Transformational leadership and human resource development: Linking employee learning, job satisfaction, and organizational performance

• Date: 01 December 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21404
• Author: Toby Egan,Mesut Akdere
• Published date: 01 December 2020

QUANTITATIVE STUDY

Transformational leadership and human resource

development: Linking employee learning, job

satisfaction, and organizational performance

Mesut Akdere

1

| Toby Egan

2

1

Department of Technology Leadership and

Innovation, Purdue University, West

Lafayette, Indiana

2

School of Public Policy and Robert H. Smith

School of Business, University of Maryland,

College Park, Maryland

Correspondence

Mesut Akdere, Department of Technology

Leadership and Innovation, Purdue University,

355 Young Hall, 155 S. Grant St. West

Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.

Email: makdere@purdue.edu

Abstract

This large-scale study (n = 5,349) explores a long-standing,

but rarely validated value chain. Since the inception of

human resource development (HRD), the intersection

between top organizational leadership, HRD, and organiza-

tional performance outcomes has been emphasized by

scholars and practitioners. Leadership has been highlighted

as the key catalyst both in encouraging employee learning

and performance and in formulating an HRD supportive cul-

ture toward key organizational outcomes. However, there is

a dearth of empirical studies that have focused on the inter-

section of leadership, HRD, and organizational performance,

and virtually no studies have systematically investigated

specific leadership practices, such as transformational lead-

ership (TL). We explore the intersection between TL, HRD,

and organizational performance by engaging 3,474

employees and 1,875 customers from 69 healthcare loca-

tions in the United States. Ideally, transformational leaders

encourage followers to enrich their knowledge, skills, and

abilities in order to increase individual and shared learning

to advance organizational performance. A major organiza-

tional support function toward such employee development

is HRD and its core domains—learning and performance.

Those organizations fostering excellence in learning and

performance have been identified as having strong organi-

zational HRD cultures. The study reported herein supported

DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21404

© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Human Resource Development Quarterly. 2020;31:393–421. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrdq 393

that TL behaviors aligned to support HRD culture through

leader support of employee learning and performance in

the US healthcare context. Organizational HRD culture

was found to align with key positive employee and cus-

tomer-reported performance outcomes. Implications for

leadership and HRD research, theory, and practice are

explicated.

KEYWORDS

health care, HRD, learning culture, managerial and leadership

effectiveness, organizational performance, transformational

leadership

1|INTRODUCTION

Most contemporary organizations are faced with significant challenges that are the results of uncertainty in the

world economy, globalization, technological and practice-related advancements, and crises. Such dynamics are par-

ticularly demanding in industries highly dependent on technology and service innovations, and/or are highly

influenced by national and international legal and policy changes. Along with increased demand for individual exper-

tise, employees across all levels have become the most significant asset for their organizations. Human resource

development (HRD) aims to achieve proactive change and development in individuals, organizations, and social sys-

tems (McLean & McLean, 2001). The common value chain (Porter, 1985) in HRD connects managerial/executive lead-

ership !support for employee learning and performance !employee experience of organizational HRD culture and

functions !employee satisfaction !key organizational performance outcomes (Jo, Jeung, Park, & Yoon, 2009; Keefer

& Yap, 2007; Short, Brandenburg, May, & Bierema, 2002; Swanson & Holton, 2009; Werner & DeSimone, 2011).

Such logic is imbedded in founding definitions of HRD (Woodall, 2001) including an emphasis on the importance of

leadership to enable and support organizational development (Egan, 2002; McLean, 2009). However, these central

ideas have rarely been validated systematically or empirically.

In formulating the organi zational value chain concept, Porter (1985) moved away from the traditional focus of

looking at departments an d accounting types to estab lish organization val ue and, instead, emphasize d organiza-

tional systems and how in puts are transformed into outputs. The value chain concept can be applied to co re ele-

ments of HRD with a system's inputs-to-outputs perspective (Jacobs, 1989). The HRD value chain is further

elaborated upon by prac titioner and scholarl y perspectives. Corpo rate leaders have emphas ized transformational

leadership (TL) as esse ntial to both excellence in employee perfo rmance and highly dependent strong partne rships

with HRD-related functions (Belcher, 2015; Bolza, 2016). Former Executive Vice President of the largest HRD

practitioner organi zation in the world, the Ass ociation for Talent Deve lopment (previously Am erican Society for

Training and Developm ent), and economist Anthony Carnevele e mphasized the importance of leadershi p for HRD.

Carnevele stated that or ganization leaders who embrace HRD are “driven to identify and use learning approaches

that rarely stray from th e day-to-day reality of t he workplace and are linke d to both the individuals on t he job,

and, ultimately, the employer's bottom line”(Carnevale, Gainer, & Villet, 1990, pp. 28–29). Implicit in such an

emphasis are leadersh ip behaviors that first focus on trans formational growth, support employe e learning and per-

formance, and shape orga nizational culture towar d strategic organizati onal outcomes regardless of sector—

for-profit, nonprofit, or governmental.

394 AKDERE AND EGAN