THE IMPACT OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE ON EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: USING STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING (SEM)
Employee engagement helps businesses in attaining their goals. Employee engagement has been at the center of attention for human resource personnel and researchers who stated that employee engagement can be a key driver of an organization's business success. In Palestine, only 11% of employees are engaged in work. Many researchers recently have found that transformational leadership style has an impact on the work engagement of employees. The population involved in this study includes 5281 full-time employees of which a sample of 328 employees was selected. Moreover, this study is considered to be the first local method to find and analyze the current causal effect of perceived transformational leadership style on employee engagement within the context of Palestine. The data was analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Analysis of Moments Structure (AMOS) was employed to answer the research questions and to test the hypotheses in this study. Results found that transformational leadership style has a significant effect on employee engagement. Results show that transformational leadership is perceived to be more effective leadership in Palestine context. In conclusion, these study findings supported the hypothesis, answered the research question, and achieved the objectives of this study. Additionally; this study has successfully addressed the gaps found in previous literature review has contributed to the body of knowledge, as well as in providing useful implications to the industry in the context of Palestine and Middle Eastern Region.