The effect of perceived leadership style on employee job satisfaction at a selected company in the South African aeronautical industry

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the effect that different leadership styles have on employee job satisfaction and organisational commitment within a high-tech South African organisation. The sample of this study consisted of 126 full time and part-time employees working in all functional levels in Company-x. The sample included both male and female respondents. Data was gathered by using a structured survey questionnaire which was delivered on site at Company-x. The questionnaire included a demographic/biographic section and three instruments namely the Mohrman-Cook-Mohrman Job Satisfaction Scales (MCMJSS), the Leaders Behaviour Descriptive Questionnaire (LBDQ) and the Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). Of the 126 questionnaires that were returned only two were not completed. The results indicate that respondents perceive their leaders’ leadership style as being equal for initiating structure and consideration-oriented leadership styles. The results also indicated that respondents have a higher level of extrinsic job satisfaction than intrinsic job satisfaction and that the level of affective organisational commitment is above average. The findings show that only consideration-oriented leadership play a role in predicting 17.1 per cent of intrinsic job satisfaction and that initiating structure leadership has no significant effect in predicting intrinsic job satisfaction. The results showed that initiating structure and consideration-oriented leadership styles contribute to 36 per cent of the total variance that occurs within extrinsic job satisfaction. The findings also reveal that certain ratio and discrete demographic/biographic variables have no effect on job satisfaction and organisational commitment. A number of conclusions and recommendations were drawn from this study which was based on the obtained results. The recommendations were aimed at improving the levels of intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction as well as the level of affective organisational commitment.