Transformational Leadership Style and Job Satisfaction Relationship: A Study of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)

The objective of the study was to empirically investigate the relationships between transformational leadership style proxied by charismatic or inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration with job satisfaction. 100 respondents from an academic institution in Malaysia had voluntarily participated in the study. The data was analyzed by means of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using SPSS Amos software. The revised structural equation modeling (SEM) for relationship between transformational leadership style and job satisfaction passed goodness-of-fit (GOF) tests with near perfect results for absolute and incremental fit measures(chi square to degree of freedom 1.004; p-value 0.469; RMSEA0.006; and comparative fit index (CFI) 1.000). However, only two out of the three dimensions of leadership were having significant relationships with job satisfaction. Positive relationship existed between intellectual stimulation and job satisfaction, while individual consideration was negatively related. The result also revealed that leadership was an insignificant mediator in the relationships between charismatic, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration with job satisfaction.