Leadership Styles and Organizational Commitment

Abstract

Leadership is a central organizational process that shapes employee attitudes, workplace relationships, motivation, and long-term attachment to an organization. Among the factors associated with organizational commitment, leadership style has received considerable attention because leaders influence how employees perceive organizational goals, recognition, support, fairness, and opportunities for development. This scholarly article examines the relationship between leadership styles and organizational commitment, with particular attention to transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire approaches. Transformational leadership is generally associated with vision, inspiration, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, and stronger affective attachment, whereas transactional leadership emphasizes performance expectations, rewards, monitoring, and corrective actions. Laissez-faire leadership, by contrast, involves limited intervention and may create uncertainty when employees require direction and support. Previous research indicates that both transformational and transactional leadership can contribute to organizational commitment, although transformational leadership frequently demonstrates a stronger relationship with affective commitment. Recent evidence also suggests that organizational commitment can connect leadership practices with positive employee outcomes such as extra-role behavior, while contextual factors such as job autonomy may influence these relationships.