Organizational culture, job satisfaction and leadership style influence on organizational commitment of employees in private higher education institutions (PHEI) in Malaysia

The study examined the extent to which organizational culture, job satisfaction and leadership style influences organizational commitment among academic employees in the PHEIs in Malaysia. Study participants were 750 employees (43% males, 57% females), age range 24 to 66 from ten higher educational institutions from Klang Valley area. Respondents completed measures of organizational culture, job satisfaction, leadership styles and organizational commitment. Data were descriptively summarized and with multiple regression analysis utilized to predict organizational commitment from job satisfaction, leadership style and organizational culture. The results revealed a positive significant relationship between organizational culture, leadership style, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. From the findings, it was observed that majority of the respondents agree among three discernible leadership styles, the transformational and the transactional leadership styles were positively correlated but surprisingly the laissez-faire leadership style did not meet the reliability coefficients scales needed for statistical analysis and subsequently removed from further analyses. The study also revealed that continuance commitment did not have any influence on the independent variables. Based on these findings, it was recommended that productive and effective measures should be taken by the management of PHEIs to maintain and strengthen the employees’ level of satisfaction and commitment and also devise compelling, productive, and effective policies that are promising to the employees’ prosperity and organizational productivity.