The impact of leadership styles on employee organisational commitment in higher learning institutions

Abstract

The current study seeks to determine the impact of leadership styles on employees' organisational commitment constructs among University academic staff at a selected South African institution. A quantitative methodology, using self-administered surveys comprised of the Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) and the Multi Factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) was used to collect data from 160 respondents. The data was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 20.0. Spearman correlation analysis was used to test for relationships between the independent variable (leadership style) and the dependant variable (organizational commitment. The findings of the study revealed that transformational leadership style has a significant and positive relationship with affective and continuance employee commitment while transactional leadership style has significant and positive relationship with only normative commitment. Based on the findings of this study, it is worth noting that leadership styles plays an important role to an employees' organizational commitment and it is very important for organizational policy makers to take this into consideration in order to meet organizational goals. This study contributes to the bank of findings relating to the development of leadership and organisational commitment, not only in South Africa, but within the institutions of higher learning in particular.