The Influence of Leadership Styles on Organizational Commitment: The Moderating Effect of Emotional Intelligence

Abstract

Organizations need employees who are committed in their work so that they can contribute to the survival of the organization in the marketplace competition. Organizational commitment can be divided into three components; normative, affective and continuance commitment. There are various factors that influence employees’ commitment. These factors can be categorized into four groups; organizational factors, including leadership, culture, structure and processes; individual factors, including personality traits, emotional quotient, intellectual quotient, and spiritual quotient; job factors, including job characteristics, and remuneration systems; and environment factors, including social relationships and physical environment. This paper is meant to discuss on the influence of the most dominant organizational factor; leadership styles, on employees’ organizational commitment by concentrating on the effect of leaders’ emotional intelligence. Leadership styles are hypothesized to significantly influence the three types of employees’ organizational commitment. Besides, leaders’ emotional intelligence is hypothesized to enhance the relationship between leadership styles and employees’ organizational commitment. The practical and research implications of the paper are also discussed.