International Business Research; Vol. 10, No. 1; 2017 ISSN 1913-9004 E-ISSN 1913-9012 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 199 The Impact of Transformational Leadership on Organizational Performance via the Mediating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach Ala'aldin Alrowwad 1 , Bader Yousef Obeidat 2 , Ali Tarhini 3 , Noor Aqqad 2 1 Department of Business Management, The University of Jordan, Aqaba, Jordan 2 Department of Business Management, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan 3 College of Economics and Political Science, Department of Information Systems, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Correspondence: Ali Tarhini, College of Economics and Political Science, Department of Information Systems, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. E-mail: alitarhini@squ.edu.om Received: November 21, 2016 Accepted: December 12, 2016 Online Published: December 23, 2016 doi:10.5539/ibr.v10n1p199 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v10n1p199 Abstract This study aims to examine the associated relationships between transformational leadership, corporate social responsibility, and organizational performance. A total of 217 questionnaires were gathered from employees operating the various pharmaceutical companies in Jordan and then were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results of the data were threefold. First, transformational leadership did not have a positive influence on organizational performance. Second, transformational leadership did have a positive influence on corporate social responsibility. Third, corporate social responsibility did have a positive influence on organizational performance. These findings may aid future researchers in their quest in understanding the inherent relationships that lie between the variables in question and may provide a platform for managers in their efforts to improve organizational performance. Keywords: transformational leadership, corporate social responsibility, organizational performance, Jordan, structural equation modeling 1. Introduction Organizations play an important role in our daily lives. They are considered to be the engine that drives a nation‟s economic, social, and political progress (El-Masri et al., 2015). Given that organizations face constant change in the environment surrounding them, managers and organizations have been urged to become more sensitive regarding employee and firm performance (Shahin et al, 2014; Masa‟deh et al., 2015). Therefore, organizational performance has become a topic of interest for all organizations, profit or non-profit, and managers are interested in figuring out which factors influence organizational performance in order to take appropriate steps to initiate them (Shannak et al., 2012; Alenezi et al., 2015). To ensure survival and achieve excellent performance, companies have adopted various business tools and management philosophies that lead to better results and higher profit margins (Hernaus et al, 2012; Al-Busaidi, 2013). Organizations have started to focus their attention on corporate social responsibility to improve their performance (Ainin et al., 2016; Vratskikh et al., 2016). The reason behind this is that even though profitability has traditionally been regarded as a measure of organizational success, recent views suggest that other factors have come into play (Erhemjamts et al, 2013; Obeidat, 2016a). According to Carroll and Shabana (2010) over the last few decades, corporate social responsibility has gained considerable attention in both academic and practitioner communities around the world. This is due to the notorious corporate scandals involving companies such as Enron, Worldcon, and Tyco international (Berrone et al, 2007). Furthermore, globalization, the complexity of today‟s environment, labor exploitation, environmental disregard, misconduct, and the increasing public concern for the natural environment, for the respect of human rights, for the ethical aspects of business and for social issues have also contributed to making corporate social responsibility an important topic (Abdallah et al., 2014; Wang, 2011; Jammulamadaka, 2013).