Influence of Leadership Behavior and Participatory Decision Making on the Employees Organizational Commitment

Abstract

A large number of studies have examined the antecedents of organizational commitment in the western countries. Research in the area of leadership behavior, organizational commitment and employees’ job satisfaction is noticeably absent in Pakistan. The objective of this thesis is to examine the effect of leadership behavior, participation of employees in the organizational decision making, and their effect on organizational commitment. Job satisfaction and morale is also observed as an outcome. The subject used in this study is faculty members of different private and public universities of Pakistan. A survey was conducted and then complemented by some semi structured interviews. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed to faculty in eighteen public and private sector universities, from which 237 usable completed questionnaires were returned (79% response rate). Correlation and regression were performed to investigate the relationship between faculty’s commitment to their universities and the other variables measured in the study. A model of commitment was developed using a multiple regression analysis in which a link of the role of leadership behavior and employees’ participation in decision making with organizational commitment was explored. It is observed that organizational leadership and participatory decision-making exert a significant impact on commitment. The two leadership behaviors – task oriented behavior and participative style of management – have a positive effect on commitment while the laissez-faire style had a negative effect on commitment. The results of this study are in agreement with the model proposed by Bass & Avolio (1995) in which relation-oriented behavior is more significant. As compared to Steers model, the continuance commitment shows higher significance than affective commitment in this study. The results of this study also reveal that job satisfaction has a strong association with faculty’s organizational commitment and also that the faculty’s morale is affected by university leadership’s behavior. Keywords: Leadership, Participatory Decision Making, Commitment, Faculty, Job Satisfaction, Morale, Pakistan