The Mediating Role of Organizational Commitment in the Effect of Authentic Leadership on Employee Performance

Abstract

In today's competitive environment, employees' individual performances are considered to be an important determining factor in achieving sustainable competitive advantage of organizations. Therefore, managers are in the interest of increasing the performance of their employees. Many studies have been conducted by researchers to identify the antecedents of employee performance. In the researches, leadership is the most remarkable research topic. The literature supports the view that the leader positively affects employee performance. Although it has been documented in the literature that different leadership styles are effective on employee performance, research on authentic leadership is limited. For this reason, studies are needed in the literature to determine the effect of the authentic leader on employee performance. An authentic leader is a leadership approach that motivates employees to perform beyond expectations by identifying them with organizational goals and interests. Also, the authentic leader plays an important role in the formation of organizational commitment in employees as well as affecting employee performance. Based on this reasoning in the research; A conceptual model including the authentic leader, employee performance, and organizational commitment is proposed. To test the proposed model, 317 survey data were obtained from the garment manufacturing employees in Istanbul. The survey data were analyzed with the help of SSPS-24 and AMOS-18 software. The results of the analysis showed that the authentic leadership positively affected employee performance and organizational commitment. In addition to these findings, it was determined that organizational commitment has a mediating role in the effect of the authentic leader on employee performance. In addition to contributing to the literature, the research findings have results that will attract the attention of researchers and practitioners.