IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/vision/v30y2026i3p319-330.html

Transformational Leadership and Organizational Commitment: A Higher Educational Institutions Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Amar Kumar Mishra
  • Rajesh Kumar Upadhyay

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Amar Kumar Mishra & Rajesh Kumar Upadhyay, 2026. "Transformational Leadership and Organizational Commitment: A Higher Educational Institutions Perspective," Vision, , vol. 30(3), pages 319-330, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:vision:v:30:y:2026:i:3:p:319-330
    DOI: 10.1177/09722629221096056
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09722629221096056
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09722629221096056?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boas Shamir & Robert J. House & Michael B. Arthur, 1993. "The Motivational Effects of Charismatic Leadership: A Self-Concept Based Theory," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(4), pages 577-594, November.
    2. Resmi Ann Thomas & Sandhya Pentareddy & L. Suganthi & Gemini V. Joy & S.P. Anbuudayasankar, 2018. "Road to employee commitment: the role of empowerment, leadership and culture," International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 16(4), pages 486-506.
    3. Dash, Ganesh & Kiefer, Kip & Paul, Justin, 2021. "Marketing-to-Millennials: Marketing 4.0, customer satisfaction and purchase intention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 608-620.
    4. Happy Paul & Umesh Kumar Bamel & Pooja Garg, 2016. "Employee Resilience and OCB: Mediating Effects of Organizational Commitment," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 41(4), pages 308-324, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gaganis, Chrysovalantis & Leledakis, George N. & Pasiouras, Fotios & Pyrgiotakis, Emmanouil G., 2024. "Heroes or Villains? Culturally endorsed charismatic leadership style and stock price crash risk," MPRA Paper 122898, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Zhenjiao Chen & Yaqing Liu, 2020. "The Effects of Leadership and Reward Policy on Employees’ Electricity Saving Behaviors: An Empirical Study in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-15, March.
    3. Mara Del Baldo & Maria-Gabriella Baldarelli, 2017. "Renewing and improving the business model toward sustainability in theory and practice," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Justin J. P. Jansen & Gerard George & Frans A. J. Van den Bosch & Henk W. Volberda, 2008. "Senior Team Attributes and Organizational Ambidexterity: The Moderating Role of Transformational Leadership," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 982-1007, July.
    5. Matthias Graf & Sebastian Schuh & Niels Quaquebeke & Rolf Dick, 2012. "The Relationship Between Leaders’ Group-Oriented Values and Follower Identification with and Endorsement of Leaders: The Moderating Role of Leaders’ Group Membership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 106(3), pages 301-311, March.
    6. Elena Bonel & Mauro Capestro & Eleonora Di Maria, 2023. "How COVID-19 impacted cultural consumption: an explorative analysis of Gen Z’s digital museum experiences," Italian Journal of Marketing, Springer, vol. 2023(2), pages 135-160, June.
    7. Park, Jungkun & Back, Seung Yub & Kim, Dongyoup, 2022. "Masstige consumption values and its effect on consumer behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. Muhammad Rafique & Mastura Jaafar & Saira Ahmed & Muhammad Amjad-ur-Rehman, 2024. "Does work–family conflict lead to abusive supervision in the construction projects? The role of project commitment and psychological resilience," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Dogra, Nikhil & Adil, Mohd & Sadiq, Mohd & Dash, Ganesh & Paul, Justin, 2023. "Unraveling customer repurchase intention in OFDL context: An investigation using a hybrid technique of SEM and fsQCA," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    10. Gayoung Kim & Woo Jin Lee, 2021. "The Venture Firm’s Ambidexterity: Do Transformational Leaders Boost Organizational Learning for Venture Growth?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-15, July.
    11. Nadir Kolachi, 2015. "Effective Factors of Diversified HR and Relationship Management: A Qualitative Case Study on TokyaTech, NY," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(1), pages 242-242, December.
    12. Pawan V. Bhansing & Erik Hitters & Yosha Wijngaarden, 2018. "Passion Inspires: Motivations of Creative Entrepreneurs in Creative Business Centres in the Netherlands," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 27(1), pages 1-24, March.
    13. Wei Sun & Ang Xu & Yufan Shang, 2014. "Transformational leadership, team climate, and team performance within the NPD team: Evidence from China," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 127-147, March.
    14. Francis Donkor, 2022. "Do Transformational Leaders Affect Employee Performance and Normative Commitment Through General Self-Efficacy? Analysis in Ghanaian Public Sector Organizations," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 707-723, September.
    15. Mavis Chen & Carol Lin & Hsing-Er Lin & Edward McDonough, 2012. "Does transformational leadership facilitate technological innovation? The moderating roles of innovative culture and incentive compensation," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 239-264, June.
    16. Raffeq S. Alim, 2025. "Marketing Strategy Transformation of Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao: A Convergent Design," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 12(1), pages 614-631, January.
    17. Schrade, Peter, 2018. "The impact of leadership behaviour factors on work productivity: Measuring the impact of factors of the full range leadership model and the leadership task model," Journal of Applied Leadership and Management, Hochschule Kempten - University of Applied Sciences, Professional School of Business & Technology, vol. 6, pages 66-88.
    18. Wang, Liwen & Zhao, Jane Zheng & Zhou, Kevin Zheng, 2018. "How do incentives motivate absorptive capacity development? The mediating role of employee learning and relational contingencies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 226-237.
    19. Lord, Robert G. & Gatti, Paola & Chui, Susanna L.M., 2016. "Social-cognitive, relational, and identity-based approaches to leadership," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 119-134.
    20. Ghulam Mustafa & Richard Glavee-Geo & Kjell Gronhaug & Hanan Saber Almazrouei, 2019. "Structural Impacts on Formation of Self-Efficacy and Its Performance Effects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-24, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:vision:v:30:y:2026:i:3:p:319-330. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.