Researcher Bdour Tayseer Maqbool, a student in the Public Relations Program at the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the Arab American University, has defended her thesis titled "The Moderating Role of Professional Self-Efficacy in the Relationship between Transformational Leadership Practices and Job Performance among Public Relations Practitioners in the Palestinian Security Institution, National Security / Case Study".
The study aimed to identify the moderating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between transformational leadership practices and job performance among public relations practitioners in the Palestinian security institution.
The study sought to answer the main question that revolved around knowing the direct and indirect role of self-efficacy that modifies the relationship between transformational leadership practices and job performance among public relations practitioners in the National Security Agency. This is to cover the research gap and the problem represented by the inadequacy of this type of studies that combine communication, psychology, management and sociology sciences in the field of public relations in the security sector.
This study is a quantitative one and relied in its methodology on the descriptive analytical approach, to describe the variables and analyze the relationship between them. A questionnaire was used for the data collection.
The researcher also conducted a comprehensive survey of all public relations practitioners working in the National Security Agency in all governorates of the West Bank, totaling 210 respondents, and came out with three statistically validated scientific measures, to obtain accurate results that can be generalized.
The study also relied on the structural equation modeling method for processing Statistics through the Smart pls 3 program. It was based in its theoretical framework on the social cognitive theory and Bandura's self-efficacy theory, which measures the level of effectiveness among public relations practitioners through its sources.
As for the transformational leadership variable, the study relied on the transformational leadership theory through the global MLQ scale prepared by the scientists Bass and Avolio. The study also relied on the Campbell model divided into task performance and context performance in its interpretation and measurement of job performance. The study went to the theoretical origins related to communication, to find the symbolic interaction theory as an explanatory theory for the study concepts.
The results of the study showed the absence of a moderating role for self-efficacy and the presence of a complete mediating role for effectiveness in the relationship between transformational leadership practices and job performance among public relations practitioners in the National Security Agency.
The study also showed a high level of self-efficacy at 79% and job performance at 79%, while the percentage of practicing transformational leadership in the National Security Agency reached 78.4%, a high percentage. The results also showed a high relationship between practicing transformational leadership and self-efficacy with job performance, and a high relationship between self-efficacy and practicing transformational leadership.
The study also showed that there are no statistically significant differences for all study variables attributed to gender, age, educational level, workplace, military rank, and job title.
The study recommended the need to expand research on the modified and mediating roles in the field of social sciences and public relations, in addition to the importance of focusing on the concept of self-efficacy and its role in institutions in the field of public relations.
As for the applied field, the study recommended the need to provide appropriate organizational leadership training and education for candidates to assume leadership positions in the agency, and to enhance their ability to adopt transformational leadership practices as an approach before they reach leadership positions, and recommended taking into account the recommendations of this study in preparing strategic plans for public institutions and security institutions.
The thesis was supervised by Dr. Ghassan Nimer. The examination committee included Dr. Akram Hamdan and Dr. Hussein Al Ahmad.