Transformational leadership, decent work and employee well-being: Evidence from public hospitals in Punjab, Pakistan

This study examines whether hospital employees who perceive their supervisors as more transformational report better well-being, and how much of this link operates through decent work. A cross-sectional questionnaire surveyed 230 employees of six public hospitals in Punjab, Pakistan. Transformational leadership, decent work, and employee well-being were modelled as reflective constructs and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), with 5,000 bootstrap resamples. Measurement quality was acceptable (composite reliability .885–.892; average variance extracted .532–.563; largest HTMT 0.654). Transformational leadership was related to decent work (β = .393, p < .001) and well-being (β = .375, p < .001), and decent work was related to well-being (β = .415, p < .001). The indirect effect of leadership on well-being via decent work was significant (β = .163, 95% CI [.110, .231]), indicating partial mediation, with roughly 30% of the total effect (β = .538) passing through decent work. The model explained 15.5% of the variance in decent work and 43.6% in well-being. Unlike earlier work, it treats decent work as a channel linking leadership to well-being. Leadership development should be paired with attention to safety, rest, pay, and care arrangements. The cross-sectional, self-reported data indicate associations, not causation.