The influence of ethical leadership and organisational culture on employee commitment in the City of Johannesburg

Abstract

The key driver of this study was to explore the influence of ethical leadership and organisational culture on employee commitment in the City of Johannesburg. The study employed a quantitative research approach, and simple random sampling was used to select research participants. This study entailed a cross-sectional study. Four hundred online questionnaires were distributed to research participants, of whom 234 were returned, giving an initial response rate of 58.5%. Of the 234 online returned questionnaires, 14 were found to be invalid and were omitted from the study analysis. This resulted in a valid response rate of 55%. The study’s findings have revealed that ethical leadership is key in positively influencing employee commitment. Therefore, the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality employees should be trained to increase their knowledge of ethical leadership, apply it and be empowered to enhance employee commitment. Moreover, the study has also revealed that organisational culture contributes substantially to employees’ commitment to the City of Johannesburg. Therefore, the City of Johannesburg's leadership should create a strong culture that will result in a positive environment. This would assist in retaining employees and thus reduce employee turnover. Moreover, the study has also revealed that organisational culture contributes substantially to employees’ commitment to the City of Johannesburg. Therefore, the City of Johannesburg's leadership should create a strong culture resulting in a positive environment. This would assist in retaining employees and thus reduce employee turnover. Therefore, the study recommends that the City of Johannesburg recruit ethical employees and create a conducive organisational culture to foster employee commitment.