How Can Leaders Make Their Followers to Commit to the Organization? The Importance of Influence Tactics

Abstract

Transformational leaders have the potential to influence their followers to work beyond their normal capacities at the workplace and show resolute loyalty towards the organizational objectives. Although numerous studies have explored the relationship between transformational leadership and employee’s affective organizational commitment, what causes or mediates this relationship is yet to be explored. Therefore, the present study intends to explore the mediating role of influence tactics in explaining the relationship between transformational leadership and the follower’s organizational commitment. This study was conducted using reliable and validated instruments for data collection on a sample of 352 professionals working in various iron and steel firms across Chhattisgarh in India. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 18. The analysis reveals transformational leadership having a significant positive relationship with follower’s affective organizational commitment. The findings of this study also reported that the two influence tactics (rationality and inspirational appeal) partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and affective organizational commitment.