Leadership Change and Employee Commitment. An Empirical Study of Transformational and Transnational Leadership Style in a University

Abstract

Lack of employee commitment may be a critical threat to organizational survival and growth. Private Christian mission owned universities seem to be grappling with survival and growth threats associated with a lack of employee commitment, which is likely to be causing inefficient daily operations, delay tasks completion, fostering customer dissatisfaction, and sabotaging revenue generation initiatives. The study examined the extent to which transformational and transactional leadership styles influence employee commitment in a Nigerian private Christian mission university. Survey research design was used for the study. The target population was 774 full-time employees of the University. The sample size of 89 respondents consisted of faculty and non-teaching staff and was determined using the Taro Yamane formula. The Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) and Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) were employed as data collection instruments. The study employed proportional and simple random sampling methods to allocate and distribute the questionnaires to respondents. Correlation coefficient and simple regression analysis were used to analyse data. The findings suggested that transformational and transactional leadership styles significantly affected employee commitment. The findings implied that the social and economic exchange relationship fostered by transformational and transactional leadership behaviours in organizations promote employee emotional attachment and inspires them to be dedicated to its goals. The study recommended that organizations' leaders should consciously create work environments that promote employee trust, responsible, and productivity behaviours.