Beyond Leadership: How Transformational Leaders Foster Organizational Citizenship and Engagement through Psychological Empowerment

This study examines the impact of transformational leadership (TL), psychological empowerment (PE), and work engagement (WE) on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) among academic staff in Malaysian universities. Data was collected through a survey of 385 academics and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) via Smart-PLS. The results revealed that transformational leadership significantly enhances psychological empowerment and organizational citizenship behavior but does not directly affect work engagement. Psychological empowerment was found to fully mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement and partially mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, psychological empowerment and work engagement directly influence organizational citizenship behavior. The findings suggest that enhancing psychological empowerment and work engagement is crucial for fostering citizenship behaviors among academic staff. Therefore, leadership strategies should focus on cultivating psychological empowerment as a key driver of engagement and citizenship behavior in higher education institutions.