Transformational leadership and branding behavior in Taiwanese hotels

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the messages delivered by transformational leaders to front-line employees to build an organizational brand climate and encourage employees' branding behaviors, to attain better company performance within the Taiwanese hotel industry.Design methodology approach - Survey data were obtained from 34 human resource managers and 326 customer contact employees working in Taiwanese hotels.Findings - Transformational leadership was found to have both direct and indirect positive influences on the development of organizational brand climate and employees' branding behavior.Practical implications - Results suggest that transformational leaders may facilitate employees' branding behaviors by developing an organizational brand climate to distinguish the organization from its competitors and develop long-term customer relationships.Originality value - This study advances the knowledge of antecedents and outcomes of the organizational brand climate by applying a multilevel approach to reflect the hierarchical nature of brand distinctiveness within the Taiwanese hotel industry.