Transformational Leadership and Employee Engagement: The Mediating Roles of Trust and Training

Abstract

Background: Employee work engagement represents an important contributor to organizational performance, particularly for banks operating amid technological transformation, strong competition, and regulatory demands. Nevertheless, evidence explaining how trust and training simultaneously transmit the effect of transformational leadership to employee work engagement is still limited, especially within Indonesian banking institutions. Objective: This study examines the influence of transformational leadership on employee work engagement and assesses trust and training as mediating mechanisms among employees of conventional banks in Sumbawa City, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional approach was employed using data from 400 conventional bank employees selected through purposive sampling. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Results: The results show significant positive effects of transformational leadership on employee work engagement (β=0.169), trust (β=0.438), and training (β=0.481). Employee work engagement is also positively and significantly associated with trust (β=0.188) and training (β=0.327). Both variables significantly transmit the effect of transformational leadership to engagement, although the indirect effect through training (β=0.157) is stronger than that through trust (β=0.082). Conclusion: The findings indicate that transformational leadership strengthens employee work engagement through both a direct pathway and indirect pathways involving trust and training. This study extends leadership and human resource management literature by showing that these two mediators operate as complementary mechanisms. For banking organizations, the results emphasize the importance of transformational leadership practices, transparent and trust-based relationships, and sustained training programs to support employee engagement and organizational competitiveness.