Investigating a Relationship Between Authentic Followership and Organizational Commitment
Investigating a Relationship Between Authentic Followership and Organizational Commitment
Glenn Wade Zachary | 2024
Abstract
Literature has reported that authentic leadership is positively related to organizational commitment. Minimal research demonstrates a direct relationship between authentic followership and organizational commitment. This study built upon the foundation of authentic leadership to investigate authentic followership in relationship with organizational commitment. Theoretical framework and literature review established the variables of authentic followership as internalized moral perspective, relational transparency, self-awareness, and psychological ownership, which are positively related to variables of organizational commitment: affective, continuance, and normative. The current research was a quantitative, correlational study that tested these relationships with a survey of 215 individuals 21 years of age, with a minimum of 5 years of work experience within the United States, with demographic data collected regarding age, gender, and type of work organization. Anonymous, voluntary, noncompensable, and confidential responses were collected utilizing SurveyMonkey. The questionnaire used the Authentic Followership Profile (VanWhy, 2015) to measure the elements of authentic followership and Meyer and Allen’s (1997) Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment Scales (Revised) to measure the elements of organizational commitment. Cronbach’s alpha values for each instrument ranged from .7 to .9. Pearson correlation coefficient analysis in SPSS revealed that each variable of authentic followership—internal moral perspective, relational transparency, self-awareness, and psychological ownership—was positively related to each variable of organizational commitment—affective, continuance, and normative—with each variable being statistically significant (ρ < .001). The initial expectation was that continuance commitment would be negatively related to authentic followership; however, each variable exhibited a positive relationship. Findings revealed a positive but small relationship between internalized moral perspective and organizational commitment. Relational transparency showed a moderate and strong positive relationship with organizational commitment. Self-awareness revealed a small and moderate positive relationship with organizational commitment. Psychological ownership demonstrated the most substantial positive relationship with organizational commitment. The study’s limitations include restricting the responses solely to the United States and excluding the perspectives of individuals working in a volunteer capacity within the workplace. Future research could focus on specific work environments such as not-for-profit, the public, and the private sector and control variables such as years of work experience, gender, age, or ethnicity.