TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT: THE MODERATING EFFECT OF EMPLOYEE PARTCIPATION

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of transformational leadership style on organizational commitment as moderated by employee participation in technical institutions in Kenya. The study population was all the 3114 lecturers in the 47 technical institutions in Kenya. A sample of 343 respondents was used. Multistage sampling, stratified sampling and simple random sampling techniques were adopted to get the sample institutions and twenty two gender-based members from each institution to be included in the study. Questionnaires were distributed to the selected respondents within each institution. Data analysis was done by use of descriptive statistics. In addition, binary logistic regression was applied in order to analyze the moderating effect of employee participation on the relationship between transformational leadership style on organizational commitment. Findings showed that transformational leadership style had a significant effect on organizational commitment and its three dimensions. Individually the components of transformational leadership had a significant effect on organizational commitment but not jointly. Idealized influence, individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation were significant predictors of the three dimensions of organizational commitment but not jointly. Inspirational motivation was a significant predictor of affective and normative commitment individually but jointly a significant predictor of the three types of commitment. Employee participation did not moderate the relationship between transformational leadership style and organizational commitment and its dimensions.