Abstract

It has become clear that organizational commitment (OC) has important implications for employees and organizations as confirmed by past researchers. This study examines leadership styles and employees’ organizational commitment in the Malaysia context. Two types of leadership styles namely transformational and transactional leadership styles have been chosen as focus of research to investigate the impact on organizational commitment. This is imperative in order to ensure the successful management of employees and also to improve productivity and achievements of an organization. One hundred and fifty-six Malaysian executives voluntarily participated in this study. The results have indicated that several dimensions of transactional and transformational leadership have positive relationship with organizational commitment but the impacts are stronger for transactional leadership style. Implications of the findings, potential limitations of the study, and directions for future research are suggested.

Key words:     Organizational commitment (OC), improved productivity, Malaysian executives, transformational leadership, transactional leadership