THE EFFECT OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP ON EMPLOYEE THRIVING AT WORK IN STARTUP ORGANIZATIONS IN BANGKOK THE ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY AND AGENTIC WORK BEHAVIOR

Abstract

The objective of this research was to examine the indirect effect of Transformational leadership on Thriving at work of startup employees in Bangkok, by analyzing the mediating roles of Psychological safety and Agentic work behavior. The sample consisted of 151 startup employees in Bangkok with a tenure of at least 4 months. Data were collected using an online questionnaire, which demonstrated Cronbach’s α coefficients ranging from 0.871 to 0.955. Statistical software was utilized for data analysis, and a serial mediation model (Model 6) was tested using the PROCESS Macro for SPSS. The findings revealed that Transformational leadership exerted a statistically significant indirect effect on Thriving at work sequentially through psychological safety and agentic work behavior (Effect = 0.0918, BootCI [0.0252, 0.1992]). Conversely, the indirect effect through agentic work behavior alone was not statistically significant (Effect = 0.0402, BootCI [-0.0174, 0.1017]). These findings suggest that within the highly volatile and dynamic context of startups, Transformational leadership alone is insufficient to directly drive employees' Agentic work behavior. Instead, Psychological safety serves as a crucial psychological unlock mechanism and bridge that fosters Agentic work behavior, ultimately leading to Thriving at work.

Keywords: Transformational Leadership, Thriving at Work, Psychological Safety, Agentic Work Behavior, Start Up