The influence of leader-member communication on organizational commitment in a central European hospital

Abstract

© 2015, Budapest Tech Polytechnical Institution. All rights reserved. It is clear that accomplishing the goals of leadership can be easier and the process is far more successful, if both leaders and their coworkers are fully committed to their organizations, especially in stressful, demanding working environments with high levels of responsibility, such as in the health care sector. The subject of this paper is to investigate the influence of social exchange between leaders and their followers on the organizational commitment of employees. The main research question, to which this paper should give an answer, is whether social exchange between leaders and coworkers have significant influence on the organizational commitment of employees in a large hospital? The research was conducted in a Central European hospital with over 1000 employees. A total number of 359 valid questionnaires were returned. Two questionnaires were used for the research: the quality of leader-member exchange was measured with LMX-7 questionnaire for members and organizational commitment was measured with the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire – OCQ. Identical questionnaires were given to every employee included in the research, so no leader-member distinction was made among them, as the focus was on how employees as members evaluate their exchange with their leaders generally and what impact it has on their commitment. The area of interest of this research was not on specific leader-member relationships. Employees were asked to assess the quality of the exchange relationship with all of their leaders generally. The findings revealed that leader-member communication and organizational commitment have positive connectivity in a non-western environment. It was also revealed that leader-member communication and value commitment have much stronger relationship than the relationship between leader-member communication and commitment to stay.