LAUSR

PurposeThis empirical research draws on the existing theory of transformational leadership, adaptive culture and organizational resilience, and investigates the effect of the elected TQM leadership style “transformational leadership” through the mediating effect of adaptive culture on organizational resilience, that is the key of survival during crises like the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which has severely impacted the business globally.Design/methodology/approachThis study exploited a cross-sectional online questionnaire of a random sample of Dubai service firms, with the unit of analysis being at the firm level. In total, 379 usable responses were received. Regression analysis was conducted to test hypotheses.FindingsThe overall findings of this study supported that transformational leadership is positively associated with both adaptive culture and firm's resilience and significantly impacts them. Adaptive culture was found partially mediating the effect of transformational leadership on organizational resilience.Practical implicationsThe research findings provide important insights to practitioners (managers and leaders) to better improve their transformational qualities, as these qualities are expected to improve the organizational adaptive cultures and capacity of resilience.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first studies to examine the transformational leadership effect on organizational adaptive culture and firm's resilience. This investigation expands the boundaries of leadership style theory into new arenas, attempting to partially address the identified knowledge gap in this vein.