The Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Organizational Commitment in Nonprofit Long Term Care Organizations: The Direct Care Worker Perspective

Abstract

The United States population is rapidly aging, impacting the demand and supply of direct care workers who provide long term care services. Retaining direct care workers will be a workforce concern for industry and policy leaders for decades to come. Issues such as turnover, recognition, and supervisory practices have all been studied relative to direct care worker retention, but leader behaviors are of special interest because of documented influence on organizational commitment. Research on leader behaviors has been focused on managerial and executive levels, with scant consideration in long term care at the lower hierarchical levels. The quantitative correlational study explored the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment among 322 direct care workers employed by nonprofit, multi-level long term care organizations located in the Midwest. Results revealed a statistically significant relationship between transformational leadership and affective and normative commitment dimensions, with no significant relationship found between transformational leadership and continuance commitment. In considering differences between long term settings, findings indicated significance with organizational commitment, but not for transformational leadership, suggesting that other factors, such as autonomy, may contribute more to organizational commitment than does transformational leadership. The study results are beneficial to industry leaders, researchers, and policymakers for addressing operational policies, leadership training, human resource practices, and workforce policy development. Keywords: transformational leadership, organizational commitment, affective commitment, continuance commitment, normative commitment, Midwest, long term care organizations, nonprofit