Transformational leadership, organizational justice, and readiness to change: The mediating role of job satisfaction

Mergers and acquisitions create uncertainty about leadership, pay, and work procedures, yet it remains unclear whether leadership and fair treatment build employees’ readiness to change through job satisfaction or directly. Drawing on social exchange theory and uncertainty management theory, this study examines how transformational leadership and organizational justice relate to job satisfaction and readiness to change, and how job satisfaction mediates this relationship. Using survey data from 165 permanent employees of five private hospitals in Tangerang, Indonesia, that had undergone mergers and acquisitions, the study analyzed relationships using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Transformational leadership was positively related to organizational justice, job satisfaction, and readiness to change, and organizational justice was positively related to job satisfaction and readiness to change. However, job satisfaction was not related to readiness to change and did not mediate the relationships between transformational leadership or organizational justice and readiness. These findings indicate that, during mergers and acquisitions, readiness depends on change-relevant signals of leadership and fairness rather than on satisfaction with the current job, marking a boundary condition for the affective pathway in social exchange theory. Managers should therefore prioritize fair, transparent integration procedures and visible transformational leadership over satisfaction programs alone.