Transformational Leadership and Psychological Empowerment in Malaysian Public Universities: A Review Paper

Abstract

The purpose of this article paper is to review empirical research on the relationship between transformational leadership and psychological empowerment of academic staff in the Malaysian Public Universities. The study is aimed at reviewing the existing literature and specify the agenda for future research in this area. Specifically, the published English language articles that investigated the relationship between transformational leadership and psychological empowerment were retrieved from the computerized databases and a manual search. It is observed that, previous research studies have empirically and otherwise confirmed the existing relationship between transformational leadership and psychological empowerment. However, further investigation is needed on how transformational leadership influence psychological empowerment in the higher education context, especially in the Malaysian higher education context.  The paper concludes with suggestions that, the leadership of the Malaysian public universities need to focus on enhancing the level of psychological empowerment among academic staff so as to promote their workplace behaviors, which, in turn, will enhance the performance and effectiveness of Malaysian public universities.

Keywords: Transformational Leadership, Psychological Empowerment, Malaysian Higher Education