Transformational and Transactional Leadership Styles and Employee Performance in Public Sector Organizations in Africa: A Comprehensive Analysis in Ghana

The purpose of this research is to investigate the psychological mechanisms that cause the influence of transformational and transactional leadership on employee performance. Based on employee stewardship theory (EST) and social exchange theory (SET), an organizational commitment was selected as a perfect moderating variable to conduct the study. The data were collected from sixteen (16) organizations in the public sector of Ghana, consisting of 330 full-time employees. The results indicate that organizational commitment positively moderates transformational leadership while transactional leadership does not. We realized that when transformational leadership is high, organizational commitment goes up, thereby increasing employee performance. On the other hand, when transactional leadership goes up, organizational commitment decreases, causing employees performance to dwindle. Therefore, transactional leaders should augment their approach with transformational leadership to increase employee performance. This research offers practical implications relevant to provide strategies for leaders to PSOs to influence employees to perform beyond the limit.