Mediating affective organizational commitment and job satisfaction at SMEs family: the effect of transformational leadership style on employee performance

This study examines the effects of transformational leadership, affective organizational commitment, and job satisfaction on employee performance. This study employs explanatory research with a quantitative approach. The population in this study consisted of all employees who had worked for a civil consulting partnership company for more than one year, for a total of 1008 employees. Purposive sampling was used in this study. The study used 285 samples. Surveys and documentation were used to collect data, and the instrument was tested using a Likert scale. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM-PLS). The results of this study indicate that transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment can all improve employee performance. Additionally, transformational leadership can directly boost organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment can also improve employee performance. The findings of this study suggest that managers and business owners with family businesses in civil consulting services can increase transformational leadership to improve employee performance. © 2023 by


Introduction
Human resources are critical to the success of any organization or business. Regardless of the structure or purpose of the company, it is formed on the basis of its vision and mission for the benefit of its members. Business expansion necessitates the planning and development of human resources in a variety of areas. Micro, small, and medium enterprises (SMEs), in Indonesia, in particular, play an important role as economic drivers. The rapid growth of SMEs has a positive impact on increasing employment in Indonesia. Employee performance will influence the level of company success. To achieve this goal, companies must understand what factors (quality of work, quantity of work, job knowledge, teamwork, creativity, innovation, and initiative) can improve the performance of their employees (Samsudin, 2018).
Professional managing directors play an essential role in the growth of family businesses. However, these professional managing directors are only sometimes able to grow because there is a negative effect on firm growth when professional managing directors are present in the presence of the family. Differences in company control, positions held by family members, and differences in business goals can all lead to this (Galdeano & Olaverri, 2020). Leadership that is fully managed by family members is likely to be nepotistic, resulting in company leadership being filled by those closest to the family rather than the most competent experts. A combination of relatives and professional directors, such as a transformational leadership style, has a positive impact and is more participatory and vision-based (Fries, et al. 2021). The success of a company's performance can be seen in the performance of its employees, so the company wants optimal performance from its employees (Samsudin, 2018).
The leadership style employed by a leader to influence the behavior of members (employees) to achieve organizational goals is critical in determining the company's success in overcoming crises or conflicts in family businesses. Each leader has a unique pattern for developing, stimulating, and directing the potential of their employees (Yukl, 2017). The difference in this pattern is that it depends on the leader's individual (Pawirosumarto, et al. 2017). Transformational leadership is one of the most relevant leadership models for family-owned companies (Huynh, 2021). Fries, et al. (2021) explained that transformational leadership in family firms is based on creating a shared vision among employees. In this case, the leader of the family firm will transfer emotional affection to make employees intrinsically have the same goals and ideas. On the other hand, family-owned companies will face a conflict of interest between maintaining the core values of the family and the issue of change in response to market and stakeholder needs. Leaders in family businesses will experience emotional conflict, resulting in transformative leadership (Tipu, 2018) The transformational leadership style has been imitated by numerous leaders at various levels of authority, in various types of organizations, and in numerous nations. Several studies in the hospitality business sector show a significant and positive effect on employee performance, such as research by (Buil et al., 2019;Pawirosumarto et al., 2017;Rita et al., 2018). As a result, transformational leadership research is being conducted in SMEs family companies of civil consultant alliances in East Java areas. However, the transformational leadership style's successful application on employee performance needs to be more consistent, with the transformational leadership style having no significant positive effect on employee performance. (Eliyana, et al. 2019;Prabowo, et al. 2018;Vipraprastha et al. 2018). This is due to the poor application of transformational leadership style values, resulting in decreased employee performance (Vipraprastha et al. 2018).
Improving employee performance through internal factors and transformational leadership style has been extensively researched, and there is a strong theory underlying the two variables' relationship. Inconsistencies in research results, on the other hand, occur as a result of the direct influence of these variables. Consequently, research that cannot obtain significant positive results may employ mediating variables. The role of employee job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment to employee performance, both of which have a significant positive effect, is used as the mediating variable to see if there is an indirect relationship between the dependent and independent variables Job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment are logical intervening variables between transformational leadership style and employee performance. Transformational leadership style has a positive effect on job satisfaction (Hassi 2019;Pawirosumarto, et al. 2017), and transformational leadership style has a significant positive impact on affective organizational commitment (Allen et al. (2017);Hassi. 2019;Keskes et al. (2018); Mesu et al. (2015); Mwesigwa et al. (2020). Job satisfaction has a significant positive impact on job performance (Allen et al. 2017;Keskes et al. 2018;Mwesigwa et al. 2020;Hendri 2019;Indarti et al. 2017). In addition, (Kundi et al., 2020;Sharma & Dhar, 2016;Vipraprastha et al., 2018) also convey that practical organizational commitment affective significantly positively affects employee performance.
Based on the description of the background, existing phenomena, and research gaps, the researcher is interested in this research topic and chooses a study in the family company of a civil power alliance in east Java as a research subject, including the East Java province's first civil power alliance as a research sample for SMEs in the civilian field or something similar. Second, the role of transformational leadership styles in family businesses has yet to be the subject of extensive research. Third, while employee performance is essential to the company, research on family businesses often focuses solely on company performance. Fourth, there is a research gap: the existence of disparities in research results (inconsistency) between transformational leadership style and employee performance.
This study aims to investigate the effect of transformational leadership style on employee performance mediated by job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment.

Conceptual Background and Hypothesis Development
Employee performance Robbins & Judge, (2015) assume that performance is the effort individuals expend on the job, adherence to job descriptions, and responsibility in producing goods and services. Tisnawati & Donni, (2018) also explained that performance is not an individual characteristic, such as talent or ability, but the manifestation of talent and ability. Performance management is an approach to achieving organizational goals. Performance is also related to actions taken by individuals in shaping the psychological environment of the organization, such as providing assistance to colleagues, supporting organizational goals, treating colleagues well, and contributing to suggestions that build the organization. In addition, good performance is also considered an act of avoiding things that damage the organization, such as theft, damaging property, aggressive attitudes towards coworkers, and not coming to work (Robbins & Judge 2015). The company can also make the right decisions regarding general human resources, such as promotions, transfers, and dismissals. It is intended that employee competencies and skills can be developed, and some mistakes can be remedied (Robbins & Judge 2015).

Transformational Leadership Style
Yukl, (2017) Transformational leadership is a leader who can inspire, develop, and empower followers. Transformational leaders are change agents because they are intimately involved with organizational transformation. Its principal function is as a catalyst for change, not as a change controller Tisnawati & Donni (2018). Transformational leadership is considered effective in any situation and culture. With transformational leadership, followers will gain trust, admiration, loyalty, and respect for the leader. They will be motivated to do more than initially expected so that it can produce superior organizational performance (Robbins & Judge, 2015). Transformational leadership is considered adequate for employee performance in different types of organizations, levels of authority, regions, and organizational cultures (Luthans, 2006). Pawirosumarto et al. (2017) leadership style significantly and positively influences the performance of Hotels and Resorts employees. (Buil, et al. 2019;Eliyana, et al. 2019;Rita et al. 2018) Transformational leadership style affects employee performance. Fries, et al. (2021) explained in their research that in family companies, the characteristics of the transformational leadership style match the characteristics of the family CEO.
Transformational leadership encourages more job satisfaction by providing a sense of mission and intellectual stimulation (Luthans, 2006). Leaders give subordinates the necessary freedom to make decisions, opportunities to improve themselves through additional training programs, career development counseling, and support, reward them with incentive programs and benefits, empower and encourage participation in some top-level discussions, encourage them to develop some projects and form their teams, and provide them with better and more comfortable working conditions. Job satisfaction tends to rise as leaders delegate decision-making authority to subordinates. Transformational leadership creates a compelling vision, challenges employees to collaborate for the benefit of the company, and can cause employees to develop an emotional attachment to the organization. (Allen, et al. 2017) The results of the analysis show that transformational leadership style has a positive and significant effect on affective organizational commitment, as in research by (Allen, et al. 2017;Hassi 2019;Keskes et al. 2018;Mwesigwa, et al. 2020) H1: Transformational leadership style has a positive and significant effect on employee performance H2: Transformational Leadership Style has a positive and significant effect on Job Satisfaction H3: Transformational leadership style has a positive and significant effect on effective organizational commitment

Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is defined as a positive feeling about a job that results from an evaluation of its characteristics (Robbins & Judge, 2015) Job satisfaction is also defined as an affective or emotional response to work. A person can feel satisfied in one way and insufficiently satisfied in other aspects (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2014). (Glaveli et al., 2019) explained that there are several characteristics of job satisfaction, namely empowerment factors, task enrichment factors, HRM policy factors, and leadership quality factors. Job satisfaction only sometimes has high results for empowerment, task enrichment, HRM policies, and leadership quality. Employee satisfaction leads to higher job performance, or the so-called causal law, which states that "if employees are satisfied, employees will work well and provide good performance" (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2014). According to Hendri, (2019) the work, or individual perceptions of the workload and responsibilities the management department assigns, contributes to job satisfaction variables.

Affective Organizational Commitment
A commitment is an agreement to do something for oneself, others, groups, or organizations. Meanwhile, organizational commitment is defined as the degree to which a person recognizes an organization and is bound to its goals (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2014). The relationship between commitment and performance is most substantial for new workers and weakest for experienced workers (Robbins & Judge, 2015). Affective organizational commitment can be increased by recruiting employees with the same personal values as the companies. Highly committed employees will be more productive and retain more employees (Samsudin, 2018). Sharma & Dhar, (2016) found in their research results that affective organizational commitment has a good impact on employee performance; even though employees work in poor working conditions (scarcity of the essential resources needed for smooth role execution), employees perform their duties exceptionally well because of ethical and moral obligations to provide the best service to customers. Hendri (2019); Kundi et al. (2020) ;Vipraprastha, et al. (2018), illustrate a robust positive relationship between affective commitment and employee performance.

H5:
Affective organizational commitment has a positive and significant effect on employee performance 146 The effect of transformational leadership style on employee performance, which still has research inconsistencies, needs to be analyzed more deeply by using affective organizational commitment as a mediating variable or variable that indirectly influences transformational leadership style and employee performance. Affective organizational commitment is significantly influenced by transformational leadership styles (Hassi 2019;Keskes et al. 2018;Mesu, et al. 2015;Mwesigwa, et al. 2020) and affective organizational commitment has a significant positive effect on employee performance (Hendri 2019;Kundi et al. 2020;Rita et al. 2018;Sharma & Dhar, 2016;Vipraprastha, et al. 2018). Affective commitment provides significant positive results and can be used as a mediator for two characteristics of transformational leadership style, namely intellectual stimulation and vision (Keskes et al., 2018;Sharma & Dhar, 2016;Vipraprastha et al., 2018) Organizations must encourage effective commitment among employees to inspire and encourage them to excel. Transformational leadership style has a significant and positive effect on job satisfaction (Hassi, 2019;Mwesigwa, et al. 2020;Pawirosumarto, et al. 2017) and job satisfaction has a significant positive effect on employee performance (Hendri, 2019;Indarti et al. 2017;Eliyana et al. 2019;Donthu et al. 2022). Job satisfaction is considered to help show the link or mechanism that causes the relationship between transformational leadership style and employee performance.

Methodology
This study employs an explanatory research approach to objectively test the theory by examining the relationship between each variable using statistical procedures and a quantitative approach. The population in this study consisted of all employees who had worked for a civil consulting partnership company for more than one year, for a total of 1008 employees. Purposive sampling was used in this study rather than non-probability sampling. The following criteria were used to select the sample for this study: The sample studied is an employee who works for a family company and meets the requirements of the three types of family companies (companies fully managed by the family, companies managed by professionals, family management, and family companies managed by professional management), is an active employee with a work period of more than one year, and is not a professional manager or has a position at the level of director or deputy director.
The data is obtained based on survey results and documentation. In the questionnaire submitted, a Likert scale is used to determine the extent to which respondents give their opinions according to a predetermined scale. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling partial least squares (SEM-PLS). The reason for using Warp-PLS 7.0 data analysis is the concept to test the modified results of several research models to provide an overview of the variables studied (Hamid & Suhardi M Anwar, 2017). Transformational leadership style variables use indicators from Bass et al., (2003) (Buil, et al. 2019;Hassi 2019;Vipraprastha, et al. 2018;Allen et al. 2017;Gao & Bai, 2011). Job satisfaction uses indicators from Glaveli, et al. 2019(Mwesigwa et al. 2020Eliyana, et al. 2019). Furthermore, organizational commitment uses indicators adopted from N. J. Allen & Meyer, (1990) (Valaei, 2016;Hassi, 2019;Qalati et al. 2022) and employee performance using indicators from Koopmans et al. (2011), (Eliyana, et al. 2019;Qalati et al. 2022)

Finding and Discussion
SMEs are defined as businesses with a capital of less than IDR 1 billion, excluding land and buildings for business purposes. In the case of PT business entities, at least two administrators also act as directors and commissioners. Meanwhile, CV management is handled by at least two people, namely Active and Passive Persero. In the field, management is usually filled with mostly family members who act as passive Persero, with some also acting as commissioners, and non-family members run management. This study discovered that many of these businesses are run by professional managers and that obtaining these results can positively impact company growth. The data from the table above explains that the characteristics of respondents who work in companies engaged in civil planning and supervision consultants in East Java, most work in the age range of 27-34 years (54%). Furthermore, the characteristics of respondents who work in family businesses engaged in planning consultants and civil supervision in East Java are dominated by the most recent Bachelor's education background (60.13%). This is due to the fact that it is influenced by the job desks available in civil consultant design and planning, which require specialized field knowledge. 53.5 percent of employees have worked for 1 to 5 years, indicating that half of the respondents do not wish to remain with the company for too long. Many employees leave for a variety of reasons, but the most common are the desire to start a business in the same field or the desire to accept a position with a larger company. In addition, unsatisfactory salaries, the lack of a career path, and the absence of benefits such as family allowances are also contributing factors. Despite the fact that the company has provided labor BPJS insurance, many employees argue that numerous facilities should be improved for the welfare of the workforce. Some of these factors will be explained in greater detail in the subsection on research results.

Descriptive Statistic and Correlation
This study uses variables of Transformational Leadership, Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Employee Performance. And can be seen in Table 2 along with the results of the average value of respondents' answers equipped with the standard deviation of each variable.

Measurement Model Analysis
To test the quality of the data, this study uses convergent validity and discriminant validity tests with the constructs to be measured for the initial research scale development values between 0.50 to 0.60 are values that are considered sufficient (Ghozali & Latan, 2015). In more detail, the results of the validity and reliability tests can be seen in table 3 below. The results of the convergent validity test are presented in Table 4 by examining the loading factor value of each indicator on the four variables (Transformational Leadership, Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Employee Performance) with a value greater than 0.70 (Ghozali & Latan 2015). In addition, the validity test with discriminant validity can be observed in the root value of the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) by comparing the coefficient value on each variable with the correlation value on each variable relationship in the research model; each root AVE value is greater than 0.50. In conclusion, the items utilized in this study are valid. After validating the data, reliability testing is conducted using Cronbach's alpha and the composite reliability values. The following are the results of the reliability test in Table 4  Based on Table 4 above, it can be concluded that the data used in this study are reliable. The reliability threshold value is >0.70 (Ghozali & Latan 2015) Each variable has a Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability value greater than 0.70, as shown in Table  4. So that the materials used for this study are reliable.

Structural Model Analysis
The structural model (Hamid & Suhardi. 2017) is a model that describes the causal relationship between latent variables that are constructed based on the substance of the theory. By determining R2 and the path coefficient, the PLS structural model is validated. By comparing the t-statistic to the t-table within the output of SMART-PLS First, the impact of transformational leadership on employee performance should be evaluated, followed by the impact on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Then, the impact of job satisfaction on employee performance and organizational commitment on employee performance will be examined.

Figure 2: Direct Effect Test Results; Source: Processed Primary Data 2023
Based on this figure, it can be explained that the effect of transformational leadership style on employee performance has a significant positive effect (β = 0.748, p < 0.05). In addition, transformational leadership style on job satisfaction has a positive and significant effect (β = 0.4, p < 0.05). Furthermore, the effect of transformational leadership style on organizational commitment is positive and significant (β = 0.121, p < 0.05). The results of the direct effect of job satisfaction on employee performance show a positive and significant effect (β = 0.397, p < 0.05), and the results of organizational commitment to employee performance show a positive and significant effect (β = 0.240, p < 0.05). Based on this explanation, it can be obtained that the direct testing hypotheses, namely H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5, are accepted. For the results of indirect hypothesis testing can be seen in Table 5 below Job satisfaction between transformational leadership style on employee performance has a positive and significant effect (β = 0.297, p < 0.05) and organizational commitment also successfully mediates traditional leadership style on employee performance which shows positive and significant results (β = 0.097, p < 0.05). It can be concluded that hypothesis 6 and hypothesis 7 in the study are accepted. This can be interpreted that job satisfaction and organizational commitment become partial mediation between transformational leadership style on employee performance.
The overall PLS structural model was evaluated by calculating the R2 and path coefficient values. The R-squared for the variable employee performance is 0.573. This figure demonstrates that the employee performance variable can be influenced by independent variables such as transformational leadership style, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment to the extent of 57.30% of the model's predictive power.
Transformational leaders have the ability to make changes within their organizations by elucidating the vision and goals, thereby empowering employees to assume responsibility for achieving the vision (Buil, et al. 2019). This study has findings that reinforce the idea that corporate leaders with inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, idealized influence, and intellectual stimulation have a crucial role in influencing employee performance. Arnold (2017), in his findings, explained that the implementation of vision and goals is an essential characteristic in family companies because family interests can affect company goals and require employee support. Fries, et al. (2021) characterized the intellectual stimulation of leaders in family companies by encouraging employees to create new knowledge for the company. In fact, in this study, employees assessed that most respondents did not contribute creative ideas at work. This factor can occur because the form of company management is still widely run by professional managers with less control over the company.
Transformational leadership is more likely to be used in family companies than non-family companies (Vallejo. 2011). This is because transformational leadership is only equally effective in some situations. It will be more effective in small private companies because leaders can interact directly with their employees in decision-making (Robbins & Judge 2015). Applying transformational leadership style to employee performance, specifically in the service sector, was carried out by (Buil, et al. 2019;Eliyana, et al. 2019) obtained the results of a significant positive effect of the influence of transformational leadership style on employee performance. Transformational leadership will be more effective in improving employee performance if leaders can motivate their followers by communicating and reinforcing the company's vision, mission, and goals (Buil, et al. 2019). The application of transformational leadership that motivates shows an ideal attitude, guides, and leaders who can meet the needs of companies (family companies engaged in civil consultants in East Java) is considered adequate and can maximally improve employee performance.
Transformational leadership characteristics have a positive and significant causal relationship with employee job satisfaction. Fries, et al. (2021) provide evidence that employee satisfaction in family firms increases with the transformational leadership style of the family CEO. This shows that the company leader has an attitude of being a facilitator (individual consideration), which is considered to be able to assign tasks appropriately to each individual according to education and expertise. Leaders in family companies are also considered intellectually capable, challenging, and giving employees the necessary freedom. Mwesigwa, et al. (2020);Puni, et al. (2018) transformational leaders can provide opportunities for employees to make decisions, improve themselves, and provide counseling and career development support, thus providing job satisfaction. Company leaders are considered necessary to have an idealized influence by showing good role models such as being professional and brave in making decisions and handling work. In their findings, Puni, et al. (2018) explain that a leader's exemplary behavior can increase employee job satisfaction because leaders tend to show how a good attitude of responsibility works. Transformational leadership in family companies engaged in civil consulting has been confirmed positively and significantly directly can increase employee job satisfaction. Mwesigwa, et al. (2020) The leader of a family company engaged in civil consulting has transformational leadership characteristics and directly influences affective organizational commitment. Employees with practical organizational commitment will have similar values and feel like family with the company, making it less likely for employees to leave (Robbins & Judge 2015). Transformational leadership that motivates employees with emotional appeal creates a compelling vision and challenges employees to work together for the company's benefit so that employees have affective, emotional attachments to maintain themselves in the organization (Allen, et al. 2017). Employees show strong affective organizational commitment when the company recognizes their efforts, contributions, and performance. This recognition gives employees the opportunity to be responsible and supported (Hassi, 2019). (Allen, et al. 2017;Hassi 2019;Keskes et al. 2018;Mwesigwa, et al. 2020) transformational leadership style has a positive and significant effect on practical organizational commitment. Transformational leadership has a more substantial psychological impact on subordinates in small organizations such as family companies or SMEs than in larger organizations (Mesu, et al. 2015). Leaders can provide motivation, guidance, and direction and show employees a good role model attitude without going through lower managers or leadership in other organizational structures.
Employee job satisfaction is an important thing that needs to be considered so that employees can provide the best processes and results when working. Employee job satisfaction in the company is indicated by good performance in task proficiency, behavior supporting the company, and employee adaptation to system changes. It can be concluded that employee job satisfaction can influence performance. Donthu. et al. (2022); Hendri (2019); Indarti et al. (2017) ;Eliyana, et al. (2019) found that job satisfaction positively correlates to employee performance. Companies implement a strategy by providing bonus income at the end, where these results can impact improving employee performance. This finding is one of the strategies that can be used but does not demand the possibility of other strategies to increase job satisfaction. The application has a good impact because if employees work according to their expertise, the work will be completed with minimal time and effort. So it is still possible for companies to improve employee performance using other factors. As referring to the indicator with the other highest average value obtained, the leader of the family company can improve the quality and strategy by paying attention to decision-making and competence in confronting work and is expected to give praise more often for employee work to improve employee performance.
Affective organizational commitment of employees in family companies must have a value equation between employees and the company. Value similarity is the degree to which a person recognizes an organization and is attached to its goals Kreitner & Kinicki (2014) or where an employee can identify with an organization, its goals, and expectations to remain a member. (Gao & Bai. 2011) found that the effect of affective organizational commitment on a sense of attachment and desire to stay in the organization is higher when compared to normative organizational commitment and continuity in family companies. Professional managers manage the company, so the company leader has less freedom in making policies. Through this research, companies are expected to find strategies to overcome changing conditions and challenging situations to retain employees. This strategy can be by providing training and certification to employees, establishing clear agreements between owners/managers, and continuing to observe updates to government regulations. The results of this study contradict the research of Sharma & Dhar (2016) found that practical organizational commitment positively impacts employee performance, even though employees work in poor working conditions (scarcity of the essential resources needed for smooth role execution). The results of this study are reinforced by previous empirical studies conducted by Hendri (2019); Kundi et al. (2020) ;Vipraprastha, et al. (2018), which illustrate a robust positive relationship between affective commitment and employee performance.
Affective organizational commitment in family companies is superior to normative organizational commitment and continuity because employees have a higher sense of attachment and desire to stay in the organization (Gao & Bai 2011). Keskes et al. (2018) that affective commitment provides significant positive results and can be used as mediation for two characteristics of the transformational leadership style: intellectual stimulation and vision. Meanwhile, Hendri (2019); Kundi et al. (2020); Vipraprastha et al. (2018) found a positive and significant attachment between affective organizational commitment to employee performance. If the company leader increases the characteristics of transformational leadership, it will make employees feel emotional attachment so that the company's employee performance increases. According to one of the company leaders, this happens because employees have the desire to open a business in the same field with the experience they have or choose to resign and take the opportunity to get a job in a large company. Fries, et al. (2021) found that in the characteristics of intellectual stimulation, family company leaders tend to provide an entrepreneurial mindset with long-term motivation so that there is an overlap with entrepreneurial leadership. This is because leaders in family companies will apply inspirational motivation characteristics that show servant leadership behavior by transferring emotional affection to employees so that employees intrinsically want to strive for the same goals as the leader (Arnold, 2017) Job satisfaction in this study has significant positive results that can mediate the effect of transformational leadership style on employee performance. So the more significant the company leader has transformational leadership character, the more satisfied employees will feel and perform well. Employees can fulfill the obligations of the work performed if given the chance and encouragement to do so by the leader's expertise. The company leader can carry out a strategy by holding regular discussions to convey criticism and suggestions between leaders, employees, and coworkers. Leaders in family companies are also considered intellectually capable, challenging, and giving employees the necessary freedom. So this answers the cause and effect of job satisfaction on performance, which has a good impact because employees will use creative solutions if they find problems. In line with the findings of Mwesigwa, et al. (2020) ;Puni, et al. (2018), transformational leaders are considered to be able to provide opportunities for employees to make decisions, improve themselves, provide counseling and career development support, thereby providing job satisfaction levels tend to increase. Based on the above statement, it is concluded that the role of job satisfaction as a mediating variable significantly and positively produces a better path coefficient value than the direct effect of leadership style on employee performance. So, the seventh hypothesis in this study is accepted. Job satisfaction is considered to help show the links or mechanisms that cause the relationship between transformational leadership style variables and employee performance.

Conclusions
Based on the findings of the study, it is possible to conclude that transformational leadership can improve employee performance in family businesses engaged in civil consulting. Transformational leadership can also boost job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment in civil consulting firms. The better the leader demonstrates this attitude, the more satisfied employees will be at work, and employees will feel like family members in practice, increasing organizational commitment. Job satisfaction is considered to improve employee performance in family companies engaged in civil consulting. This happens because employees are satisfied with the quality of their leader's handling of work, the leader's competence, and the frequent praise given by the leader. Affective organizational commitment can also improve employee performance in family companies engaged in civil consulting. This illustrates that increased emotional attachment to being part of the family can improve employee performance. Employee performance can be mediated by a transformational leadership style. Job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment can mediate the relationship between transformational leadership style and employee performance. So it can be said that if the company leader increases the characteristics of transformational leadership in motivating employees, it will make employees feel satisfied at work and have an emotional attachment to being part of the family, which has an impact on the performance of company employees to increase.
This study adds to theory and previous research, and it is hoped that the findings will be helpful for future research. The study's practical implications can provide companies and family business practitioners and businesses in civil consulting services with suggestions and strategies for improving employee performance by focusing on applying transformational leadership styles, employee job satisfaction, and affective organizational commitment. Employees must know each individual and hire employees based on varying needs and expertise-based skills to demonstrate that applying transformational leadership characteristics has a positive effect on employees' affective organizational commitment.
The limitations of this study include the possibility of partial respondent responses, which means that the answer results may not be objective. Furthermore, the research should be more comprehensive regarding data collection on the subject of study. Researchers can only collect respondent data by distributing questionnaires in East Java Province through the Association of Indonesian Consultants Association, not in specific companies; some respondents may require assistance selecting the family business category. Using a specific research object at a specific company can collect a more comprehensive sample for further research. Furthermore, additional research is expected to use other mediating variables, such as indirect influence variables from organizational climate, to impact employee performance, and research on other leadership behaviors is required.