Transformational leadership and quality of work life: A mediation model of trust climate

This study aims to investigate the impact of managers’ transformational leadership on employees’ quality of work life through the mediation effect of firms’ climate of trust in the hospitality industry. The study was conducted with operational employees working in three-star hotels in Bangladesh. Data were gathered from 186 respondents by a structured questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS 21 and SmartPLS 3.0 software. To test the hypothesized model, the study used a partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) by SmartPLS 3.0. The results of this study revealed the strong direct effects (p &lt; .05) of managers’ transformational leadership (β = 0.433) and firm’s trust climate (β = 0.183) on the employees’ quality of work life with a variance (R2) of 31.9%, and also the significant impact of managers’ transformational leadership (β = 0.599) on firm’s trust climate with a variance (R2) of 35.9%. The study also exposed a significant mediation effect (p &lt; .05) of firms’ climate of trust (β = 0.112) in the relationship between managers’ transformational leadership and employees’ quality of work life. The findings suggest that a trust climate is such an internal mechanism that can convert transformational leadership practices into employee satisfaction with their professional life, while transformational managers can build the climate as well as enrich people’s lives at work.


INTRODUCTION
Healthy life at work and satisfaction with the work life of employees have been recognized as important aspects of the firms' success (Adisa & Gbadamosi, 2019;Dechawatanapaisal, 2017;Sari et al., 2019). Quality of work life (QWL) contributes to the service providers' happiness with their work as well as to customer satisfaction, as Burtson and Stichler (2010) indicated. An effective QWL program satisfies employee needs and humanizes jobs by enriching working conditions, thereby, quality of work life benefits employees' overall life (Sirgy et al., 2001). Thus, numerous studies have been undertaken to discover the influential factors of people's work life quality. Supervisory/managerial/leadership style and support from the managers are identified as important predictors of work life quality (Adeyemo et al., 2015;Gillet et al., 2013;Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2015), although these investigations are not sufficient in the service-providing industry (Kara et al., 2018), where firm's success mostly depends on employee performance.
In the intensified competition of the global market, employees who deal with diversified customer demands for attaining sustainable competitive advantage are considered key factors in the service industries. People spend an important time of their whole life for their job (Akman & Akman, 2017), explicitly, to improve and maintain the firms' service quality. On the other hand, service-providing entities require self-responsive employees to ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction (Gillet et al., 2013). Research, however, indicated that employees engaged in the service industries do not enjoy their work lives that even hinders corporate performance (Eom et al., 2019;Gordon et al., 2019). Researchers accentuated transformational leadership behavior as a mechanism of management in understanding employee satisfaction in their work life quality (Akar & Ustuner, 2019; Gillet et al., 2013;Kara et al., 2018). From the employees' point of view, they feel secured and respected at work when supervisors/managers practice transformational behaviors (Wang et al., 2011). It is a critical corporate approach to contribute to staff (skill and career) development (Bass & Avolio, 2000; Nam & Park, 2019), job satisfaction and retention intention (Eom et al., 2019), and their well-being (Clarke et al., 2015;Jacobs et al., 2013).
In addition to enrichment of employees' work life quality, transformational leadership has implications for creating shared and mutual trust in the organization (Lin et al., 2016). Since transformational managers articulate the charismatic vision, thereby, followers can acquire knowledge about all other people and the overall firm, which ultimately develops their self-confidence, facilitates team spirit, and creates a pleasant organizational climate (Yue et al., 2019). Besides, due to having a high concern about the followers' risks and uncertainties, transformational leaders are reliable to them (Afsar & Masood, 2018). Furthermore, transformational behaviors produce more interactions among people that revive the notion of mutual trust (Gill & Sypher, 2010). The charismatic influence of transformational managers builds employee trust in them and encourages people to perform beyond their expectations, consequently, when managers observe this, it also builds managers' trust in the workforce (Sun et al., 2014). However, shared and mutual trust among employees and managers contributes to the enrichment of employees' work life (Cascio, 1992;Shaw, 2005). Besides, there is a lack of understanding about the consequence of transformational leadership, when a firm practices transformational behaviors to enrich employees' work lives through developing a trust climate inside the organization. Moreover, only a few studies focused on employees' work life issues in the hospitality industry, more specifically, in the developing and under-developed country context.
The work life experience of hospitality employees is not satisfactory (Gordon et al., 2019) since they are engaged for long working hours and irregular shift works while having job insecurity too (Arefin et al., 2020; Gordon et al., 2019). In these work settings, hospitality people can not even balance their family/personal life and professional life that adversely affects their performance. The hospitality industry, therefore, faces the challenge of high employee turnover that results in high labor (turnover) costs, which is burdensome for the firms (Arefin et al., 2020; Eom et al., 2019).

Transformational leadership
The transformational leadership theory defines a transformational leader who "seeks to satisfy higher needs and engages the full potential of the follower" (Burns, 1978). The leader inspires and supports followers' skills and abilities, builds their confidence, and aligns the organizational goals with the followers' (personal) interests (Bass, 1985). A transformational leader has a high level of competence and vision to achieve organizational success, can motivate followers to respond enthusiastically, and is devoted to achieving the goals (Keller, 2006). When a leader performs transformational behaviors, s/he can positively affect the followers' self-efficacy to do a task, which in turn boosts people's well-being (Eom et al., 2019). Numerous studies have inspected the impacts of transformational leadership and found it to be positively linked to employee outcomes, for instance, work engagement (Valldeneu et al., 2021), work behavior (Supriyanto et al., 2020), and job performance (Donkor et al., 2021). The reason behind these favorable effects may be the fact that when a transformational leader communicates the organizational vision(s) to the followers, they can realize how their presence (contributions) are strategically important to the organizational performance which leads to their organizational behavior and job performance.

Quality of work life
The term 'quality of work life' for the first time was pointed out by Walton (1975), as the quality of human experience at the workplace. At that time, the QWL program was intended to improve the work environment, while employer-employee relations and product quality were emphasized for attaining a competitive advantage. Considering these issues, Walton (1975)

Climate of trust
Organizational climate is meant by the collective perceptions of people about the working policies and practices, and the expected type of behavior at the workplace (Schneider et al., 2013). According to Bass's (1985) assumption of the outcomes of transformational leadership behaviors, this study emphasizes trust climate. Trust means believing and expecting that other person(s) will perform a specific function for the trustor when monitoring and controlling their actions are not possible (Mayer et al., 1995). As for the climate of trust, it is "the aggregate perception of trustworthiness that team members have about one another" (Langfred, 2004

Climate of trust as a mediator
Transformational leaders encourage individuals in moving out of their comfort zones and solving challenges in novel ways, which can expose people to new cognitive domains and enhance shared ideas of mutual trust (Schaubroeck et al., 2011). However, research on the effectiveness of leadership has undoubtedly given less attention to the importance of trust climate than it might have, although transformational leaders generate and nurture mutual trust among the organizational members (Bass, 1985). In a recent study, the climate of trust has been observed as one of the fundamental organizational factors in terms of the relations between transformational leadership and positive team outcomes (Lin et al., 2016). Therefore, more investigations into the impact of transformational leadership on trust climate and the impact of trust climate on employee outcomes are necessary. Provided that, trust climate has been established as an obvious outcome of transformational leadership practices as well as a significant predictor of team members' optimal functioning. Thus, this study proposes that climate of trust can be an intervening factor between managers' transformational leadership and personnel's quality of work life.

Theoretical framework and hypotheses
The theoretical framework of the current study is proposed based on the notion of the transformational leadership theory of Burns (1978)  Therefore, this study proposes a research model ( Figure 1) that would provide new insights in building a climate of trust in the organization and enriching staffs' work life quality. This study intends to empirically examine the proposed research model by testing the following hypotheses:

METHODS
In this study, a cross-sectional survey was undertaken through a self-administered questionnaire containing 45 items adapted from the previously established scales. To measure the quality of work life, thirty-four items were taken from Kwahar and Iyortsuun (2018). The construct transformational leadership was measured by seven items of Bass and Avolio (2000). Finally, four items were taken from Huff and Kelley (2003) for measuring the climate of trust. Responses were collected on a five-point Likert scale (1 represents "strongly disagree" and 5 represents "strongly agree").
300 questionnaires were delivered among the fulltime operational employees of the three-star hotels in Bangladesh during May-June 2021. In all, 197 filled-up questionnaires were returned, while 11 were dropped due to incompleteness, and finally, 186 responses were accepted for analysis with a response rate of 62%.
The collected data were processed and analyzed by SPSS version 21 and SmartPLS 3.0 software. Respondents' demographic profiles and the descriptive statistics of the study variables were analyzed by SPSS 21. Afterward, this study assessed the measurement model and structural model using PLS procedures. Furthermore, to test the hypotheses and observe the mediation effect, a bootstrapping function (2,000 resamples) was generated using SmartPLS 3.0.

Demographic analysis
The sample (n = 186) of the current study consisted of about 66

Descriptive and correlation analysis
The score of mean and standard deviation represents the general perceptions of the respondents. For this reason, this study conducted a descriptive analysis to obtain the scores of the mean and standard deviation of each construct (quality of work life, transformational leadership, climate of trust). Since the responses were measured on a fivepoint scale, a mean score nearer to five is termed as high agreement, whereas low agreement is meant if the score is nearer to one. In this study, for all three constructs, the mean score was above 3 that indicates the consistency of the results. Furthermore, the dispersion value for all the variables was lower than 1, which was the desired result of the study.
This study also performed a correlation analysis to observe the coefficients between the quality of work life, transformational leadership, and climate of trust. The correlation coefficients confirmed that the variables are significantly correlated (p < 0.01) with each other. The scores of mean, standard deviation, and correlation are displayed in Table 1. Note: ** means the correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed).

Measurement model assessment
To assess the reliability and validity of the measurement scales of the constructs, confirmatory factor analysis was carried out. The values of the measurement model are presented in Table 2 and Table 3.

Convergent validity
As suggested by Chin (1998), the factor loadings, composite reliability (CR), Cronbach's alpha (α), and average variance extracted (AVE) are used for assessing the convergent validity. Table 2 ( Figure 2) exhibits the scores of CR, α, and AVE of all the constructs. The factor loadings above the recommended value of 0.6 were retained (Chin, 1998). Thus, the items QWL2, QWL21, QWL27, QWL30, and QWL33 with low loadings were subsequently dropped from the model (see Appendix A). Moreover, CR and α met the minimum cut-off values (0.7), and AVE was higher than 0.5 for all the constructs. Thus, the results determined that the constructs met the requirement of reliability and convergent validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Discriminant validity
This study subsequently evaluated the discriminant validity of the model using the indicators' cross-loadings and the Fornell-Larcker criterion, as of Hair et  (Table 3) that the square root of AVE (diagonal) was higher than the correlation (off-diagonal) of each construct, which indicated that all the constructs display necessary discriminant validity (Hair et al., 2017). Therefore, the measurement model is considered satisfactory.

Structural equation model analysis
The hypotheses were tested using the bootstrapping function with 2,000 bootstrap samples and the results were exhibited in Table 4. Based on the assessment of the path coefficients (referring to Figure 2 and Figure 3), the two hypothesized relationships H1 (t = 5.686), and H3 (t = 1.935) were found to have a t-value above 1.645 (one-tailed), thus significant at 0.05 level of significance (Hair et al., 2017 (Cohen, 1988).
Furthermore, in support of hypothesis 2, the result exposed that transformational leadership (β = 0.599, t = 11.234, p < 0.05) has a considerable influence on climate of trust. So, H2 was also accepted. Besides, transformational leadership explained 35.9% of the variance in climate of trust. The value of R 2 (0.359) was greater than 0.26, which indicated a substantial model, as suggested by Cohen (1988).
Finally, the result showed that the indirect effect of employee empowerment on quality of work life (TL→CT→QWL) with β = 0.112 (t = 1.863, p < 0.05) is significant. So, H4 was accepted.

Mediation effect analysis
To verify if the climate of trust has a mediation effect in the relationship between transformational leadership and quality of work life, the indirect effects of the variables were checked using the bootstrapping function with 2,000 bootstrap samples (Table 5). Besides, the confidence intervals of the indirect path were observed (Table 5)

DISCUSSION
The objectives of this study were to examine the im- Transformational leaders care for employees, reduce their risks and uncertainties, and boost their self-confidence, thereby, employees confidently rely on the managers and also on others. That is how a climate of trust is generated in a firm that nurtures people's trust. Thirdly, the result of this This study contributes to the transformational leadership theory. Since, transformational leadership influences a firm's trust climate that further impacts employees' work life, managers need to design effective transformational leadership practices that will improve employee perceptions of life at work. Moreover, the study findings suggest that hospitality firms' transformational leadership is one of the dominating areas that can contribute to employees' work life as well as the firm's trust climate. By the tenets of an organization, this study asserts that hospitality employees are independently responsive personnel when they get proper supervision and caring from their leaders. Additionally, the elements of transformational leadership contribute to the employees' work life as well as personal life quality. The findings also suggest that people's work life quality is not only dependent on organizational success, but it also depends on a hospitality firm's endeavors and managers' intentions to take care of the satisfaction and wellness of its workforce. Therefore, this study establishes a critical aspect of company-initiated antecedents for multifaceted satisfaction outcomes of hospitality employees.

CONCLUSION
The study explains the impact of transformational leadership on the quality of work life, and exposes the mediation effect of trust climate on the aforementioned relationship of the hospitality personnel in the developing country context. Results indicate the positive impact of transformational leadership on the quality of work life, and the presence of mediation effect of trust climate in that relationship. These findings suggest the managers to practice the transformational leadership style for supervising the working people and to develop a climate of mutual trust where everybody can depend on others' trustworthiness. By emphasizing these practices, firms can reinforce employee wellbeing, balanced work life, mutual respect, and job satisfaction. On the other hand, when managers practice transformational behaviors in all aspects of subordinates and build a climate with a high level of shared and mutual trust, the quality of work life enhances and individuals' satisfaction with life at work improves in consequence. Thus, people will be motivated to be creative and they will perform their extra-role behavior and meet the new challenges at work that will ultimately cause the accomplishment of sustainable corporate success.
This study attempts to indicate the organizational/managerial functions that can enrich employee perception toward the work and work life as well. Since people are critical assets in the hospitality industry, they need a peaceful work life that can be ensured by proper care and value. Therefore, the present study offers an original and meaningful perspective through an empirical validation in improving the existing knowledge of the quality of work life with the integration of transformational leadership and climate of trust in the hospitality industry of Bangladesh.
This study also has some limitations. Firstly, the study was undertaken in three-star hotels. Thus, its scope could be extended in future research by incorporating diverse hospitality firms. Secondly, the study took into consideration a single country (Bangladesh). Future studies would consider the multi-country (developed, developing, and under-developed countries) context to validate the proposed research model because managerial practices in employee issues can vary substantially country-to-country. Thirdly, the study findings shed light on the relevance of employee satisfaction in terms of their work life quality. Future research would investigate the organizational conditions that could assist or hamper the improvement of qualities of employees' work life. Finally, the proposed research model would include employees' socioeconomic status and job characteristics as the moderating variable in future analysis that may offer new perspectives.