| The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the perceived leadership practices and organizational commitment including selected personal characteristics of Air Force employees. The study proposed two research questions, “What is the influence of perceived leadership practices on employee organizational commitment of active duty Air Force and government civil service employees working for the Air Force?” In addition, “Is there a statistically significant relationship between certain personal characteristics (rank, time in service, age, education level, and gender) and organizational commitment of Air Force members?”;The respondents surveyed were active duty and government civil service Air Force employees, faculty and students, of the United States Air Force attending the Air Force Institute of Technology. The findings of this study indicated a statistically significant correlation between leadership practices and organizational commitment of Air Force employees. Results show a positive relationship between the five leadership practices of challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, modeling the way, and encouraging the heart developed by Kouzes and Posner (1988) and the organizational commitment of Air Force employees. However, with the exception of an employees' position or rank, the affect of demographic characteristics on organizational commitment was not established.;The study used the organizational commitment model developed by Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979), and the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ), developed by Porter, Steers, Mowday, and Boulian (1974) that established the self-reporting organizational commitment levels of respondents. The leadership practices model developed by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (1988); and their survey instrument called the Leadership Practices Inventory-Observer (LPI-O) was used to test the respondents perceived leadership practices. A demographic characteristic questionnaire was included in the survey. |
