Transformational Leadership, Integrity and Collectivistic Culture Impacts towards Social Sustainability: the Mediating Role of Training and Development

Basil, Dhaniyaa (2023) Transformational Leadership, Integrity and Collectivistic Culture Impacts towards Social Sustainability: the Mediating Role of Training and Development. Masters thesis, Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

In the past few decades, social sustainability has increasingly become important for the business community, and this is particularly true of the Malaysian employees which has a huge impact on the nation’s environment, society as well as economic development. To influence social sustainable actions, focusing on the behaviour of internal stakeholders should be the first step. However, past studies have not accentuated the roles of human governance in social sustainability achievement. This research, therefore, addresses this shortcoming by adopting a S-O-R model, stewardship theory and transformational leadership theory, extended with elements of transformational leadership, integrity, collectivistic culture and training and development as determinants of social sustainability. Specifically, this research presents the transformational leadership, integrity, collectivistic culture on social sustainability incorporation in the Malaysian employees through the mediating role of training and development. The main objectives of this research are to investigate (1) the influences of training and development and elements of transformational leadership, integrity, collectivistic culture on social sustainability; and (2) the impact of transformational leadership, integrity, collectivistic culture on training and development. The secondary objective of this research is to examine the mediating role of training and development on the relationships between the elements of transformational leadership, integrity, collectivistic culture and social sustainability. A quantitative research design with cross-sectional study was utilised and the online questionnaire survey was adopted. Based on judgement and snowball sampling techniques, a sample of 267 employees (primary data) was collected. The findings gathered were analysed using both Statistical Package for Social Sciences (“SPSS”) and SmartPLS software. The research findings evinced the significant positive influences of training and development and the elements of transformational leadership, integrity, collectivistic culture e on social 6 sustainability. This research also corroborated that, out of the three elements of transformational leadership, integrity and collectivistic culture, both transformational leadership and integrity (but not collectivism) have significant positive impact on training and development. This research, moreover, concluded that training and development partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and social sustainability, as well as the relationship between integrity and social sustainability. However, results found that training and development does not mediate the relationship between collectivistic culture and social sustainability. The research contributes an unabridged perspective on social sustainability by providing a deeper understanding of how training and development intervenes the relationship between transformational leadership, integrity and collectivistic culture towards social sustainability. From a practical perspective, the research findings have highlighted the importance of employers to revisit their policies in the workplace to customise employees’ training and development that supports human governance and social sustainability.