From Influence to Impact: How Transformational Leadership Shapes Employee Behavior Through Psychological Activation

Muhammad Rofiqul Islam (), Leonel Prieto and Md Farid Talukder
Additional contact information
Muhammad Rofiqul Islam: A.R. Sanchez, Jr. School of Business, Texas A&M International University, Laredo, TX 78041, USA
Leonel Prieto: A.R. Sanchez, Jr. School of Business, Texas A&M International University, Laredo, TX 78041, USA
Md Farid Talukder: College of Business, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA 70605, USA

Administrative Sciences, 2025, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-21

Abstract: This study investigates how transformational leadership impacts pro-environmental and proactive work behaviors through key employee psychological states: self-efficacy, change orientation, and positive affect. We argue that transformational leadership significantly enhances these psychological states, which can drive proactive and pro-environmental workplace behaviors. We used survey data collected via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) from 542 full-time employees in the United States. Data analysis used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results confirm that transformational leadership significantly enhances self-efficacy, change orientation, and positive affect, factors that in turn promote pro-environmental work behavior. Moreover, change orientation and positive affect (but not self-efficacy) favor proactive work behavior. These findings emphasize the role of employee psychological mechanisms in translating leadership into sustainable workplace behavior. The study contributes to the leadership and sustainability literature by clarifying how internal psychological resources act as behavioral catalysts. Leaders can formulate strategies focusing on emotional and cognitive empowerment. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

Keywords: transformational leadership; psychological states; self-efficacy; change orientation; positive affect; perceived organizational support; proactive work behavior; pro-environmental work behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/9/344/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/9/344/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:15:y:2025:i:9:p:344-:d:1739452

Access Statistics for this article

Administrative Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Nancy Ma

More articles in Administrative Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().