Transformational Leadership, Job Satisfaction, Organizational Citizenship Behaviors; Does Communication Apprehension Mediate these Relationships?

Abstract

Transformational leaders help transform followers into leaders by empowering followers according to their individual needs and by aligning the objectives and goals of the individual followers, the leaders, the group and the larger organization (Bass, 2005). Generally considered an effective way to lead, transformational leadership (TL) has been found to be associated with positive individual and organization outcomes (Nielsen, 2008), including job satisfaction (Madlock, 2008) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (Rose Su-Jung Lin, Hung-Hui Li and Jui-Kuo Hsiao, 2012). However, less is known about potential factors that may mediate these relationships. Communication apprehension (CA) is defined as an individual's level of fear or anxiety with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons (McCroskey, 1977). Because CA has been directly related to job satisfaction (Macksey and Lewis, 1982), it is possible that the previously documented direct relationship between TL and positive outcomes may be different for individuals with high CA. The purpose of this study was to examine CA as a mediating variable between TL, job satisfaction and OCB.