A Study of Leadership Styles and Organizational Commitment in a Malaysian Private University

Malaysia's higher education is rapidly evolving with the increasing participation of both public and private universities. With the responsibility to nurture and equip future human capitals of the country, these universities would be focusing on improving the organizational commitment of their workforce, which would consequently lead to higher staff involvement and productivity. Organizational commitment is essentially the pyschological ties that bind employees with the organization and plays a very influential role in predicting workplace behaviours such as job satisfaction, motivation and performance. Studies show that high organizational commitment leads to reduced work stress, lower employee turnover and also increased employee loyalty. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between leadership styles and organizational commitment among employees in a private university in Malaysia. Data was collected via self-administered survey questionnaires to academics and non-academics in this university. 130 completed responses were analyzed and the findings indicate that participative leadership style has significant positive relationship with normative commitment, while supportive leadership was found to have positive significant relationship with affective commitment. This paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by showing the importance of leadership styles in improving the organizational commitment of employees, and serves as a reference and guide for institutional leaders and human resource department of universities.