The Impact of Perceived Leadership Behavior

on Organizational Commitment of Employees

in the Education sector of Pakistan
Muhammad Nasir Chattha (Corresponding Author)
Lecturer, Superior College of Accountancy, Superior University, Lahore
Nasir.chattha@superior.edu.pk

Nauman Aslam
Lecturer, Superior College of Accountancy, Superior University, Lahore
Naumanaslam91@yahoo.com

Introduction
Leadership is a social process of influencing the activities of
subordinates to achieve organizational goals (Akanwa, 1997).
Leadership is an interaction between two or more members of a
group that often involves a structuring or restructuring of the
situation and the perceptions and expectations of members and
linked with leaders (Bass, 1990).
Leadership behavior that encourage employee commitment is
essential in order for an organization to successfully developed a
business strategies, achieving their goals, gain competitive
advantage and optimizing human capital (Erasmus, Swanepoel, &
Wyk, 2003).

 According to Nijhof, Jong and Beukhof (1998), the success of an

organization does not only rely on how human capital and
competencies are being utilized but also on how it incites
commitment to the organization.
The basic purpose is to study the impact of leadership behavior
(Directive, Supportive and Participative) on organizational
commitment level of employees in the education sector of
Pakistan.
Policy development for enhancement of employees performance.

Literature Review
There are three classes of leadership behavior as described by Pathgoal theory i.e. directive, participative and supportive (Hasbullah,
2008).
Renwick et al. (2002) point out characteristics of directive
leadership behavior like stringent control over employees and nonparticipation in decision making.
Mehta et al. (2003) mentioned that supportive leaders provide
facilitative task environment with mutual trust and helpfulness

 Likert (1961) mentions that in participative leadership higher

productivity and better employee involvement as manger concerns
for the needs and expectations of subordinates.
Organizational commitment is defined as employees belief in the
organizations goals and values, desire to remain a member of the
organization and loyalty to the organization (Mowday et al., 1982).
The organization commitment has received essential attention as
this lead to important impact on job satisfaction, performance,
absenteeism and turnover (Lok and Crawford, 2001)

 Affective Commitment is related to emotional attachment and

involvement of employees in the organization as with strong AC
employees want to stay to organization (Mottaz, 1988; Mowday, Porter,
& Steers, 1982).
Normative commitment is the employees feelings of obligation to the
organization. Employees with higher NC stay with organization as they
feel they ought to.
Continuous Commitment is the employees view of whether cost of
leaving the organization is higher than that of staying cost. (Meyer &
Allen, 1991).

Theoretical Framework
Directive
Leadership

Supportive
Leadership

Participative
Leadership

Organizational
Commitment
(Affective, Normative,
Continuous)

Hypothesis
H1: There is a relationship exist between directive
leadership and organizational commitment.
H2: There is a relationship exist between supportive
leadership and organizational commitment.
H3: There is a relationship exist between participative
leadership and organizational

Methodology

Positivism
Deductive Approach
Self Administered Questionnaires (Lahore, Pakistan)
Convenient Sampling
85% response rate

Data Analysis
Descriptive
Correlation
Regression

Demographics
Category
Age

Marital status

Gender
Experience

Classification
21-30
30-40
40-50
over 50
Married
Single
widowed
Male
Female
Less than 1 year
1-5
5-10
10-15
15-20
20-25
More than 25

Frequency

Percentage
83
68
17
1
92
73
3
114
56
8
47
57
41
13
2
2

48.8
40.0
10.0
.6
54.1
42.9
1.8
67.1
32.9
4.7
27.6
33.5
24.1
7.6
1.2
1.2

Correlation
Dir.L
Dir.L

Pearson
Correlation

Par.L
1

Par.L

OC

**

Sig. (2-tailed)
Par.L

Pearson
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)

Sup.L

Pearson
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)

OC

Pearson
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)

1
.415**
.000
1
.322**
.000

.482**
.000
1

.087
.289

.286**
.000

.411**
.000

Regression Analysis
Model

R Square

Adjusted R Std. Error

Square
of the
Estimate
.186
.169
.46006

.431a

Model
Regression

Sum of
df
Squares
7.062

Mean
F
Square
3
2.354

Residual

30.901

146

Total

37.963

149

.212

Sig.
11.121

.000b

Regression Analysis

Variables

Beta

Sig.

Organizational
Commitment

2.279

7.976

Std.Error
.000
.286

Directive
Leadership

-.069

-1.116

.266

.062

Participative
Leadership

.307

1.622

.000

.066

Supportive
Leadership

.291

4.301

.000

.068

Conclusion
This study confirmed the findings of the previous research,
with respect to relation between participative and supportive
leadership with the organizational commitment, however
the studys findings regarding relationship between directive
leadership style and organizational commitment shows the
significance of research that in the education sector, instead
of having a positive relation there exists a negative impact
of directive leadership style on organizational commitment.