This dissertation examines the association between transformational leadership and public organizational performance using different data and methods. Each of the three articles collected in this dissertation contributes to the scholarship exploring the interplay of transformational leadership and organizational performance using distinct data and interpretive methods, examining the interplay of its elements and a widely used outcome measure – organizational performance as a dependent variable.

The first article presents evidence of the empirical studies analyzing the association between transformational leadership and public organizational performance. Based on a formal, replicable search method informed by current practices for the systematic evaluation of published evidence, this review collects and analyzes empirical research articles examining the association between transformational leadership and public organizational performance. A total of seven journal articles were identified that met the study criteria. The measures of the transformational leadership construct in these studies are different but show a common pattern of survey questionnaires with multiple-level responses. Moreover, transformational leadership is found to be positively associated with public organizational performance. Organizational performance is operationalized using several factors such as development, growth, creativity, and effectiveness in the included studies. Acknowledging the gap in the included studies, this review offers two research questions for further exploration to address the gaps in the existing studies.

The second article explores the association between the elements of transformational leadership and federal organizational performance in very large and large federal agencies using Ordinal Logistic Regression (OLR) on quantitative survey data drawn from results of the OPM Federal Employment Viewpoint Survey. Statistical findings of this study show a positive relationship between the elements of transformational leadership and organizational performance. This study contributes to the transformational leadership and public management literature by adding the scholarship exploring the association between the elements of transformational leadership and public organizational performance.

The third article explores the association between transformational leadership and organizational performance from the experiences and perspectives of U.S. federal agency employees. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with federal leaders from very large and large agencies, as per the Office of Personnel Management's classification. The perceptions of federal employees reflect the interplay between transformational leadership behaviors and perceptions of organizational performance. The informants' interviews enhance the understanding of transformational leadership-organizational performance association from the employee perspective. A process of thematic coding and interpretation is employed to analyze the interview data. The study findings contribute to the management and leadership literature by exploring the lived experiences of federal employees and their perceptions of the influence of transformational leadership on organizational performance. Moreover, the replicable qualitative interview process and analysis methodology create a pathway for future qualitative research.