Mediation Effect of Job Satisfaction between Transactional Leadership and Employee Performance

Abstract : The basis for conducting this study was to investigate the effect of transactional leadership behaviour on employee performance as well as the role job satisfaction played as a mediating variable in the relationship between transactional leadership style and employee performance. Evidence of previous studies that investigated how transactional leadership affected employee performance were contained in the literature. However, studies that indicated the role job satisfaction played in the transactional leadership-employee performance relationship were scanty. This necessitated conducting the study to determine the mediating effect of job satisfaction between predictor and outcome variables. A survey research design was the basis for carrying out the study. Data were collect on a scale that ranged from strongly disagree 1, to strongly agree, 4. Data collection was from a random sample of 226 employees of a food and beverage manufacturing company in Lagos State, Nigeria. Inferential statistics involving simple and multiple regression was the basis for data analyses. The findings indicated that job satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between transactional leadership style and employee performance; the effect of transactional leadership on employee performance was positive as well as the effect of transactional leadership on job satisfaction. However, there was insignificant positive effect of job satisfaction on performance. The conclusion of the study stated that transactional leadership was a good predictor of employee performance. It was also indicated that the management of the studied company should ensure the availability of factors that promote job satisfaction and give more attention to ensuring the adequacy of rewards for attaining goals in a transactional relationship with employees as a means of boosting performance.