Abstract

The present study examined the effects of participative leadership on organisational commitment: comparing its effects on two gender groups among bank clerks. Study data was collected from a sample of 70 bank clerks in Alice and King William’s Town, using a participative leadership questionnaire adopted from Arnold et al. (2000); and Mowday et al. (1979) organisational commitment questionnaire. Participative leadership was measured as a unitary concept while organisational commitment (oc) was measured in the following four ways: as an acceptance of the organisation’s values and goals (values); as loyalty to the organisation (loyalty); as preparedness to expend extra effort for the organisations benefit (effort); and as a combination of the three component scores (total oc). The results indicated that participative leadership has different effects among two gender groups, and that it has positive effects on organisational commitment. For males only, participative leadership was found to be significantly having a positive effect on value; and for females only, it was significantly having a positive effect on effort. Furthermore, participative leadership was found to be significantly having a positive effect on total organisational commitment for both gender groups.

Key words: Participative leadership; gender; organisational commitment; loyalty; value; effort; bank clerk.