The Mediating Effects of Organizational Commitment on Leadership Styles and Employee Performance in SOEs in Ghana: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating effects of organizational commitment on leadership styles (transformational, transactional and laissez-faire) and subordinate performance in state-owned enterprises in Ghana. The study adopted the partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) to test the hypotheses model. The model has been tested with 330 respondents. The data have been validated by the use of measurement modeling to determine internal consistency reliability (CR) and convergent validity (CV) with SmartPLS 3.0. The results indicate that organizational commitment mediates transformational and laissez-faire leadership. It has also been found that transformational and laissez-faire leadership have a statistically positive and significant relationship with job performance at p < .05 while transactional leadership proved insignificant. The implication is that leaders should know any action to improve subordinate commitment and job performance should take into account appropriate leadership behavior. Also, human development training should be instituted to shape the present and future leadership needs of the enterprise. In furtherance to this, the study provides discussions on the findings, limitations and went on to propose directions for future research.