With or Without You : Transformational Leadership, Psychological Safety, and Job Satisfaction in Hybrid Work

Sammanfattning

Abstract Date: 2026-05-27 Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Ahmad Al Damanhouri / Liam Garcia / Love Hallgren Supervisor: Emre Yildiz Title: With or Without You - Transformational Leadership, Psychological Safety, and Job Satisfaction in Hybrid Work Keywords: Transformational Leadership, Psychological Safety, Hybrid Work Research question: How does transformational leadership influence employee job satisfaction through psychological safety, and how is this relationship shaped by work arrangement? Purpose: The goal of this study is to examine how transformational leadership influences job satisfaction, whether psychological safety mediates this relationship, and whether these effects differ between hybrid and in-office employees. Method: This thesis applied a quantitative, cross-sectional research design using an online questionnaire distributed to employees working in both hybrid and in-office environments. Established psychometric scales were used to measure transformational leadership, psychological safety and job satisfaction. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, regression analysis, mediation analysis, and moderation analysis. Conclusion: The findings indicate that transformational leadership was positively associated with both psychological safety and employee job satisfaction. Psychological safety also showed a positive effect on job satisfaction and partially mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction. However, the results did not support the assumption that these relationships differed significantly between hybrid and in-office employees. Overall, the findings suggest that transformational leadership remains important for employee job satisfaction regardless of work arrangement.