Assessing Changes in Employees' Perceptions of Leadership Behavior, Job Design, and Organizational Arrangements and Their Job Satisfaction and Commitment

Abstract

This exploratory study sought to contribute to a better understanding of organizational change in human service organizations. Employees' perceptions constituted the central features of a model underlying the study, as they were believed to be related to individual level change outcomes. It was hypothesized that employees' perceptions of organizational arrangements, job characteristics, and leadership behavior would be related to their job satisfaction and commitment. Data were collected from 41 employees representing all organizational levels of a human service organization under the study. Results showed that employees' perceptions of leadership behavior were important predictors of job satisfaction and commitment. Additional post-hoc analysis demonstrated that participation and production orientation components of leadership behavior were significant predictors of job satisfaction, explaining 64.3% of its variance. For the commitment variable, the combination of leadership behaviors-participation, work control, and subordinate relations-explained 48.1% of its variance. Study limitations are discussed as well as the implications for social work practice.