Empowering performance through leadership: the developmental role of human capital initiatives

Purpose A major challenge in aligning leadership styles with organizational performance is the difficulty of matching the appropriate leadership style to the varying needs of employees and the goals of the organization, which complicates achieving consistent results. Therefore, this present study aims to examine the effect of both transformational and transactional leadership styles on organizational performance. The moderating role of human capital development. Design/methodology/approach The research design used was a descriptive survey. Because of the respondents and the nature of the study, a purposive sampling technique was used and the study’s population consisted of 16,000 employees of the First Bank PLC. Krejcie and Morgan’s sample size formula was used to determine the sample size of 375. Information was obtained from the participants using a questionnaire. Lastly, the study utilized partial least squares regression to examine the developed hypotheses and a frequency table to examine the participant profile. Findings The results showed that both the transformational and transactional leadership styles have a positive and significant effect on organizational performance. Additionally, the results revealed that human capital development moderates the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership styles and organizational performance. Originality/value The moderating role of human capital development on the relationship between both transformational and transactional leadership styles and organizational performance within the Nigerian banking industry.