Investigating transformational leadership, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intention at a South African university

Abstract

Investigating transformational leadership, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intention at a South African university South African institutions of higher learning face challenges with declined job satisfaction and increased employee turnover rates. These challenges potentially stem from leadership practices that fail to address employee needs. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between transformational leadership, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intention among support staff at an institution of higher learning in the North-West Province located in South Africa. This research achieved its objectives through a quantitative, cross-sectional design, with non-probability convenience sampling (n=160). The measuring instruments employed were the Transformational Leadership Questionnaire, Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, Affective Commitment Scale, and Intention to Quit Scale. Further, the statistical analysis of data guided the exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation, regression, and mediation analyses. The findings revealed positive correlations between transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and affective commitment, with a negative correlation to turnover intention. The regression analysis showed that transformational leadership dimensions explained a substantial portion of the variance in job satisfaction. Affective commitment was a significant predictor of reduced turnover intention. Finally, job satisfaction and affective commitment mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and turnover intention. While affective commitment acted as a mediator between job satisfaction and turnover intention. These findings underscore the importance of developing transformational leadership capabilities among supervisors in institutions of higher learning. This can be used as a strategic approach to improve job satisfaction, commitment, and ultimately reduce costly employee turnover.