The effects of participative leadership on organisational commitment : Comparing its effects on two gender groups among bank clerks

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.


INTRODUCTION
Participative leadership is defined as the process of making joint decisions or at least sharing influence in decision making by the superior and his or her subordinates (Somech, 2005).It is not relatively a new concept because it has a rich and varied history.It began to flourish in the 1980s in the guise of management policy initiatives inspired by the new excellence movement and rise of human resources management (Beardwell and Holden, 1997).It has many potential benefits.It is likely to increase the quality of the decisions (Scully et al., 1995); to contribute to the quality of employees' work lives (Somech, 2002); to promote employees' motivation to work (Armenakis et al., 1993;Locke and Lutham, 1990;Yammarino and Naughton, 1992) and to increase employee satisfaction and organisational commitment (Smylie, Lazarus and Brownlee-Congers, 1996).
Moreover, in team situations, using a participative leadership style is important because it leads to *Corresponding author.E-mail: clementbell86@gmail.com Authors agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License high levels of team outcomes (Sagie et al., 2002), and solicits different ideas from team members (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993).These scholars reflect a widely shared notion that participative leadership has a great utility in organisational and team effectiveness.It values the employee more than it does to the job, and such leadership behaviour is likely to engender increased organisational commitment among employees (Bass, 1981).The work attitudes of male workers favours a directive way of leading with the focus on performance whilst that of female workers on the other hand, favours a participative way of leading with the focus on subordinate's commitment (Werner et al., 2007).These different attitudes toward work are the characteristic of gender (Heilman et al., 1995).The understanding of gender as an important feature of work behaviour has become increasingly important in African organisations than ever before (Ijeoma, 2010).With the advent of women in organizations, the study of organisational behaviour has extended to encompass the male and female work behaviour (Deal and Stevenson, 1998).However, there are relatively few written significant variations between men and women (Kunkel and Burleson, 1999).

Problem statement
The massive corporate failures at the beginning of this twenty-first century have been linked to poor leadership (Fincham and Rhodes, 2005).More common-place human outcomes of poor leadership include employee stress, disenchantment, lack of creativity, cynicism, high employee turnover, and low productivity.Poor leadership destroys the human spirit essential to ensure work effectiveness (Fincham and Rhodes, 2005).Organizations today are moving toward more democratic structures, which allow employees to influence the decisions made because of concern for quality and the requirement of a high degree of commitment by employees to their work (Somech, 2010).The impact of a participative leadership style on organisational commitment has been previously noted (Yiing and Ahmad, 2009;Dolatabadi and Safa, 2010;Tain-Fung Wu et al., 2006).
Although, the previous studies exist, they have been general (Mc Neese-Smith, 1997).The impact of participative leadership behaviour on the attitudes of male and female subordinates is not clearly specified.Scholars are of the assertion that gender may influence the attitudes of subordinates on a manager's leadership style and their resultant commitment to an organisation (Neal et al., 2005).The work attitudes of male subordinates favour directive leadership with the focus on performance whilst that of female subordinates on the other hand, favour participative leadership with the focus on their commitment (Werner et al., 2007).Those who support organisational change, argue that participative leadership is the preferred style for attaining organisational improvement (Somech, 2005).As such, it has been considered as the best leadership practice in the current business environment in South Africa because it promotes high levels of team outcomes (Sagie et al., 2002).The present study seeks to further investigate the effects of participative leadership on organisational commitment: comparing its effect on two gender groups among bank clerks in Alice and King Williams Town.

Objectives of the study
1. To determine the effect of participative leadership on organisational commitment: comparing its effects on two gender groups.2. To determine the effects of participative leadership on organisational commitment among bank clerks

The significance of the study
The present study of the effects of participative leadership on organisational commitment: comparing its effect on two gender groups is of paramount importance because it was conducted in a geographically outlying area of Alice and King Williams towns where studies such as this one are very limited.It therefore, provides another dimension for understanding the impact participative leadership on organisational commitment.The present study also intends to expand the available knowledge on the effects of participative leadership on organisational commitment.Organisational managers often use similar strategies when dealing with subordinates of different gender groups.Some scholars are of the assertion that the work attitudes of male subordinates favour directive behaviour with the focus on performance, and that of female subordinates favour participative leadership with the focus on their commitment (Werner et al, 2007).As such, different leadership approaches need to be employed by managers when dealing with male and female subordinates.The present study therefore, helps organisations to acknowledge the value of diversity in management in today's organisations.Male and female subordinates have different attitudes toward their work as a consequent of a leadership approach used in an organisation.Furthermore, it helps to enlighten organisations on how participative leadership can preclude or reinforce employee positive attitudes toward their work.

Motivational model
The motivational model states that increasing the level of participation in decision making may increase performance through increased motivation (Sashkin, 1976).Previous scholars suggest that participative behaviour of superiors have an important role in providing sub-ordinates with the experience of intrinsic motivation, feelings of self-worth and a sense of self-determination (Deci et al.,1989).This type of leadership behaviour promotes a feeling of ''psychological ownership'' of subordinates (Sashkin, 1976); increase subordinates' feelings of believing in themselves and control, and reduce their sense of powerlessness (Arnold et al., 2000).Other scholars suggest that participative leader-ship behaviour may promote the feeling of empowerment among subordinates (Ahearne et al., 2005;Leach et al., 2003).
This feeling of empowerment or psychological empowerment has been understood as a form of intrinsic motivation to perform the job and is shown in four cognitive dimensions: meaning, impact, competence and self-determination (Huang et al., 2010).Previous studies show that participative leadership behaviour leads to increased work outcomes by inducing intrinsic motivation and psychological empowerment.As such, intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship between the participative behaviour of managers and the organizational commitment of employees (Eby et al., 1999).Furthermore, other scholars show that psychological empowerment may mediate the relationship between participative environment and work attitudes (Careless, 2004;Seibert et al., 2004).When subordinates take part in intrinsically motivating work, they may discover that the performance of their work is more benefiting, and consequently, they are motivated to put more effort to achieve their work objectives (Organ et al., 2006).

Exchange-based model
The exchange-based model for explaining the positive relationship between participative leadership behaviour and organisational commitment focuses on a two-way relationship between leaders and subordinates.It proposes that when subordinates are treated well by their leaders, they may return the favour by putting extra effort to contribute to their organizations (Blau, 1964;Moorman, 1991;Organ, 1988).The level of subordinates' trust in their leaders is used to show the quality of the two-way exchange relationship between leaders and subordinates (Lavelle et al., 2007).Participative leadership behaviour may lead subordinates to feel that their leaders treat them justly (Jung and Avolio, 2000), considerably (Dirks and Ferrin, 2002), with respect and dignity (Bijlsma and van de Bunt, 2003), found the level of trust is high in leaders.With a high level of trust in leaders, subordinates may expend more effort to accomplish work tasks (Huang et al., 2010).

Organisational commitment
The term organizational commitment has been conceptualised in many different ways.It has been conceptualised as an employee attitude and a set of behavioural intentions (Steers, 1977).It is therefore, defined as the relative strength of an individual's identification with and involvement in a particular organisation (Mowday et al., 1979).Other scholars view it as the degree to which an individual identifies and is involved with his or her organisation and or is unwilling to leave it (Klein et al., 2009).This concept of organisational commitment is therefore, concerned with the degree to which people identifies with their organisations and they want to remain with them.Meyer and Allen (1997) perceived organizational commitment as something that involves the employees' relationship with their organization, how they influence employees' behaviour, wellbeing, and contributions to organizational effectiveness.
The concept has drawn more attention recently from managers because of new developments in employment practices that have come from the global employment market place and more alternatives for skilled employees in a global market (Sullivan and Arthur, 2006).It is an important variable to consider in the current work situation when an organization's goal is to maintain a stable workforce on whose continued membership with it can add more value (Mowday et al., 1982).Organisational commitment is therefore very important for organizations because of their need to retain highly qualified employees.Employees which are highly committed to an organisation use more personal resources when they perform the job for an organization and will remain with it by not looking for alternative employment engagements (Bret et al., 1995).The present study looks at Mowday et al (1979)'s three components of organisational commitment as follows: 1. Loyalty is a strong desire to maintain membership in the organisation.2. Effort is the willingness to exert considerable energy on behalf of the organisation.3. Value is a strong belief in and acceptance of the organisation's goals and values.
When organisational commitment is conceptualised in this manner, it stands for something more than mere passive loyalty to an organisation.But it involves an active relationship with the organisation, such that employees are strongly willing to give something of them in order to contribute to the organisation's well being (Mowday et al., 1979).The stronger an employee can understand the core values and goals of an organization, the higher the level of their commitment (Porter et al., 1974).

Gender and organisational commitment
Gender is perceived as a "relational demographic variable" by different scholars (Murphy and Ensher, 1999;Tsui, et al., 1992).Thus, demographic variable is used to describe the differences in the characteristics of leaders and subordinates (Tsui and O'Reilly, 1989).Scholars have explained gender relative to the organisation the individual belongs to as antecedents of individual outcomes such as satisfaction, commitment and performance (Joshi et al., 2011).Gender difference in the organisation is one of the most often researched components of relational demography.However, it has been considered most of the times in relation to perceptions about peers and work groups, and not about leadership behaviour (Joshi et al., 2011).The studies that focused on differences in terms of gender, the results have been inconsistent.Those that were using the theory of relational demography had sought to open up the complex effects of gender differences among subordinates (Riordan, 2000;Tsui and Gutek, 1999).These scholars are of the opinion that when subordinates are not the same as their leaders in terms of gender they feel less socially integrated and committed to their organization.
The similarity attraction theory suggests that a subordinate's similarity to a manager leads to liking and attraction which leads to many positive work outcomes such as satisfaction and commitment (Joshi et al, 2011).In some studies, subordinates gender differences to that of a leader has been negatively linked to outcomes such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Liao et al., 2004).Furthermore, in one study, gender differences had positive and negative outcomes (Bacharach and Bamberger, 2004).The studies focusing on the relationship between subordinates gender and commitment to leadership have been overlooked (Pohl and Paillé, 2011).These studies however, suggest an influence of gender on attitudes toward a leadership style (Neal et al., 2005).Accordingly, it may influence the subordinates' perception of a manager's leadership style as well as their organizational commitment.It can influence work behaviour and attitudes through interpersonal attraction.It is also associated with the underlying work behaviour and attitudes (Jackson, 1996).Thus, gender increases affection, attraction (Meglino et al., 1989) and trust (Mayer, 1995).This will influence a leader's willingness to allow the subordinates to participate in decision making (Epitropaki and Martin, 1999;Yukl, 2002;Yukl and Fu, 1999).
Gender has therefore, been a significant influence in a leader's decision to allow the subordinates to participate in decision making and their resultant commitment to an organisation.Women and men are not the same in the type of behavioural attributes they use in developing trust in their leaders (Johnson and Swap, 1982).Schein (1975) further argued that subordinates prefer leader behaviours that are congruent with the stereotypes of the subordinate's own gender.In this regard, male subordinates would prefer directive leadership while female subordinates on the other side would prefer a participative style (Werner et al., 2007).Subordinates are satisfied and committed to an organisation with a participative style of leadership from leaders of the opposite sex (Rosen and Jerdee, 1973).Tsui and Gutek (1999) are also of the view that gender difference has a negative effect on subordinate commitment to the organisation.However, the effect is higher on men than on women.These arguments therefore, lead to the following hypothesis: H 1: Participative leadership has different effects on organisational commitment among two gender groups.

Participative leadership and organisational commitment
Participative leaders increase employees' performance by using the motivational mechanism of organisational commitment (Sashkin, 1976).The motivational factor of commitment on the participation-performance relationship confirms the motivational theories that emphasise identification and self-control as key motivational forces (Somech, 2005).They provide subordinates with an opportunity to be involved in and exert influence on the decision making process (Somech, 2005).Consequently, active participation promotes involvement and commitment, because subordinates develop a greater trust in and rise to a higher level of acceptance of information identified by them (Armenakis et al., 1993;Fullan, 1997).This participation has been found to promote commitment to decisions that are made and to increase willingness to carry them out in their work with customers.
Although, the effect of participation in decision making on organisational commitment is not high, it is generally positive (Sagie et al., 2002).Some scholars argue that a decision is only as good as its implementation and those who participate in making it are usually highly committed to make it fruitful (Robbins et al., 2008).Commitment is heightened if there is a feeling of ownership among subordinates in the sense of believing that they are truly accepted by the superiors as important stakeholders in the organisation.This concept of ownership extends to participation in decision making.The employees should therefore, participate in making those decisions and feel that their ideas have been honoured, and that they have contributed to the success of the organisation (Armstrong, 2009).The organisational commitment of subordinates increases only if the leader clarifies the values and goals of the organisation, and behaves in a participative manner (Suar et al., 2006).Furthermore, enabling subordinates to participate is a leadership behaviour that gives them energy and confidence, develops relationships based on mutual trust, and provides employees with discretion to make decisions.These leadership behaviours are important to productive and satisfied employees with great organisational commitment (Chiok Foong Loke, 2001).
Leaders should allow subordinates to participate in developing goals and strategies, and the satisfaction obtained from achieving those goals has been found to lead to organisational commitment (Beardwell and Holdern, 1997).Those subordinates who perceive their leaders as adopting participative leadership behaviour are more committed to their organizations, more satisfied with their jobs and maintain high performance levels (Yousef, 2000).Therefore, the ability of leaders to correctly use a participative style motivates subordinates to commit themselves to the organization.Yiing and Ahmad (2009) also found that participative leadership style is significantly and positively related with organizational commitment.Other scholars also revealed that this leadership style has a positive effect on the commitment of subordinates to the quality of service, shared values and the clarity of the employees' functions (Dolatabadi and Safa, 2010).Tain-Fung et al. ( 2006) also found that participative leadership behaviour leads to increased organizational commitment in service organisations.Furthermore, other scholars argue that this leadership behaviour influences the job performance of subordinates by creating very high levels of trust (Huang et al., 2010).These empirical imperatives therefore, give the way to the following hypothesis:

Sample and procedure
The research population constituted of 100 bank clerks from the small towns of Alice and King Williams.The whole population participated in the present study because it was small enough to be used without being sampled.In these towns, five different banks were available for the present study.These banks were Standard Bank, First National Bank, Capitec Bank, African Bank and Post Office Bank.To collect research data, permission was obtained by the researcher from the top managers of all the five banks used in present study.All the bank clerks were asked by the researcher to participate in the present study voluntarily.As such, all the bank clerks were given enough time to complete the questionnaires.Of the 100 bank clerks that were available for the present study, only 70 bank clerks responded to this study.Among them, 72.9% were females and 27.1% were males.Their mean age was 30.613 years and their mean tenure was 4.611years.With regards to their education level, 7.1%of the bank clerks had completed grade ten; 50.1% had a metric certificate and 4.3% had a national certificate.Also, 37.1% had a degree and 1.4% had an honours degree.Furthermore, in terms of their employers, 20.0% of the bank clerks were from Standard bank; 22.9% were from the First national bank; 28.6% were from the Capitec bank; 17.1% were from the African bank and lastly, 11.4% were from the Post office bank.For reasons of confidentiality and anonymity, the names of the bank clerks were not assessed so that their responses could not be assigned to specific individuals.

The respondents
The present study focused on bank clerks because of their highly Bell and Mjoli 455 important value in the success of banks today.They are directly responsible for customer service, service quality and customer satisfaction.All these responsibilities are very crucial for a good performance (Hartline et al., 2003).The bank clerks who are committed to their jobs share the organisation's customer-oriented values, have low levels of their job stress and give their maximum level of the quality of service (Hartline et al., 2000;Singh 2000).
The behaviour of managers or leaders is the significant measure in determining the success of banks.An organisation using inappropriate leadership style is not able to transform the resources that they put in the organisation into a competitive advantage (Drucker, 1993).An appropriate leadership style has a great influence on the behaviour and attitude of bank clerks which include their adoption of the bank's strategy and value.It is therefore related to organizational commitment and subordinates work performance (Ehrhart, 2004).While different leadership styles have the ability to influence behaviour and attitude of bank clerks in different ways, a manager or leader must use an appropriate leadership style.

INSTRUMENTS
Participative leadership: To assess the extent at which a leader displayed a participative leadership style, a scale adapted from Arnold et al. (2000) was used.Participative leadership questionnaire included six items that measures the extent of involvement in various decisions.The sample items are, "my supervisor encourages work group members to express their ideas or suggestions," and "my supervisor uses our work group's suggestions to make decisions that affect us".The reliability level of alpha was .812.The respondents used a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).

Organizational commitment:
To measure bank clerks' organizational commitment, the researcher adapted Mowday et al.'s (1979) organizational commitment questionnaire (OCQ) specifically to the bank setting.This instrument includes 15 items and refers to the strength of an individual's identification with and involvement in a particular organization.Sample items are, "I talk about this bank to my friends as a great bank to work for," and "I feel very little loyalty to this bank" (reverse coded).The reliability level of alpha was .831.The respondents used a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to 7 strongly agree (7).

RESULTS
Table 1 below shows the descriptive statistics and correlations of the study's variables.The internal consistency estimates for participative leadership and organisational commitment were found to be within an acceptable level.
Organisational commitment was measured as loyalty, value, effort and total organisational commitment.As shown in table 1 below, there are differences in organisational commitment levels between the two gender groups as a result of participative leadership behaviour.For loyalty, both gender groups show different and insignificant effects.Thus, hypothesis one (H 1 ) is confirmed.With regards to value, both gender groups show different effects.However, for males group only (r= .583;p ≤ .009),there is a positive and significant effect.This therefore, means that (H 2 ) was accepted.Furthermore, for effort, both gender groups show different effects.However, for females group only (r= .422;p ≤ These results are positive and significant for both gender groups.They therefore, also confirm both hypotheses.

DISCUSSION
In general, the value of different leadership styles on the behaviour and attitudes of different gender groups and their resultant on organisational commitment have been understudied (Pohl and Paillé, 2011).In closing this gap, the present study has focused on the effects of participative leadership on organisational commitment: comparing its effects on two gender groups.The results showed that participative leadership has different effects among the two gender groups of bank clerks.
First, for subordinate's loyalty to the organisation, participative leadership behaviour had different and insignificant effects on both males and females.Subordinates gender difference is negatively associated with organizational commitment (Liao et al., 2004).AI-Ajmi (2006) found that there is no significant relationship between participative leadership and loyalty among males and female subordinates.However, these results are uncommon because a previous study indicated that participative leadership leads to subordinates loyalty to the organisation (Bass, 1981).The results of the present study therefore, suggest that the presence of subordinates' loyalty has nothing to do with the presence of participative leadership behaviour.Second, for value (strong belief in and acceptance of the organisation's goals and values), participative leadership behaviour had different effects among both gender groups.
However, the effect was significant for male subordinates only.They are more willing to be with the organisation's goals and values because they think the organization has a great deal of meaning to them (Meyer et al., 1993).For instance, Baird et al.(1998); Dodd-McCue and Wright (1996); Kaldenberg et al.(1995) showed that there is a greater organisational commitment among men than among women.The meta-analysis studies also revealed that there is greater organisational commitment by women than men (Matthieu and Zajec, 1990).The findings of the present study also indicated that males and females are committed to an organisation differently.Thus, the meaning of organizational commitment to males is mainly associated with the performance of tasks and issues involving time frames or objectives.This meaning associated with males is consistent with the existing objectivistic measures of organizational commitment.It reinforces the argument that existing measures are male-oriented and therefore, are not supporting women's organisational experiences (Singh and Vinnicombe, 2000a).For an organisation to increase a strong belief in and acceptance of the organisation's goals and values among male subordinates, participative leadership is highly recommended.
Third, for effort (the willingness to exert considerable energy on behalf of the organisation), participative leadership behaviour still had different effects on both males and females subordinates.But for females only, the effect of participative leadership was significant.For instance, Wahn (1998) found that woman subordinates have higher levels of commitment compared to men ones.They show organisational commitment in terms of their passion, consensus, and service to the organisation, enabling and strengthening the capabilities of others, sacrifice and personal fulfilment (Franzway's, 2000).Participative leadership behaviour is recommended if organisations need to motivate female subordinates to expend considerable energy for the organisation.
Last but not least, for total organisational commitment, participative leadership behaviour had different effects among both gender groups.The effects were significant for both gender groups.However, the effect was higher on men than on women (Tsui and Gutek, 1999).They have strong identification with and involvement in their organisation (Mowday et al., 1979).Participation promotes involvement and commitment because subordinates develop a greater trust in and rise to a higher level of acceptance of information identified by them (Armenakis et al., 1993;Fullan, 1997).This participation has been found to promote commitment to decisions that are made and to increase willingness to carry them out in their work with customers.The present study therefore revealed that organisations should use participative leadership if they want subordinates to be highly committed and perform in their organisations (Somech, 2005).

MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
In general, the present study highlights the utility of participative leadership in enhancing organisational commitment among subordinates of different gender (Dolatabadi and Safa, 2010).While participative leadership behaviour leads to different effects on organisational commitment, it is a very effective leadership style for male subordinates with regards to their belief in and acceptance of the organisation's goals and values.The present study therefore, recommends that organisations should employ a participative leadership style if they are to increase their subordinate's belief in and acceptance of the organisation's goals and values.Also, if organisations need to increase effort among female subordinates, participative leadership behaviour should be employed by the organisation's managers.Subordinates are satisfied and committed to an organisation with a participative style from leaders of a different gender (Rosen and Jerdee, Bell and Mjoli 457 1973).Organisational managers should identify the needs of different subordinates with regards to their gender when dealing with them.Finally, the present study generally recommends that organisational managers should invest in participative leadership training programmes so as to help themselves increase organisational commitment among their subordinates.Active participation in decision making fosters involvement and commitment because subordinates have trust in and rise to a higher level of acceptance of the ideas and knowledge found by them (Armenakis et al, 1993).

Limitations and future research directions
The present study was limited to certain banks because of the researcher's challenge to get access to other banks.Some bank managers seemed suspicious of the motives of the researcher even though it was explained to them.Moreover, their policies did not allow external researchers to conduct research in their bank premises.
The questionnaire used in the present study measured participative leadership as perceived by subordinates.Thus, there was no section where managers could also describe their levels of participative leadership behaviours.Furthermore, other scales of organisational commitment different from Mowday et al. (1979) should also be used in future research for triangulation purposes.For instance, the scales which were developed by Allen and Meyer (1990) that measures organisational commitment in terms of continuance, affective and normative could be used.
The future research should also investigate whether leadership moderates the relationship between gender and organisational commitment.

CONCLUSION
The present study investigated the effects of participative leadership on organisational commitment: comparing its effects among two gender groups in banks.The findings provided important foundations for understanding subordinates' attitudes toward managers' leadership behaviour in the banking environment.They also indicated how participative leadership behaviour can influence males and females employee's performance in service organisations.Furthermore, they showed how participative leadership behaviour has different effects on male and female subordinates with regards to their commitment in organisations.A manager's leadership style creates a culture in the organization that can foster subordinates' commitment to the services delivered.

Table 1 .
Reliabilities and correlations for the Study's Variables for different gender groups.