Friendship, transformational leadership and organizational climate

Abstract

This article examines the effect of transformational leadership on friendship at the workplace and organizational climate at a major military organization, in the Isfahan province of Iran. The study also examines the mediating role of organizational climate in these relations. This is a descriptive-correlative study. Considering the number of questions in the questionnaire, a sample of 530 individuals was selected and questionnaires were distributed among them. After collecting the questionnaires, 502 of them were fully completed and used for data analysis. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and the Sobel test were used to analyze the data. The results show that transformational leadership has a positively significant effect on friendship at the workplace and organizational climate. Organizational climate has a positively significant effect on friendship at the workplace. Moreover, organizational climate has a mediating relation between transformational leadership and friendship at the workplace. The results also show that military commanders can promote interpersonal and organizational relationships by changing their leadership style, and thereby create a friendly atmosphere among military personnel, leading to increased satisfaction and motivation as well as defense commitment. Implications of these results for practitioners and researchers are discussed. © 2018 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.