The Moderating Role of Transformational Leadership in the Relationship Between Organizational Mindfulness and Employee Well-Being in Pakistan's Educational Sector

Abstract

The present study aimed at exploring the moderating effect of Transformational Leadership on Organizational Mindfulness and Employee Well-being in the Educational Sector of Pakistan. We draw from the Conservation of Resources Theory, Social Information Processing Theory, and Trait Activation Theory and argue that transformational leadership augments the positive impact of organizational mindfulness on faculty well-being. A cross-sectional research design was used to gather data from 420 teachers from public and private educational institutions in Pakistan. The three constructs were found to be distinct and there was good fit for the models (CFI = .953, TLI = .941, RMSEA = .062, and SRMR = .048). Demographic variables were controlled for in the hierarchical multiple regression analysis, in which organizational mindfulness was seen as a significant and positive predictor of employee well-being (β = 0.745, t = 26.17, p < .001, R² = .621). There was also a significant additional variance in employee well-being accounted for by transformational leadership (ΔR² = .170, p < .001), and there was a significant positive interaction effect between Organizational Mindfulness × Transformational Leadership (β = 0.095, t = 4.15, p < .001, ΔR² = .008, F-change = 17.22, p < .001, effect size f² = .009, small and meaningful). Simple slope analysis validated this difference between mindfulness and well-being in a high versus low transformational leadership context (simple slope = .412 versus .237, respectively). The robustness of the interaction effect (95% CI [0.049, 0.141]) was also supported by bootstrapping (5,000 resamples). The results have implications for theory and practice as they emphasize the need for developing organizational mindfulness as well as transformational leadership skills in educational organizations. This study fills an important gap in the current literature by investigating this moderated model first time in an educational setting in South Asia.

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