The relationship between leadership style and organizational commitment: a survey in Malaysian Contact Centre

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between different leadership styles, specifically transformational and transactional and the three components of organizational commitment, namely affective, continuance, and normative in a contact center setting. This topic merits examination because in the 21 st century, contact centers stand as a part of the service industry as they potentially eliminate the necessity of face - to - face customer contact. In line with the rise of contact centers, organizational commitment plays a significant role in ensuring firm success and securing customer satisfaction, while leadership critically determine organizational commitment . A cross - sectional survey was conducted among 300 employees in a contact center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Sample for this study consisted of full - time front liners working in various helpdesks of the center. The development of the questionnaire was based on a literature review and the questions for the instrument were obtained from B.M Bass and Avolio (1997) and Allen and Meyer (1997). All items were measured using a 5 - point Likert - scale. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was performed, which showed that there were statistical correlation between organizational commitment and leadership styles. The analysis was done using SPSS version 20.0. This research supported the positive effects of transformational leadership style on two components of organizational commitment namely affective and normative, in context of service industry. The ?ndings add to the body of literature on the study of contact centers by examining the relationship between leadership style and organizational commitment. One practical implication that could be gained from this study is that managers need to develop effective strategies that would bene?t the organization by reducing employee turnover while increasing customer retention.