The mediating role of emotional commitment in the effect of the transformational leadership on organizational citizenship behaviour: A study in food and beverage enterprises

The main determinant of the quality of services offered in the food and beverage enterprises is employees. The satisfaction level of customers in the food and beverage enterprises, where production and consumption is realized simultaneously, is closely linked with the employees' performance. This makes the level of commitment and organizational citizenship behavior of the employees an important determinant. Leadership behavior of managers is the main determinant in increasing employees' commitment and organizational citizenship behavior in enterprises. In particular, transformational leadership behaviors play a very effective role in employees' commitment and citizenship behaviors. In this direction, aim of this study is to find out mediating role of emotional commitment between the transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior in food and beverage enterprises. In accordance with the stated purpose, a survey with 502 participants is conducted in food and beverages enterprises in İstanbul and the data are analyzed. In the research while analyzing descriptive data, percentage, frequency, arithmetic mean, standard deviation values are used and correlation and regression analysis, and sobel tests are employed to measure relationships. According to the results of the analysis, meaningful and positive relation exists between the transformational leadership, organizational citizenship behavior and emotional commitment in food and beverages enterprises. A partial mediating role of emotional commitment is detected within the relationship between the transformational leadership in food and beverages enterprises and organizational citizenship behavior. Keywords: Transformational Leadership, Emotional Commitment, Organizational Citizenship Behaviour, Food and Beverage Enterprises.