Managers’ leadership styles: organizational commitment, job autonomy and extra-role behaviors

Purpose: Using a dyadic-level analysis, this study examines how organizational commitment accounts for the impacts of transformational and transactional leadership styles on service employees’ extra-role behavior and how job autonomy moderates the impacts of these leadership styles. Design/methodology/approach: A matched sample of subordinates and superiors in the service industry was targeted. Data acquired from 271 customer service employees and 33 of their immediate supervisors at five-star hotels in Seoul, South Korea, was used for the analysis. Findings: This study found that organizational commitment mediates the impacts of both leadership styles on extra-role behavior. Job autonomy, however, moderates the impact only of transformational leadership on organizational commitment. Originality/value: This study provides theoretically meaningful implications that contribute to the literature on the impact of leadership styles on employees’ extra-role behavior.