“The impact of transformational leadership on enhancing organizational trust: Moderating role of empowerment”

Worker empowerment is one of the main objectives of any organization. The purpose of the current study is to examine the impact of transformational leadership on organizational trust (trust in coworkers, trust in organization management, and trust in supervisors). In addition, it examines whether workers’ empowerment moderates the mentioned impact. An analytical descriptive approach was adopted, and a survey collected relevant data. A stratified random sample included 294 department managers, branch managers, and heads of departments who work in Jordanian telecommunications companies (Zain, Orange, and Umniah). The study employed SPSS and AMOS 21 for data analysis and hypotheses testing. The paper revealed a significant impact of transformational leadership on organizational trust, except for the ideal influence and inspirational motivation dimensions. Furthermore, workers’ empowerment significantly moderates the impact of transformational leadership on organizational trust at Jordan’s telecommunications companies (Zain, Orange, and Umniah). The study recommends improving transformational leadership methods in telecom businesses as one of the most critical administrative leadership techniques. It is vital to ensure the continuation of telecom business leaders in these companies to foster organizational trust between company workers and administrative leaders. Additionally, future studies should find new funding sources, identify practical ways to put strategies into practice for intellectual stimulation and arousal in these companies, and conduct more studies on transformational leadership, organizational trust, and empowerment.


INTRODUCTION
Due to the changes in the size of the organizations and the nature of their activities, leaders bear the responsibility for achieving their goals and completing their work efficiently and effectively.Reaching the expected results with the multiplicity of relationships internally and externally without innovation and development in the administrative process is impossible.Management is one of the largest fields of science, which witnessed great interest from economists.A significant shift in concepts and application found, and leadership has become an important axis on which various activities in private and government institutions are based (Hamad et al., 2016).Leadership is a necessary function to achieve organizational goals at various levels.This reflects positively or negatively on the attitudes and expectations of subordinates by encouraging and increasing loyalty or frustration, as a leader is the source of life in the organization, and he is responsible for ensuring its stability and achieving its goals (Mosalli, 2013).Any organization's success and continuity in achieving its goals lie in the human resources and the provision of a work environment that motivates employees to complete the required tasks.It leads to mutual trust between employees and the company that seeks to achieve organizational trust in all practices.Top et al. (2020) indicate that the empowerment of employees is an administrative concept that focuses on caring for human resources and improving and documenting the relationship between bosses and subordinates.It is the basis for the success and trust in subordinates.It makes employees bear responsibilities and work to provide them with skills that qualify them to acquire knowledge and experience to be able to practice a bigger involvement in the process of making decisions and addressing problems.

Transformational leadership
In the past few decades, researchers have developed several theories in management and psychology to identify the best aspects of leadership that affect both people and organizations.The great-man theory claims that leaders are born, not made, and that personality traits are inherited traits that makeup leadership (Babiker, 2015).
Transformational theory of leadership and its application in various fields focused on the importance of the inspirational aspect in the relationship between the leader and followers to achieve high-expected performance levels.The previous traditional leadership theories dealt with change management, as they focused on bringing about radical changes in organizations by persuading workers to look at the general interest of the organization away from self-interest.In addition, a leader is responsible for the change in his organization with his capabilities to bring such a change (Mahfuz, 2016).
Transformational leadership is practiced through five dimensions: ideal influence (charisma), inspirational motivation,) investigates its relationship with the effectiveness of the decision-making process in the Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia.The results showed no relationship between transformational leadership dimensions and decision-making effectiveness based on gender, qualifications, and experience dimensions (Twijri, 2017).However, there is a relationship between transformational leadership dimensions and decision-making effectiveness.Trmal et al. (2017) examined the process that transformational leader's implement that will ultimately lead to the effec-tiveness of transformational leadership in achieving support for a high-performing workforce that will exceed organizational expectations.In the process of change, transformational leaders consider the opposition within the organization, in addition to knowing the threats facing its external environment, because they clarify the norms and values in their workplace and engage in its culture (Northouse, 2013).
Khasawneh (2021) focused on evaluating how transformational leadership affected the diversity of the workforce at telecommunication firms in Jordan.The study indicated that the diversity of human resources affected by transformational leadership dimensions.The study made a case for the need to recognize and promote diversity among employees in the telecommunication industry.These businesses share various traits due to their staff members' experiences, knowledge, abilities, and excellence in a setting that fosters innovation and creativity.

Organizational trust
Organizational trust considered one of the most critical pillars of work relations, as it helps organizations enhance their activities to achieve their goals and visions.At the same time, it is one of the most essential tools of modern management, and it helps to create the necessary conditions for the success of the organization's work.Faris (2014) considers that trust in work relations represents an important element of organizational trust.When this trust conquered within the organization, the employee can express their ideas and projects and work on cooperation among themselves, as organizations that lack organizational trust contain barriers in communication processes.There is frustration in cooperation and a lack of commitment.
Trust is the desired decisions of an individual or a group that may produce a decision-making system even if no influence exercised on it.This indicates that a promise or agreement is not necessarily a part of this definition regarding trust in the organization as desirable results obtained without exerting any influence on the decision-making system.The trust is the dependence of one person on another under conditions of risk to achieve an unspecified goal, and thus the two definitions refer to trust between individuals (Bakkar, 2012).
One concept academics in management, organizations, psychology, and sociology have focused on is organizational trust.Since the traditional school of thought concentrated on the official facets of the existing relations of organization within the organization, such as authority, the division of labor, and the scope of supervision, this concept has evolved along with the development of administrative and organizational thought.Building confidence within the business was challenging since the humanistic school looked after the informal components, provided extra attention, and looked after the human element.As for the modern approaches to administrative thought, their interest in the concept of organizational trust increased during those stages, as the Japanese theory emphasized three basic pillars (confidence, skill, and competence), where trust was one of the basic principles for building this theory (Alajmi, 2017).Trust is the extent of workers' confidence in the information available to them and the ease of obtaining information when needed, their confidence in the applied administrative policies based on competence, experience, and inclusiveness, and employees' confidence in the values and principles that guarantee respect, empowerment, and mutual trust.It is also an exchange and openness between management and workers and attention to them and their needs on the part of that administration (Akhigbe & Sunday, 2017).

Sarah (2019) clarifies how job performance at the
Republican Directorate affected by organizational trust dimensions (trust in supervisors, trust in coworkers, and trust in the management of the organization) in the Sonatrach Hassi Massoud Company in Algeria.The findings showed that the level of organizational confidence toward senior management and their supervisors was average.The study recommended enhancing the worker's feeling of belonging to increase the confidence, which leads to performance development.
Al-Hartsi (2017) studied the interactive effect between justice and organizational trust and its reflection in improving workers' job performance in small and medium enterprises at the new Algerian factory in Akilli and Cingoz (2015) explained the relationship between organizational trust in its various dimensions (trust in coworkers, supervisors, and management), as well as organizational silence, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.A significant inverse relationship to organizational silence through their use of a structural model adopted.Lashari et al. (2016) aimed to identify the impact of organizational trust in dimensions on organizational justice.The study results showed that organizational trust affected organizational justice.

Empowerment
Al Draj and Al Saed (2023) clarify that empowerment is one of the most essential elements used by individuals or organizations regardless of the field in which it is used.This power helps individuals and organizations to perform tasks efficiently and effectively.Goetsch and Stanley (2021) showed that it grants workers the authority, knowledge, and resources needed in the organization.While Murrell and Meredith (2000, pp.55-127) defined it as empowering someone to take on greater responsibilities and powers through training, trust, emotional support, and decision-making practice.The strengthening of the capabilities of workers so that they can diligence, issue judgments, appreciation, and freedom of action in the issues that confront them during the exercise of their duties, as well as their full participation in decisions related to their work.Yara and Al Saed (2019) explained that empowerment derived from a word that means power or authority.It may differ from delegation, although it is part of empowerment, which is the process of granting authorization so that a person has the power and ability to exercise a greater role in work and decision-making.It includes broader freedom in doing business, reducing the degree of direct supervision, and achieving self-control and independence in completing tasks.Through these and other definitions, one can conclude that the empowerment of workers is an administrative concept that improves and documents the relationship between the bosses and subordinates.The success of leadership work and trust in subordinates makes them bear responsibility and work to provide them with skills that qualify them to acquire knowledge and experience to participate in decision-making and problem solving.In specific terms, allowing workers a degree of freedom, independence, and self-control enables them to carry out their work, set goals, make decisions, and solve problems through a broader area of powers and responsibilities.Yara and Al Saed (2019) explained that empowerment impacts job performance at Manaseer Group.In particular, it affects both the task and contextual performance in this group of companies, and the system of returns and incentives reviewed.
Muhammadia (2016) demonstrated the beneficial influence of job empowerment and its impact on employees' creative behavior.The survey results demonstrated the significance of the study's findings.The study recommended further research and investigations on job empowerment and its effect on creative behavior.
This study targets three telecom firms in Jordan (Zain, Orange, and Umniah) to assess their organizational trust levels and whether they be increased because of transformational leadership.
According to the conceptual model (Figure 1), the study proposes the following hypotheses:

METHODOLOGY
A descriptive analytical approach employed to collect the data and test the hypotheses.The study population represents the telecommunication companies operating in Jordan consisting of three companies (Zain Company, Umniah Company, and Orange Company).As for the sampling unit, it was represented in the following job titles -department managers, branch managers, heads of departments -who work in the general administration and branches of the Jordanian telecommunication companies in the capital, Amman, where their number in these companies reached 948 employees.A stratified random sample of 294 respondents was selected Sekaran and Bougie (2013) 294 questionnaires were distributed; 80 (27%) were excluded, and 214 (73%) were analyzed.The questionnaire consisted of two parts.The first part investigated the demographic characteristics of the sample.The second assessed the study's variables, i.e., transformational leadership, organizational trust, and empowerment in Jordan's telecommunication companies (Zain, Orange, and Umniah).

Validity and reliability of the study tool
The study survey tools prepared by reviewing the previous related literature to its subject and defining the dimensions of the variables to form general items for the questionnaire.A group of experts from the specialized fields arbitrated it.The questionnaire modified, considering all observations to reach it in its final form.To ensure the survey consistency, statistical methods used to test the item's survey internal consistency by using Cronbach's alpha, which depends on the consistency in the respondent's performance from one item to another.In other words, this coefficient used to measure the correlation and coherence between the items in the scale, and the coefficient gives estimated values for stability (Tavakol & Dennick, 2011).Although there is no standard  measure for stability, alpha is acceptable when its value is ≥ 60/100.In some studies, its value is acceptable when it is greater than 70%.Table 2 shows Cronbach's alpha for the study tool with its variables and dimensions.Table 2 shows that Cronbach's alpha for the dependent, independent, and variables and dimensions were 0.842-0.92,which is normal because it is more than 0.70.

Descriptive analysis
The mean and standard deviation calculated for the respondents to identify dependent, independent, and moderator variable dimensions.
Table 3 shows that the means and standard deviation of the respondents' transformational leadership level showed a high average (4.10).The level of the intellectual stimulation dimension ranked first with a mean average of 4.4, followed by ideal influence with a mean of 4.3.Inspirational motivation has an average of 3.9, and individualized consideration has 3.8.
Table 4 shows the means and standard deviation of organizational trust, which showed a high average mean of 4.1.Considering dimensions, the coworker trust dimension ranked first with an average of 4.3, before trust in supervisors with an average of 4.2, and trust in the management of the organization with an average of 3.9.Table 5 further indicates that the mean of empowerment was 4.10, and the standard deviation was 16.20.

Hypotheses testing and regression analysis
To ensure the data matched the regression analysis's presumptions, a few tests were run before testing the hypotheses.The study ensured that the data followed the normally distributed and that each variable's variance inflation coefficient (VIF) did not surpass the value of 10 or the tolerance test value did not exceed 0.05.Data is normally distributed if the skewness value is close to 1; hence, the skewness coefficient is calculated using that assumption (0).The findings of these tests displayed in Table 6.Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is used to test the validity.Table 7 shows that all dimensions of the dependent variable (organizational trust) follow the normal distribution because significant values are more than 0.05, so the dimensions are of high validity.
Table 8 shows regression coefficients of the transformational leadership dimensions on organizational trust: R-value is 0.950, and the determination coefficient R2 is 0.915, indicating that the model interprets 91.5% of organizational trust of the total variation.Other factors explain other re-maining variations; calculated F value is 388.40 at a significance level less than 0.05, meaning that the model is appropriate.Thus, the null hypothesis rejected, and the alternative hypothesis accepted, which states that transformational leadership has a significant impact at level α ≤ 0.05 on enhancing coworkers' trust among telecom (Zain, Orange, and Umniah) employees in Jordan.
Table 8 shows that, except for one dimension (ideal influence), the values of transformational leadership have a significant impact on organization trust among employees of Jordanian telecommunication companies (0.730, 0.000, 0.001, and 0.000, respectively).It also reveals that intellectual stimulation had the largest impact on organizational trust in telecom companies in Jordan, with a Beta value of 0.410, followed by individual consideration (0.360), inspirational motivation (0.351), and finally, the ideal effect (0.090).
Table 9 demonstrates the regression coefficients of the transformational leadership dimensions on trust in coworkers.The results indicate the value of R was 0.941, and the coefficient R2 was 0.775, indicating that the model interprets 77.5% of the total variation in the trust in coworkers, with the remaining explanation coming from other factors.
In addition, Table 9 indicates the F calculated value is 368.20 at a significance level less than 0.05 means the model for the regression test is appropriate.The null hypothesis is rejected, and the alternative hypothesis is accepted; so, transformational leadership has a significant impact at level α ≤ 0.05 on enhancing the coworker trust among employees of telecom companies in Jordan.The  9 make it clear that the values are significant and total (0.056, 0.005, 0.000, and 0.000, respectively).The results also revealed that the dimensions (individual consideration, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation) significantly affect the coworker trust in Jordanian telecom companies, except the ideal influence dimension.
According to Table 9, individual consideration had a Beta value of 0.765, followed by inspirational motivation (0.065), intellectual stimulation (0.056), and ideal influence (0.765) as the most influential aspect of organizational trust in telecom companies in Jordan (0.034).
Table 10 demonstrates the correlation coefficient of transformational leadership dimensions on the dimension of trust in supervisors.The results showed the R-value was 0.910, and the coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.831, indicating that the model interprets 83.1% of the total variation in the dimension of trust in supervisors, with the remaining explanations coming from other factors.In addition, Table 10 indicates the F calculated value is 188.30 at a level significantly less than 0.05, meaning the model for the regression test is appropriate.The null hypothesis is rejected, and the alternative hypothesis is accepted; transformational leadership has a significant impact at level α ≤ 0.05 on enhancing the trust of supervisors among employees of telecom companies in Jordan.
The statistical results of Table 10 show that the dimensions (ideal influence, individual consideration, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation) have a significant impact on the trust in supervisors in Jordanian telecommunications companies.The values of significance were 0.040, 0.035, 0.00, and 0.037, respectively.Table 10 also shows that individual consideration, with a beta value of 0.092, was the most significant factor influencing organizational trust in telecom companies (Zain, Orange, and Umniah) in Jordan.This factor followed by inspirational motivation (0.085), ideal influence (0.083), and intellectual stimulation (0.080).
Table 11 demonstrates the correlation coefficient of transformational leadership dimensions on the dimension of management trust.The results showed the value R was 0.930, and the coefficient of determination R2 was 0.841, indicating that the model interprets 84.1% of the total variation in the dimension of management trust, with the remaining explanations coming from other factors.The null hypothesis is rejected, and alternative hypothesis is accepted; so, there is a significant impact of transformational at level α ≤ 0.05 on enhancing management trust among employees of telecommunications companies in Jordan.The statistical results of Table 11 demonstrate that there is a significant impact of all dimensions (ideal influence, individual consideration, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation) on the trust in the management of the organization in the telecommunication companies in Jordan (with the significance values of 0.045, 0.000, 0.002, and 0.433, respectively).dividual consideration had a value of Beta 0.860, followed by inspirational motivation (0.065), then ideal influence (0.330), and finally intellectual stimulation (0.860) for trusting in the management of the organization in the telecommunications companies Jordan (0.025).
To test H02, AMOS 21 used to analyze the structural model, as this program shows results related to the values of the relationships and tests them between the variables of the hypothesis studied.
Table 12 shows the estimated relationships between the variables amounted to 0.722, the largest relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and strategic flexibility.Critical ratio values are greater than 1.96.P-values are 0.000, 0.200, and 0.0100, which are significant; therefore, all the paths in Table 12 are accepted.So, empowerment moderates the impact of transformational leadership on organizational trust.The impact of the moderator variable (empowerment) measured in the impact of the independent variable (transformational leadership) on the dependent variable (organizational trust) is shown in Table 13.
Table 13 indicates that, in the presence of empowerment, the impact of the independent variable (transformational leadership) on the dependent variable (organizational trust) has increased from 0.294 to 0.805, and there also an increase in the coefficient of determination (R2) by its value (220).In this case, the alternative hypothesis is accepted, and the null hypothesis is rejected: Employees of Jordanian telecommunication firms have reported that empowerment has a moderating effect on the impact of transformational leadership (the ideal effect, individual considerations, intellectu-al stimulation, and inspirational motivation) in enhancing organizational trust (trust in coworkers, trust in supervisors, and trust in organization management).

DISCUSSION
The paper suggested a model to measure the effect of different dimensions of transformational leadership in Jordanian telecommunications companies (Zain, Orange, and Umniah) on organizational trust.All the hypotheses are accepted, and these results are consistent with Khasawneh (2021), Hussain et al. (2021), and Alessa (2021).
The results showed that the transformational leadership's average mean was high (4.10); the highest mean on the level of dimensions was obtained by the intellectual stimulation dimension, which is 4.4, followed by the trust in coworkers dimension (4.30) and individualized consideration (3.8).All dimensions of transformational leadership significantly affect organizational trust dimensions among Jordanian employees of the telecommunications companies (0.730, 0.000, 0.001, 0.000, respectively), except the ideal influence.
According to the findings, intellectual stimulation had the highest influence on organizational trust, which had a beta value of 0.410, followed by individual consideration (0.360).The transformational leadership dimensions of ideal influence, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation significantly affect (0.056, 0.005, 0.000, and 0.000) the trust of coworkers at Jordanian telecom companies (Zain, Orange, and Umniah), except the ideal influence dimension.The most influential dimension of organizational trust was individual consideration, where the value of Beta was 0.765, then inspirational motivation (0.065), intellectual stimulation (0.056), and ideal influence (0.034).
Transformational leadership dimensions of ideal influence, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation had a significant impact (0.040, 0.035, 0.00, and 0.037, respectively) on the level of trust in management in Jordanian telecommunications firms (Zain, Orange, and Umniah) (0.080).The results revealed that the transformational leadership dimensions of ideal influence, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation significantly affect the trust in the management of the organization and telecommunications companies (0.045, 0.000, 0.002, and 0.433, respectively), except for inspirational motivation.

CONCLUSION
Enhancing organizational trust is one of the main objectives of leadership in any organization.It results in worker empowerment, which raises the engagement of workers.This study aimed to investigate the impact of transformational leadership on organizational trust in the presence of empowerment at Jordan's telecom companies (Zain, Orange, and Umniah).The results offer necessary ramifications for academics, decision-makers, and leadership of Jordan's telecom companies.
According to the findings, the ideal influence has an insignificant impact besides inspirational motivation.Thus, the management of these companies should improve and enhance the management's behavior and look after the reward policies in the future.The findings revealed that in the presence of the moderator variable (empowerment), the impact of transformational leadership on organizational trust increased.This means that empowerment plays an average role in transformational leadership's impact on organizational trust at Jordan's telecom companies (Zain, Orange, and Umniah).The study recommends that companies' leadership enhance organizational trust between employees, supervisors, and the organization's management to find practical solutions to apply intellectual stimulation and motivation methods in telecommunications companies.
The results offer insights into the perceived factors that affect the organizational trust at the telecommunication companies in Jordan.

Table 1 .
Sample characteristics

Table 3 .
Means and standard deviation of transformational leadership

Table 4 .
Mean and standard deviation of organization trust

Table 7 .
Normal distribution of the dependent variable

Table 8 .
Regression analysis of H01

Table 11
also indicates the F calculated value is 203.88 at a level significantly less than 0.05, meaning the model for the regression test is appropriate.

Table 10 .
Table 11 reveals that in-Regression analysis of H01.2

Table 13 .
Impact of the moderator variable on the relationship between independent and dependent variables