Transformational Leadership and Organizational Commitment: A Higher Educational Institutions Perspective

Higher educational institutions (HEIs) in India are plagued by many problems, one of the most noticeable being the high rate of attrition and turnover. While several factors account for turnover, one of the most prominent reasons for most employees is the lack of identification and belongingness with their institutions. The affection, however, does not evolve in a day and requires perennial nurturing from transformational leaders. Transformational leaders pervade a feeling of belongingness among employees for their organization through transcendence of employees’ interests for organizational interests. The relationship between transformational leaders and organizational commitment, though well documented, is not linear or direct. The mechanisms and boundary condition that explains these effects have remained a holy grail in Indian HEIs. The present study proposed that organizational commitment can be increased by transformational leadership associated with motivational job characteristics. It further proposed that the perceived organizational support strengthens the relation between transformational leadership and job characteristics as well as between job characteristics and organizational commitment. The study employed a survey method using a proportionate stratified random sampling method to collect data from 320 employees from 32 institutions. Results of our study support a structural model whereby indirect effects supplement the direct effects of transformational leadership on organizational commitment through the mechanisms of job characteristics. Further, it found that the relationships were significantly stronger for followers who perceived more organizational support. The findings of this study will help institutions to get a dedicated and committed workforce to render their service for long and reduce the cost of recruitment, selection, training and switching.