The mediating effect of psychological empowerment on leadership styles and task performance of academic staff

Purpose The purpose of this research is to identify the effect of transformational leadership and transactional leadership on task performance, as well as the mediating role of psychological empowerment. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey was sent to 177 academic staff in a Public University in Malaysia. The data were analysed using SmartPLS 3.2.9. Findings The results show that only psychological empowerment is positively associated with task performance. Unexpectedly, transformational leadership and transactional leadership have no direct effect on task performance. However, there is an indirect positive relationship between leadership styles and task performance, whereby this relationship is mediated by psychological empowerment. Furthermore, both leadership styles positively influenced psychological empowerment. Research limitations/implications This study was conducted among academicians from Public Universities in Malaysia using two types of leadership styles. Therefore, it is recommended for future study to include academician from private universities and also to consider more leadership styles dimensions. The finding of this study shows that R-2 was 35.3% for psychological empowerment; according to Cohen (1988), this percentage indicates substantial predictive accuracy in explaining psychological empowerment. Nevertheless, it would be interesting to explore other factors. Practical implications Empowered employees were highly responsible, put extra work effort and creative in doing their jobs, which tends to increase their performance at work. It is also found that psychological empowerment has the highest and largest effect, contributing to task performance (f(2) = 0.389). Originality/value The inconsistencies of the previous studies' results provide evidence and opportunities for this study to review by including the mediating variable of leadership styles and task performance relationship.