Transactional Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Fine Dining Hospitality Establishments: A Moderated Mediation Analysis of Employee Engagement and Perceived Organizational Support in Lebanon

The behavior of employees in the hospitality industry has gained strategic significance as it has become a competitive service industry where the level of customer satisfaction is highly dependent on the discretionary contributions made by employees. This study examined whether Employee Engagement mediates the relationship between Transactional Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior and whether the Perceived Organizational Support moderates the relationship of Transactional Leadership and Employee Engagement among the employees working in a fine dining restaurant in Beirut, Lebanon. The study based its moderation mediation analysis on two theoretical frameworks—Social Exchange Theory and Organizational Support Theory. The study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional design and distributed 500 electronic questionnaires via Google Forms to staff working in upscale hospitality and fine dining restaurants after securing managerial approval. A total of 441 questionnaires were received. Following data screening procedures, 428 valid questionnaires were retained for analysis. The analysis was performed using the following applications: AMOS 24, SPSS 27, and the PROCESS Macro 4.2 through 5000 bootstrap resamples. Results showed that Transactional Leadership was positively associated with OCB. Employee Engagement significantly mediated the relationship between Transactional Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior. POS was found to strengthen the relationship between Transactional Leadership and Employee Engagement, and the conditional indirect effect of Transactional Leadership on Organizational Citizenship Behavior through Employee Engagement was stronger when POS was high. Originality/value: This study addresses an important gap in the conditional process leadership literature by combining the concepts of Transactional Leadership, Employee Engagement, POS, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior into one empirical model tested in a hospitality setting plagued by a crisis. The results provide viable solutions for hospitality managers interested in developing improved Employee Engagement, discretionary behavior, and service quality in an operationally constrained environment.