Impact of Leadership Styles on Organizational Commitment: Empirical Evidence from Small and Medium Enterprises in Can Tho Vietnam

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the impact of leadership style on organizational commitment in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam, thereby proposing some implications to enhance the engagement between employees and SMEs.This study adopted the Multiple Leadership Styles scales and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire to develop a survey questionnaire in the context of Can Tho Vietnamese SMEs. Primary data was then collected by distributing 300 questionnaires toemployees, who are working at SMEs in Can Tho Vietnam. There were 217 valid questionnaires that were eligible for further analysis including Cronbach's alpha reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and multivariate regression analysis. Ourestimated results indicated that transformational, transactional, and passive/avoidant leadership styles had a significant relationship with organizational commitment. Specifically, transformational and transactional leadership style has a positive impact on organizational commitment, which is denoted by loyalty, effort, and pride of employees. Meanwhile, passive/avoidant leadership style has both a negative impact and a positive impact on employee commitment. This is a new contribution found from the study that leadership style has a considerable impact on organizational commitment.