Investigating transformational leadership practices and the influence on employees' organisational commitment at Camden Power Station.

Abstract

The study was aimed at investigating whether the leadership practices at Camden Power Station are transformational and employee organisational commitment centred. Organisations cannot perform successfully if leadership is not effective and employees are not committed to the organisation. The objectives of the study were to establish the existence of transformational leadership practices at Camden Power Station; to investigate if there is a relationship between these practices and employee organisational commitment; to establish other transformational leadership factors that affect employee organisational commitment and to make recommendations to the organisation about transformational leadership practices and organisational commitment. The study approach was quantitative. In this study the sample was identified from within Camden Power Station, a generation business unit in Eskom. The sample of 105 employees was scientifically calculated from a population of employees. A random sample was drawn from a sample frame of employee list obtained from the Human Resource Department. The study findings revealed that leaders at Camden Power Station practised transformational leadership styles and that there is a positive relationship between these practices and organisational commitment. It is recommended that these practices become a leadership programme and form part of the organisation’s leadership performance contract; its implementation must be monitored. The current leadership practices at Camden Power Station need to be transformational in order to enhance employee organisational commitment and retain skills while ensuring adequate generation of electricity for the country. The study also recommends that other employee behaviours such as job satisfaction, leadership acceptance and job performance be researched against transformational leadership, using a larger sample and mixed methods to be able to obtain richer information from respondents.