Transformational Leadership in Employee Green Behavior Research: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

Despite longstanding conceptual and measurement concerns surrounding transformational leadership, environmental applications of the paradigm have continued to proliferate through target-specific formulations and increasingly complex explanatory models. Yet whether these developments have resolved, or merely reproduced, the broader theoretical and methodological concerns that characterize transformational leadership research remains unclear. Against this backdrop, this systematic review, conducted and reported in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, critically synthesizes the empirical literature on transformational leadership in employee green behavior research while situating it within this broader theoretical and methodological context. Peer-reviewed English-language articles published since 2000 were retrieved from Scopus, Web of Science, and ABI/INFORM and screened against predefined eligibility criteria, resulting in 64 studies. Results revealed limited empirical engagement with the theory’s linchpin of follower transformation. Rather than modeling change in follower self-concept, most studies adopted Bass’s four-pillar framework and examined associations between follower-perceived behaviors of transformational leaders and environmental outcomes within diverse mediational and conditional process models. Across almost all studies, higher perceptions of transformational leadership were positively associated with employee green behavior, irrespective of whether the construct was operationalized using general or environmentally specific formulations. Organizational factors, most notably perceived green organizational climate, emerged as the most frequently examined mediating mechanism and contextual boundary condition linking transformational leadership to employee green behavior. Both general and target-specific formulations were predominantly operationalized using measures based on the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), raising concerns regarding the intelligibility of cumulative evidence. We conclude by outlining a research agenda aimed at enhancing theoretical coherence, measurement validity, and methodological rigor.