Transformational Leadership Boosts Civil Servant Performance Through Work Motivation and Job Satisfaction

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FORMOSA NEWS

A study conducted by Nico Primadona and Vidyarini Dwita from Universitas Negeri Padang in early 2026 reveals how transformational leadership can boost the performance of civil servants. Using data from 145 state apparatus respondents at the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Agency of West Sumatra Province collected between January and March 2026, these findings are crucial for addressing bureaucratic efficiency challenges in government sectors.

Amid globalization and accelerating digital transformation, government agencies are pressured to provide effective and equitable services to the public. However, regional bureaucracies often face performance gaps, such as low realization rates for training or strategic programs due to managerial and psychological obstacles in the workplace.

To dissect this issue, the study applied a quantitative approach by distributing questionnaires to a random sample of 145 civil servants. Data processing was conducted using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to deeply examine cause-and-effect relationships.

The analysis reveals that transformational leadership exerts both direct and indirect effects that are highly significant for organizational outcomes. Here are the key findings of the research:

• Transformational leadership proves to have a positive direct effect on work motivation ($\beta = 0.652$), job satisfaction ($\beta = 0.681$), and employee performance ($\beta = 0.268$).
• Work motivation ($\beta = 0.312$) and job satisfaction ($\beta = 0.356$) each prove to be strong independent predictors for employee performance enhancement.
• Through sequential mediation, transformational leadership first triggers work motivation, which subsequently enhances job satisfaction, thereby jointly optimizing employee performance (indirect effect $\beta = 0.189$).
• This analytical model accounts for up to 68.2% of the total variance in employee performance within public agency settings.

According to Nico Primadona and Vidyarini Dwita from Universitas Negeri Padang, this model reinforces Expectancy Theory within the context of government bureaucracy. Practically, these findings provide actionable guidance for human resource practitioners to develop transformational leadership styles, improve equitable reward systems, and design motivational interventions to enhance the productivity of state servants.

Author Profiles

• Nico Primadona – Researcher and academic at Universitas Negeri Padang focusing on public sector management and performance studies.
• Vidyarini Dwita – Researcher and academic at Universitas Negeri Padang with expertise in organizational behavior and strategic management.

Research Sources

• Article Title: Transformational Leadership and Employee Performance in Indonesian Public-Sector Organisations: The Sequential Mediating Roles of Work Motivation and Job Satisfaction
• Journal Name: International Journal of Education and Life Sciences (IJELS), Vol. 4, No. 7
• Publication Year: July 2026
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.59890/ijels.v4i7.34
• URL: https://ntlmultitechpublisher.my.id/index.php/ijels