THE ROLE OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN FOSTERING BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SUSTAINABILITY: THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF SUSTAINABLE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Authors

  • Huy Hoang Doan Thuongmai University
  • Thi My Linh Tran

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61167/amnesia.v3i2.174

Keywords:

Transformational leadership, Sustainable Business Management, Sustainable Organizational Culture

Abstract

This study investigates the interplay between transformational leadership, sustainable organizational culture, and sustainable business management within high environmental impact industries, including energy, manufacturing, transportation, and construction. Employing a quantitative methodology, data were gathered from 287 managers and employees. The findings reveal that transformational leadership exerts a significant positive influence on sustainable organizational culture, which subsequently enhances sustainable business management. Moreover, sustainable organizational culture partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and sustainable business management, with an indirect effect. These results build on prior research by emphasizing the mediating role of organizational culture in industries facing substantial environmental challenges. The study enriches the leadership and sustainability literature by offering empirical insights into the mechanisms linking leadership to sustainable outcomes. Practically, it suggests that organizations should prioritize cultivating transformational leadership and a sustainability-focused culture to improve their economic, social, and environmental performance. The research highlights the need to align leadership strategies with cultural values to achieve enduring sustainability objectives.

References

Abbass, K., Qasim, M. Z., Song, H., Murshed, M., Mahmood, H., & Younis, I. (2022). A review of the global climate change impacts, adaptation, and sustainable mitigation measures. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29(28), 42539–42559. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19718-6

Ahsan, M. J. (2024). Unlocking sustainable success: Exploring the impact of transformational leadership, organizational culture, and CSR performance on financial performance in the Italian manufacturing sector. Social Responsibility Journal, 20(4), 783–803. https://doi.org/10.1108/SRJ-06-2023-0332

Bass, B. M. (1999). Two Decades of Research and Development in Transformational Leader-ship. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8(1), 9–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/135943299398410

Bass, B. M., & Riggio, R. E. (2006). Transformational Leadership (0 ed.). Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410617095

Baumgartner, R. J., & Rauter, R. (2017). Strategic perspectives of corporate sustainability man-agement to develop a sustainable organization. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, 81–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.04.146

Cochran, W. G. (1946). Relative Accuracy of Systematic and Stratified Random Samples for a Certain Class of Populations. The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 17(2), 164–177. https://doi.org/10.1214/aoms/1177730978

Elkington, J., & Rowlands, I. H. (1999). Cannibals with forks: The triple bottom line of 21st century business. Alternatives Journal, 25(4), 42.

Epstein, M. J., & Roy, M.-J. (2001). Sustainability in Action: Identifying and Measuring the Key Performance Drivers. Long Range Planning, 34(5), 585–604. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-6301(01)00084-X

Farrukh, M., Ansari, N., Raza, A., Wu, Y., & Wang, H. (2022). Fostering employee’s pro-environmental behavior through green transformational leadership, green human re-source management and environmental knowledge. Technological Forecasting and So-cial Change, 179, 121643. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121643

Ge, M., Friedrich, J., & Vigna, L. (2024). Where Do Emissions Come From? 4 Charts Explain Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Sector. https://www.wri.org/insights/4-charts-explain-greenhouse-gas-emissions-countries-and-sectors

Harrison, P. A., Jäger, J., Frantzeskaki, N., & Berry, P. (2019). Understanding high-end climate change: From impacts to co-creating integrated and transformative solutions. Regional Environmental Change, 19(3), 621–627. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-019-01477-9

Hoa, P. X., Xuan, V. N., & Phuong Thu, N. T. (2023). Nexus of innovation, renewable consump-tion, FDI, growth and CO2 emissions: The case of Vietnam. Journal of Open Innova-tion: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 9(3), 100100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joitmc.2023.100100

IPCC. (2018). Global Warming of 1.5 oC —. https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/

Judge, T. A., & Piccolo, R. F. (2004). Transformational and Transactional Leadership: A Meta-Analytic Test of Their Relative Validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(5), 755–768. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.755

Kantabutra, S. (2020). Toward an Organizational Theory of Sustainability Vision. Sustainabil-ity, 12(3), 1125. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031125

Kaur Bagga, S., Gera, S., & Haque, S. N. (2023). The mediating role of organizational culture: Transformational leadership and change management in virtual teams. Asia Pacific Management Review, 28(2), 120–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmrv.2022.07.003

Ketprapakorn, N., & Kantabutra, S. (2022). Toward an organizational theory of sustainability culture. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 32, 638–654. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2022.05.020

Khaddage-Soboh, N., Yunis, M., Imran, M., & Zeb, F. (2024). Sustainable practices in Malaysi-an manufacturing: The influence of CSR, transformational leadership, and green organi-zational culture on environmental performance. Economic Analysis and Policy, 82, 753–768. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eap.2024.04.001

Lani, J. (2010). Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Multifactor-Leadership-Questionnaire-(MLQ)-Lani/6c8406213282898025d829c4b8a3a02058c4a169

Linnenluecke, M. K., & Griffiths, A. (2010). Corporate sustainability and organizational cul-ture. Journal of World Business, 45(4), 357–366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2009.08.006

Lloret, A. (2016). Modeling corporate sustainability strategy. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), 418–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.06.047

Madi Odeh, R. B. S., Obeidat, B. Y., Jaradat, M. O., Masa’deh, R., & Alshurideh, M. T. (2023). The transformational leadership role in achieving organizational resilience through adaptive cultures: The case of Dubai service sector. International Journal of Productivi-ty and Performance Management, 72(2), 440–468. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-02-2021-0093

Martinaityte, I., & Sacramento, C. A. (2013). When creativity enhances sales effectiveness: The moderating role of leader–member exchange. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(7), 974–994. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1835

Morioka, S. N., & De Carvalho, M. M. (2016). A systematic literature review towards a concep-tual framework for integrating sustainability performance into business. Journal of Cleaner Production, 136, 134–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.01.104

Ørsted. (2024). Ørsted sustainability reporting. https://orsted.com/en/who-we-are/sustainability/sustainability-report

Pasricha, P., Singh, B., & Verma, P. (2018). Ethical Leadership, Organic Organizational Cul-tures and Corporate Social Responsibility: An Empirical Study in Social Enterprises. Journal of Business Ethics, 151(4), 941–958. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3568-5

Peterson, R. A. (1994). A Meta-Analysis of Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha. Journal of Consumer Research, 21(2), 381. https://doi.org/10.1086/209405

Piwowar-Sulej, K., & Iqbal, Q. (2023). Leadership styles and sustainable performance: A sys-tematic literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 382, 134600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.134600

Ramesh, Dr. S. (2023). Sustainable Business Practices: Integrating Environmental Impact Man-agement into Modern Commerce Strategies. Journal of Environmental Impact and Management Policy, 41, 22–26. https://doi.org/10.55529/jeimp.41.22.26

Ren, Q., Li, W., & Mavros, C. (2024). Transformational Leadership and Sustainable Practices: How Leadership Style Shapes Employee Pro-Environmental Behavior. Sustainability, 16(15), 6499. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16156499

Robertson, J. L., & Barling, J. (2013). Greening organizations through leaders’ influence on employees’ pro‐environmental behaviors. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(2), 176–194. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1820

S, S., & Mohanasundaram, T. (2024). Fit Indices in Structural Equation Modeling and Con-firmatory Factor Analysis: Reporting Guidelines. Asian Journal of Economics, Business and Accounting, 24(7), 561–577. https://doi.org/10.9734/ajeba/2024/v24i71430

Sánchez‐García, E., Montalvo‐Falcón, J. V., Marco‐Lajara, B., & Martínez‐Falcó, J. (2024). Guiding organizations toward sustainable success: The strategic role of leadership in environmental corporate governance in the wine industry. Corporate Social Responsi-bility and Environmental Management, 31(6), 6438–6456. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2925

Saranya J, S. J., & Anbu A, A. A. (2025). The Impact of Transformational Leadership on Organ-izational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment in Manufacturing Industry. Qubahan Academic Journal, 5(1), 388–404. https://doi.org/10.48161/qaj.v5n1a1272

Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons. https://books.google.com/books?hl=vi&lr=&id=Mnres2PlFLMC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=Organizational+Culture+and+Leadership&ots=oqfuFc4qSf&sig=UwhoZKHsAtPhBy_lw3j9CB-IQDo

Tourigny, L., Han, J., Baba, V. V., & Pan, P. (2019). Ethical Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility in China: A Multilevel Study of Their Effects on Trust and Organization-al Citizenship Behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 158(2), 427–440. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3745-6

Urlacher, B. R. (2020). Complexity, Causality, and Control in Statistical Modeling. American Behavioral Scientist, 64(1), 55–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219859641

Wang, W., Zhang, D., Wang, H., Zhu, Q., & Morabbi Heravi, H. (2023). How do businesses achieve sustainable success and gain a competitive advantage in the green era? Kyber-netes, 52(9), 3241–3260. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-07-2021-0614

Wolf, E. J., Harrington, K. M., Clark, S. L., & Miller, M. W. (2013). Sample Size Requirements for Structural Equation Models: An Evaluation of Power, Bias, and Solution Propriety. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 73(6), 913–934. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164413495237

Wu, L.-Z., Kwan, H. K., Yim, F. H., Chiu, R. K., & He, X. (2015). CEO Ethical Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Moderated Mediation Model. Journal of Business Ethics, 130(4), 819–831. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2108-9

Zheng, X., Wang, R., Hoekstra, A. Y., Krol, M. S., Zhang, Y., Guo, K., Sanwal, M., Sun, Z., Zhu, J., Zhang, J., Lounsbury, A., Pan, X., Guan, D., Hertwich, E. G., & Wang, C. (2021). Consideration of culture is vital if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. One Earth, 4(2), 307–319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.01.012

Downloads

Published

2025-06-30

How to Cite

Doan, H. H., & Tran, T. M. L. (2025). THE ROLE OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN FOSTERING BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SUSTAINABILITY: THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF SUSTAINABLE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE. AMNESIA (JURNAL MANAJEMEN SUMBER DAYA MANUSIA), 3(2), 166–177. https://doi.org/10.61167/amnesia.v3i2.174