Leading with Heart: The Impact of Transformational Leadership on Employee Psychological Well-Being in the Hotel Industry in Sri Lanka

The hotel industry in Sri Lanka is highly demanding, often leading to work-related stress that affects employees' psychological well-being. This study examines the impact of transformational leadership on the psychological well-being of frontline employees in five-star hotels in Sri Lanka. Grounded in Bass’s Transformational Leadership Theory, the study examines how transformational leadership, through its four dimensions, namely idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration, influences employee psychological well-being. Adopting a positivist paradigm, the study employed a quantitative research approach using simple random sampling to select 254 frontline employees from various departments in five-star hotels. The dataset of the study was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics techniques. The findings of the study indicate that transformational leadership has a significant positive impact on the psychological well-being of employees. The study highlights the key contribution of transformational leadership in mitigating workplace stress, generating job satisfaction, and promoting a supportive organizational culture.