Investigating the Effect of Transactional, Transformational, and Spiritual Leadership Styles on Employee Organizational Commitment: The Mediating Role of Spiritual Well-Being and the Moderating Role of Emotional Intelligence in Teacher Training University Employees

Subject Areas :

Alireza Tahernejad ¹ , Raja Noriza Raja Ariffin ²

1 -
2 - PhD Professor Madya | Associate Professor Department of Political Science, Public Administration & Development Studies Faculty of Business and Economics University Malaya 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel. [phone] | Fax: [phone]

Received: 2025-07-10 Accepted : 2025-09-13 Published : 2025-09-26

Keywords: Transactional leadership, transformational leadership, spiritual leadership, organizational commitment, spiritual well-being, emotional intelligence.,

Abstract :

Purpose: Leadership plays a key role in shaping employee behavior and commitment in organizations. Different leadership styles such as transactional, transformational, and spiritual can have different effects on organizational commitment. Also, spiritual well-being as a mediating factor and emotional intelligence as a moderating variable play an important role in improving these relationships. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of different leadership styles including transactional, transformational, and spiritual leadership on employee organizational commitment with emphasis on the mediating role of spiritual well-being and the moderating role of emotional intelligence.

Method: This study was conducted using a quantitative approach and a cross-sectional descriptive design. The statistical population included employees of teacher training universities in Tehran and surrounding cities who were selected using convenience sampling. The data collection tool included standard questionnaires to measure the research variables.

findings: The findings showed that all three leadership styles have a positive and significant effect on employees' organizational commitment, but spiritual leadership with an impact coefficient of 0.74 had the greatest effect on organizational commitment compared to transformational (0.53) and transactional (0.32) leadership. Also, the results confirmed that spiritual well-being plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between spiritual leadership and organizational commitment.

Conclusion: In addition, leaders' emotional intelligence had a positive moderating role in strengthening the relationship between all three leadership styles and organizational commitment. The findings of this study indicate that leaders' movement from transactional to transformational and then spiritual style increases their impact on employee commitment.

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