Transformational leadership and human resource development: Linking employee learning, job satisfaction, and organizational performance

This large-scale study (n = 5,349) explores a long-standing, but rarely validated value chain. Since the inception of human resource development (HRD), the intersection between top organizational leadership, HRD, and organizational performance outcomes has been emphasized by scholars and practitioners. Leadership has been highlighted as the key catalyst both in encouraging employee learning and performance and in formulating an HRD supportive culture toward key organizational outcomes. However, there is a dearth of empirical studies that have focused on the intersection of leadership, HRD, and organizational performance, and virtually no studies have systematically investigated specific leadership practices, such as transformational leadership (TL). We explore the intersection between TL, HRD, and organizational performance by engaging 3,474 employees and 1,875 customers from 69 healthcare locations in the United States. Ideally, transformational leaders encourage followers to enrich their knowledge, skills, and abilities in order to increase individual and shared learning to advance organizational performance. A major organizational support function toward such employee development is HRD and its core domains-learning and performance. Those organizations fostering excellence in learning and performance have been identified as having strong organizational HRD cultures. The study reported herein supported that TL behaviors aligned to support HRD culture through leader support of employee learning and performance in the US healthcare context. Organizational HRD culture was found to align with key positive employee and customer-reported performance outcomes. Implications for leadership and HRD research, theory, and practice are explicated.