The role of transformational leadership and employee productivity in logistics performance

Background: In the literature review, it was determined that logistics performance was neglected, compared to supply chain performance within the scope of organizational performance. The main purpose of this study is to examine the effect of transformational leadership in the courier services industry on logistics performance and the moderating effect of employee productivity in this relationship. Methods: To test the hypothesis, an online survey was conducted on a sample of 347 respondents from the Turkish courier industry. Research data of this cross-sectional study was obtained from participants working as moto-couriers in a digital marketing company over a 2-week period. The data obtained was analyzed using SPSS-27 and AMOS-22 programs. In the analyses, descriptive analyses were performed first, and then the validity and reliability of the scales were tested. Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between variables, and PROCESS Macro, developed as an SPSS plug-in, was used to test the research hypotheses. Hypothesis testing was conducted with 5000 resamples and a 95% confidence interval. Results: The results show that transformational leadership has a positive and significant effect on logistics performance, and employee productivity has a moderating effect on this relationship. Conclusion: This is one of the few studies that considers the role of transformational leadership in the courier service industry from the perspective of logistics performance rather than supply chain performance. The findings could offer a detailed understanding of how employee productivity affects the relationship between transformational leadership and logistics performance in the courier service that shows how the transformational leader positively affects the productivity of employees and indirectly affects their performance. The results of this study have important managerial implications for business managers in the courier service industry to improve organizational performance through logistics performance.