Organizational commitment—A missing link between leadership behavior and organizational performance?

This paper investigates the effect of executive leadership behaviors on the organizational commitment (OC) of subordinate managers and the influence of the latter on measures of company performance. Based on pertinent research and the main leadership dimensions identified in the GLOBE project, we formulate hypotheses concerning the relationship between perceived leadership behaviors and subordinates' OC, as well as the assumption that this organizational commitment is beneficial to performance ratings on a corporate level. Data stem from a sample of 78 companies from the Germanic cultural area. Our results suggest that desirable leadership behavior is positively related to subordinates' OC, and that OC contributes to company performance, even when analyzed in conjunction with crucial contextual variables.

[1]  Birgit Benkhoff Ignoring Commitment Is Costly: New Approaches Establish the Missing Link Between Commitment and Performance , 1997 .

[2]  Xiao-Li Meng,et al.  Comparing correlated correlation coefficients , 1992 .

[3]  M. Arthur,et al.  The Motivational Effects of Charismatic Leadership: A Self-Concept Based Theory , 1993 .

[4]  D. Hambrick,et al.  Upper Echelons: The Organization as a Reflection of Its Top Managers , 1984 .

[5]  Barry Hedley,et al.  Strategy and the “Business Portfolio” , 1977 .

[6]  T. DeCotiis,et al.  A Path Analysis of a Model of the Antecedents and Consequences of Organizational Commitment , 1987 .

[7]  William C. Black,et al.  A Longitudinal Assessment of the Impact of Selected Organizational Influences on Salespeople's Organizational Commitment during Early Employment , 1990 .

[8]  R. Keller,et al.  Job involvement and organizational commitment as longitudinal predictors of job performance: A study of scientists and engineers. , 1997 .

[9]  J. Mathieu,et al.  A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment , 1990 .

[10]  William P. Dunlap,et al.  Partialling Factor Scores Does Not Control Method Variance: A Reply to Podsakoff and Todor , 1986 .

[11]  Karlene H. Roberts,et al.  Supervisor influence and subordinate mobility aspirations as moderators of consideration and initiating structure. , 1978 .

[12]  P. A. Wilson The Effects of Politics and Power on The Organizational Commitment of Federal Executives , 1995 .

[13]  John Riley,et al.  The charismatic leader , 2003 .

[14]  P. Dorfman,et al.  Culture Specific and Cross-Culturally Generalizable Implicit Leadership Theories: Are Attributes of Charismatic/Transformational Leadership Universally Endorsed? , 1998 .

[15]  Thomas E. Becker,et al.  Profiles of commitment: An empirical test , 1993 .

[16]  Jennifer A. Chatman,et al.  Organizational commitment and psychological attachment: The effects of compliance, identification, and internalization on prosocial behavior. , 1986 .

[17]  T. Wall,et al.  On the validity of subjective measures of company performance , 2004 .

[18]  Sandee Bybee-Lovering,et al.  Commitment in the workplace , 1999 .

[19]  L. Harris,et al.  Leadership style, organizational culture and performance: empirical evidence from UK companies , 2000 .

[20]  T. Judge,et al.  Loving yourself abundantly: relationship of the narcissistic personality to self- and other perceptions of workplace deviance, leadership, and task and contextual performance. , 2006, The Journal of applied psychology.

[21]  Randall B. Dunham,et al.  Organizational commitment: The utility of an integrative definition. , 1994 .

[22]  William D. Spangler,et al.  CEO transformational leadership and organizational outcomes: The mediating role of human–capital-enhancing human resource management , 2005 .

[23]  Daniel M. Cable,et al.  AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE PREDICTORS OF EXECUTIVE CAREER SUCCESS , 1995 .

[24]  Robert J. House,et al.  Cross-cultural research on organizational leadership: A critical analysis and a proposed theory. , 1997 .

[25]  A. Thomas Does leadership make a difference to organizational performance , 1988 .

[26]  John P. Meyer,et al.  AFFECTIVE, CONTINUANCE, AND NORMATIVE COMMITMENT TO THE ORGANIZATION: A META-ANALYSIS OF ANTECEDENTS, CORRELATES, AND CONSEQUENCES , 2002 .

[27]  H. Guetzkow,et al.  Groups, Leadership, and Men , 1952 .

[28]  N. Ellemers,et al.  MOTIVATING INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS AT WORK : A SOCIAL IDENTITY PERSPECTIVE ON LEADERSHIP AND GROUP PERFORMANCE , 2004 .

[29]  J. Perry,et al.  Dual Commitment and Labor-Management Relationship Climates , 1986 .

[30]  E. Kelloway,et al.  Effects of Transformational Leadership Training on Attitudinal and Financial Outcomes: A Field Experiment , 1996 .

[31]  P. M. Podsakoff,et al.  Self-Reports in Organizational Research: Problems and Prospects , 1986 .

[32]  Fred O. Walumbwa,et al.  Transformational leadership, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction: A comparative study of Kenyan and U.S. financial firms , 2005 .

[33]  David A. Hofmann,et al.  Multilevel Analytical Techniques: Commonalties, Differences, and Continuing Questions. , 2000 .

[34]  Rand R. Wilcox,et al.  COMPARING CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS , 2002 .

[35]  W. Mackenzie,et al.  The Management and the Worker , 2008 .

[36]  M. Gmür,et al.  Der Beitrag des Personalmanagements zum Unternehmenserfolg. Eine Metaanalyse nach 20 Jahren Erfolgsfaktorenforschung , 2005 .

[37]  Fred O. Walumbwa,et al.  The role of collective efficacy in the relations between transformational leadership and work outcomes , 2004 .

[38]  Robin Martin,et al.  From ideal to real: a longitudinal study of the role of implicit leadership theories on leader-member exchanges and employee outcomes. , 2005, The Journal of applied psychology.

[39]  Edwin A. Locke,et al.  A longitudinal study of the relation of vision and vision communication to venture growth in entrepreneurial firms. , 1998 .

[40]  Kevin B. Lowe,et al.  Effectiveness correlates of transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic review of the mlq literature , 1996 .

[41]  Peter Lok,et al.  Antecedents of organizational commitment and the mediating role of job satisfaction , 2001 .

[42]  Maria Simosi,et al.  Organizational culture and transformational leadership as predictors of business unit performance , 2006 .

[43]  S. A. Wasti,et al.  Commitment profiles: Combinations of organizational commitment forms and job outcomes , 2005 .

[44]  Albert Caruana,et al.  Market orientation and organizational commitment in the Australian public sector , 1997 .

[45]  Richard M. Steers,et al.  Organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover among psychiatric technicians. , 1974 .

[46]  L. Savery The Influence of the Perceived Styles of Leadership on a Group of Workers on their Attitudes to Work , 1994 .

[47]  Paul V. Martorana,et al.  The impact of chief executive officer personality on top management team dynamics:one mechanism by which leadership affects organizational performance. , 2003, The Journal of applied psychology.

[48]  Fred O. Walumbwa,et al.  Building effective organizations: transformational leadership, collectivist orientation, work-related attitudes and withdrawal behaviours in three emerging economies , 2003 .

[49]  L. James,et al.  rwg: An assessment of within-group interrater agreement. , 1993 .

[50]  Ingalill Holmberg,et al.  Modelling leadership—Implicit leadership theories in Sweden , 2006 .

[51]  Jorge Correia Jesuino,et al.  Cultural variation of leadership prototypes across 22 European countries , 2000 .

[52]  C. Mills,et al.  The Theory of Social and Economic Organization , 1948 .

[53]  Lyman W. Porter,et al.  Employee-Organization Linakges: The Psychology of Commitment, Absenteeism and Turnover , 1985 .

[54]  F. Yammarino,et al.  Identifying Common Methods Variance With Data Collected From A Single Source: An Unresolved Sticky Issue , 1991 .

[55]  P. Blau Exchange and Power in Social Life , 1964 .

[56]  J. G. Hunt,et al.  Leadership preference, leadership behavior, and employee satisfaction , 1973 .

[57]  J. S. Phillips,et al.  Causal attributions and perceptions of leadership , 1981 .

[58]  Stephen Swailes,et al.  Organizational commitment: a critique of the construct and measures , 2002 .

[59]  S. Deery,et al.  Labor-Management Cooperation: Antecedents and Impact on Organizational Performance , 2005 .

[60]  R. Zeffane Patterns of Organizational Commitment and Perceived Management Style: A Comparison of Public and Private Sector Employees , 1994 .

[61]  John F. Binning,et al.  Explaining the biasing effects of performance cues in terms of cognitive categorization. , 1986 .

[62]  Henry L. Tosi,et al.  CEO charisma, compensation, and firm performance , 2004 .

[63]  J. M. Beyer,et al.  Cultural Leadership in Organizations , 1991 .

[64]  J. D. Sherman,et al.  Generalizability of an Organizational Commitment Model , 1981 .

[65]  John M. Jermier,et al.  Leader Behavior in a Police Command Bureaucracy: A Closer Look at the Quasi-Military Model. , 1979 .

[66]  Joyce E. Bono,et al.  Self-Concordance at Work: Toward Understanding the Motivational Effects of Transformational Leaders , 2003 .

[67]  Alan J. Dubinsky,et al.  A Model of Sales Supervisor Leadership Behavior and Retail Salespeople's Job-Related Outcomes: , 1986 .

[68]  Michael G. Goldsby,et al.  A Construct Validity Study of Commitment and Perceived Support Variables , 2005 .

[69]  Bruce J. Avolio,et al.  Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead , 2002 .

[70]  Roseanne J. Foti,et al.  A test of leadership categorization theory: Internal structure, information processing, and leadership perceptions , 1984 .

[71]  D. A. Yousef,et al.  Organizational commitment: a mediator of the relationships of leadership behavior with job satisfaction and performance in a non‐western country , 2000 .

[72]  S. Zaccaro,et al.  Contrasting group and organizational commitment: Evidence for differences among multilevel attachments , 1989 .

[73]  Barry M. Staw,et al.  Attribution of the "causes" of performance: A general alternative interpretation of cross-sectional research on organizations. , 1975 .

[74]  Kyle Lewis,et al.  Integrating Justice and Social Exchange: The Differing Effects of Fair Procedures and Treatment on Work Relationships , 2000 .

[75]  S. Kozlowski,et al.  Multilevel Theory, Research, and Methods in Organizations: Foundations, Extensions, and New Directions , 2000 .

[76]  P. Lok,et al.  The effect of organisational culture and leadership style on job satisfaction and organisational commitment: A cross‐national comparison , 2004 .

[77]  L. Savery PERCEIVED AND PREFERRED STYLES OF LEADERSHIP: INFLUENCES ON EMPLOYEE JOB SATISFACTION , 1991 .

[78]  P. G. Snow,et al.  The Dispersion of Charisma , 1983 .

[79]  S. Hunt,et al.  Organizational Commitment: One of Many Commitments or Key Mediating Construct? , 1994 .

[80]  Bruce J. Avolio,et al.  Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/job.283 Transformational leadership and , 2022 .

[81]  Dennis M. Bline,et al.  Using Structural Equation Modeling to Investigate the Causal Ordering of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment Among Staff Accountants , 1997 .

[82]  Cheng-Chen Lin,et al.  Cultural and leadership predictors of corporate social responsibility values of top management: a GLOBE study of 15 countries , 2006, Journal of International Business Studies.

[83]  Ike-Elechi Ogba,et al.  Commitment in the workplace: The impact of income and age on employee commitment in Nigerian banking sector , 2008 .

[84]  Charles Glisson,et al.  Predictors of job satisfaction and organizational commitment in human service organizations. , 1988 .

[85]  Patrick M. Wright,et al.  The impact of HR practices on the performance of business units , 2003 .

[86]  R. J. House,et al.  Does Leadership Matter? CEO Leadership Attributes and Profitability under Conditions of Perceived Environmental Uncertainty. , 2001 .

[87]  Thomas C. Cross,et al.  A Meta‐Analysis to Review Organizational Outcomes Related to Charismatic Leadership , 2009 .

[88]  M. Sambasivan,et al.  The influence of corporate culture and organisational commitment on performance , 2003 .