Does transformational leadership build resilient public and nonprofit organizations?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of transformational leadership – broadly defined as an individual who is visionary, innovative, inspirational and sensitive to the needs of followers – on the level of organizational resiliency. Design/methodology/approach – This study employs multiple hierarchical regression analysis to test the causal relationship between transformational leadership and organizational resiliency by utilizing 112 respondents working in emergency management departments of local governments, fire and police stations, and nonprofit organizations in the Southeastern Economic Region of South Korea. Findings – The results of the analysis indicate that transformational leadership style has a positive and statistically significant effect on perceived organizational resiliency. The findings also indicate that elected officials such as mayors are more likely to focus on building organizational resiliency than appointed officials and nonprofit leaders. Originality/value – This study fills the gap of the current literature in the field of emergency management by establishing empirical evidence of the need to identify leaders with transformational traits in order to build a resilient organization, which can better respond and adapt to a catastrophic event in the Asian context.