EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED LEADERSHIP STYLE AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT ON JOB SATISFACTION AMONG NON-TEACHING EMPLOYEES OF FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined effects of perceived leadership style and organizational commitment on job satisfaction among non-teaching employees of federal universities in South-East Nigeria. Participants in the study were eight hundred and eighty-four non-teaching employees who were randomly selected from three federal universities in South-East Nigeria. The participants were made up of 323 (36.5%) males and 561 (63.5%) females with age range 22 years to 60 years, mean 35.04 years and standard deviation 9.96. The study deployed three instruments: Multi factor leadership questionnaire (MLQ-5X) developed by Avolio & Bass (1990), Minesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) developed by Weiss, Dawis, England & Lofquist (1967), and Organizational Commitment Scale (OCS) developed by Mowday, Porter & Steers (1979). The study adopted correlation design and data analysis was done using multiple regression analysis Enter method. Hypothesis one result showed that dimension of perceived leadership style (transactional) predicted job satisfaction at B = 1.18**, P< .001, while hypothesis two result showed that organizational commitment significantly and positively predicted job satisfaction at B = .53**, P< .001. Hence, perceived leadership styles and organizational commitment are significant and positive predictors of job satisfaction among non-teaching employees of federal universities in south-east Nigeria. It was recommended that management within federal universities in south-east should adopt transactional leadership style.