about how transformational leadership influences front-line employees’ emotional labor by introducing psychological empowerment as a mediator.

Effect of transactional and transformational leadership on talent engagement: Mediating role of talent development

“…Bass (1985) stated that transformational leaders achieve goals by making the followers aware of the values of the targets, encouraging followers to think beyond self‐interest and focusing on the high‐level needs of the employees. In addition, transformational leaders give importance to their subordinates' emotions and achievements (Cheng et al., 2023). Such leaders are concerned about the growth and development of their subordinates as well as intrinsic motivation (Chen et al., 2022).…”

“…As transformational leaders focus on individual development, they emphasize mentoring, knowledge sharing, and coaching based on the needs of the followers (Cheng et al., 2023; Dong et al., 2017). As a result, the followers contribute to organizational innovation and creativity, which foster new ideas and product development.…”

“…Transformational leaders can positively contribute to developing the followers' job-related skills that help followers to accomplish assigned tasks in more effective ways (Parker & Wu, 2014). Additionally, transformational leaders stimulate followers through expectations toward excellence and thus heighten the thrust for intrinsic needs for development (Bass & Avolio, 1994;Cheng et al, 2023). Such an attitude of the leaders helps followers actively participate in the organization's development activities.…”

Los universitarios y sus percepciones con respecto al liderazgo ejercido por parte del personal directivo

“…Asimismo, para mejorar el liderazgo transformacional, se debe intervenir en el trabajo emocional de los individuos siempre que exista el empoderamiento psicológico, además de la autodeterminación y la autoeficacia, mediadores positivos del liderazgo transformacional (Cheng et al, 2023). Aunado a lo anterior, este estilo de liderazgo cuenta con el componente carisma, que influye de forma positiva en el capital psicológico, relacionado con las actitudes de las personas (Shah et al, 2023).…”

Transformational Leadership, Psychological Empowerment, and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors among Nursing Workforce: A Single Mediation Analysis

“…Te study conducted by Aydogmus et al [24] sheds light on the relationship between transformational leadership and psychological empowerment, highlighting the signifcant infuence leaders have on employees' perceptions and experiences. Additionally, the research conducted by Cheng et al [25] further emphasizes the role of transformational leadership as an infuential factor in shaping employees' psychological empowerment. Tese fndings contribute to our understanding of how transformational leadership behaviors can foster a sense of empowerment among employees, ultimately infuencing their attitudes, behaviors, and overall well-being in the workplace.…”