Leadership Styles and Employees’ Commitment: Empirical Evidence From Nigeria

Abstract

Leadership style has often been considered as one of the vital factors that can enhance employees’ commitment and it is seen as the live wire for the attainment of organizational goals. Although research has focused on the nexus between leadership styles and employees’ commitment, little consideration has been paid to identify the influence of demographic variables on the nexus between leadership styles and employees’ commitment in Nigeria, thereby leaving a gap. It is based on the foregoing that this article examines the relationship between leadership styles (transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership) and employees’ commitment and also identify the influence of demographic variables on the relationship between leadership styles and employees’ commitment in Lagos State Civil Service Commission of Nigeria. The survey data were collected from the employees of the organization, and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 was used for the statistical analysis. The results show that there is a significant medium positive relationship between transformational leadership style and employees’ commitment, whereas transactional leadership style shows an insignificant small negative relationship with employees’ commitment. In addition, laissez-faire leadership style has an insignificant small positive relationship with employees’ commitment in the study context. The study, therefore, recommends that employees’ commitment is more likely to be achieved when the appropriate leadership style is adopted and specific demographic variables like gender, age, marital status, academic qualification, and employment status are taken into account regarding the role they play in the relationship between leadership styles and employees’ commitment of Lagos State Civil Service Commission of Nigeria.