Transformational leadership and branding behavior in Taiwanese hotels

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. Survey data were obtained from 34 human resource managers and 326 customer contact employees working in Taiwanese hotels. Transformational leadership was found to have both direct and indirect positive influences on the development of organizational brand climate and employees' branding behavior. 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. 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.