The Effects of Leadership and Market Orientation on Organizational Commitment

Abstract

High performing organizations achieving the sustainable growth have attracted attention of so many researchers in strategic management. The characteristics, structures, cultures and environments of those firms have been surveyed by many researchers. Most of these researches have revealed the importance of organizational capabilities in achieving sustainable growth in those high performing organizations. In this context, this survey has emphasized the leadership, market orientation and organizational commitment as the sources of sustainable growth in high performing organizations. The survey of this study is conducted on 343 middle and senior managers of 125 high performing firms operating in manufacturing industry in Turkey, between the years of 2008-2010. Firms fulfilling the criteria that (1) being indicated in the list of "Fortune 1000 of Turkey" between the years of 1997-2007, and (2) not being undergone a loss for those 10 years, are indexed as high performing firms. The obtained data from the questionnaires are analyzed through the SPSS statistical packaged software. Factor analysis, reliability analysis, correlation and regression analyses are used to evaluate the data. Analyses results revealed that two dimensions of market orientation (customer orientation and inter functional coordination) mediate the effects of the change oriented leadership behavior on organizational commitment.