The impact of different leadership styles during a change management process on employees’ organisational commitment

Abstract

This research investigates the critical role of leadership in shaping employee commitment during an organisational change. It examines how transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles influence organisational commitment. The study specifically focuses on the mediating psychological mechanisms of employees’ trust in leadership and their resilience to change. A quantitative, cross-sectional methodology was employed using a structured online survey distributed to 164 employees from medium to large organisations who had recently undergone a significant change event. The data was analysed using multiple regression and mediation analysis. The findings revealed that transformational and transactional leadership are significant positive predictors of commitment. Laissez-faire leadership shows no significant direct effect on organisational commitment but exerts a strong indirect negative impact by severely eroding employee trust. Furthermore, trust in leadership emerged as a dominant mediator, fully explaining the positive effect of transformational leadership and the negative impact of laissez-faire leadership. Employee resilience was statistically significant but a substantially weaker mediator across all leadership styles. The study concludes that during change, employees value active leadership that builds trust. It is the fundamental pathway that secures employee commitment. Practical recommendations are offered for leaders to integrate behaviours to navigate change successfully.