The Role of Transformational Leadership in Employee Productivity in the Sabah Public Sector

Employee productivity is an underlying contributing factor of organisational effectiveness inside the public service sector. Transformational leadership is found to suit organisations that are undergoing digital transformation and administrative reform in the wake of heightened public organisations demand for service quality, due to its role as an employee motivation factor encouraging organisational commitment and work performance through an ability of leader to give the motivation and inspire employee, ability of leader on become the role model towards employee , ability of leaders to nurture employee thinking skills and also ability on providing the right plans for employee as individuals . However, the limited empirical studies evaluate its applicability to the more specific Sabah public service scenario.
This study observes the relationship between transformational leadership and employee productivity and investigates the moderating role of transformational leadership in the relationship between employee quality and productivity among public servants in Sabah. A quantitative survey research design was employed in this study. A total of 150 questionnaires were distributed to public servants, of which 101 completed questionnaires were returned and included in the analysis. The collected data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 27. The statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, multiple linear regression, and Hayes' PROCESS Macro Model 1 to examine the moderating effect of transformational leadership.
The result of the analysis shows that the transformational leadership has a positive relationship with employee productivity. However, transformational leadership did not significantly act as a moderator in the relationship between employee quality and employee productivity. The findings indicate that transformational leadership does not play a moderating role in strengthening the relationship between employee quality and employee productivity in public sector in Sabah, as employee productivity is more strongly influenced by factors such as employee competency, a supportive work environment, and emotional well-being. Therefore, public sector organisations should focus on strengthening leadership development together with competency development, effective human resource management practices, and organisational support in order to improve employee productivity in Sabah Public Service Sector.

Transformational Leadership, Employee Productivity, Moderator, Employee Quality, Public Service, Sabah.

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