PERSONALITY, PERCEIVED LEADERSHIP AND COMMITMENT

Abstract

The present research paper analyzes the relationship between employee personality, their organizational commitment and their perception of their leaders’ behavior and communication quality. Following this leading research scope, a literature review is conducted, describing different models of organizational commitment and its multi-factorial structure. Leadership is discussed within the framework of transformational and transactional leadership. In these regards, the influence of leadership on organizational commitment is discussed, leading to the description of the big five framework, as a relevant concept in research on personality. The empirical study followed a quantitative approach, using a sample of n = 300 business professionals measures of emotional and behavioral commitment, perceived leadership communication quality, perceived leadership style and employee personality were administered using an online survey. Analyses followed a correlational approach, aiming at explaining the relationships between the relevant variables. Using multiple, stepwise regression analyses, the study was able to show how both emotional and behavioral commitment are predicted by employee personality (conscientiousness for both measures, neuroticism additionally for emotional commitment), by perception of transformational leadership style and by perceived leadership quality. A total of around 30% of overall variance in both measures of organizational commitment could be explained using these predictors, the multiple regression analyses revealed. Thus, the importance of leadership and leadership communication on organizational commitment could be shown alongside the role that employee personality plays. The criterion validity of the measure for emotional and behavioral commitment could also be confirmed.