Date of Award

Spring 3-2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

School

Leadership

Committee Chair

Dr. H. Quincy Brown

Committee Chair School

Leadership

Committee Member 2

Dr. Heather M. Annulis

Committee Member 2 School

Leadership

Committee Member 3

Dr. Jonathan Beedle

Committee Member 3 School

Leadership

Committee Member 4

Dr. Dale L. Lunsford

Committee Member 4 School

Leadership

Abstract

Research has shown how leadership influences job satisfaction and organizational trust in the virtual workplace. With an increasing number of organizations shifting to these work environments, it is essential to study the effect of leadership on virtual workers. Prior studies suggest that leadership behaviors significantly impact job satisfaction (Hacker et al., 2019), and leadership plays a crucial role in inspiring employees to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization in a virtual workplace (Miller, 2020). Specifically, transformational leadership behaviors that shape the mindset and actions of employees are significant (Abelha et al., 2018). This study proposed a mediation model in which organizational trust influenced the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction. Using a quantitative cross-sectional research design, the researcher addressed the research questions and objectives. This study collected data via an online survey from 415 virtual U.S. workers recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Findings from this research study support the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction in the virtual workplace. The study also provides statistical evidence that organizational trust indirectly affects the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction in the virtual workplace. The findings from this study could contribute to training and leadership development initiatives within organizations by recognizing the circumstances that heighten the demand for human capital investments and identifying factors that enable transformational leadership to benefit job satisfaction in the virtual workplace.

ORCID ID

0009-0000-7010-0857

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