Transformational Leadership Influences on Academic Staffs’ Job Satisfaction within Higher Education

Abstract

Leadership styles encourage employees to contribute toward achieving predefined goals and objectives. Thus, an effective leadership style like Transformational Leadership (TL) style motivates employees to perform their tasks consistently over time.  A successful leadership style helps employees transform their challenges into Job Satisfaction (JS), thereby enhancing task completion and improving overall organizational performance. This study aims to determines whether TL affects JS among academic employees. This study adopts a quantitative approach using a survey  method. Data were collected from 318 academics at the University of Jeddah via Google Forms and analyzed using SPSS. The findings reveal that three aspects of TL: individual consideration, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation, significantly influence the JS of academics. However, the findings indicate that idealized influence does not have a substantial effect on academic employees’ JS. Academic staff’s JS is crucial for their professional advancement, task completion, and commitment to responsibilities. This study contributes to the existing literature by examining TL in an educational context rather than in corporate or industrial sectors.