Frontline Leadership in Communicating Organizational Policies and its Mediating Influence on Employee Commitment in  Nonprofit Organizations in Monrovia, Liberia

Frank O. Bannor; Derrick O. Deya; Josephine Ganu

doi:10.56893/pajes2024v05i02.06

Submitted

July 22, 2024

Published

December 26, 2024

Download

Download PDF

Statistic

Read Counter : 105

Abstract

This study examined the influence of frontline leadership communication on employee commitment within nonprofit organizations in Monrovia, Liberia. Four key questions guided the research: (1) perceptions of leaders’ communication and transparency, (2) commitment levels, (3) the relationship between communication, transparency, and commitment, and (4) the mediating role of transparency. Data from 388 respondents show that employees perceive communication and transparency positively. A strong positive correlation (r=0.891, p < 0.001) was found between these factors and commitment, which predicted 82.5% of the variance. The Sobel test confirms that transparency mediates this relationship (z = 7.403, p < 0.001). This highlights the importance of strategic communication in enhancing employee commitment. Recommendations include broadening the study’s scope to determine if the findings are applicable across various cultural and organizational contexts.

Keywords

Frontline leadership Communication Employee commitment Nonprofit organizations Organizational policies Liberia

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Author Biographies

Frank O. Bannor, Adventist University of West Africa, Liberia

Frank O. Bannor is an ordained minister and educator with over a decade of experience in teaching, chaplaincy, and leadership. He holds a Master of Arts in Christian Education and Theology from North Western Christian University (2017) and a Master of Arts in Leadership from the Adventist University of Africa (2024). His research interests include transparency in policy communication, frontline leadership, and succession planning. Frank is dedicated to promoting spiritual growth and professional excellence among both students and professionals.

Derrick O. Deya, Adventist University of Africa, Kenya

Dr. Derrick Deya is an instructor and research advisor at Adventist University of Africa.

Josephine Ganu, Adventist University of Africa, Kenya

Dr. Josephine Ganu is the Director of Research and Grants Development. She is also an Associate Professor of Management at Adventist University of Africa, Kenya.

How to Cite

Bannor, F. O., Deya, D. O., & Ganu, J. (2024). Frontline Leadership in Communicating Organizational Policies and its Mediating Influence on Employee Commitment in Nonprofit Organizations in Monrovia, Liberia . Pan-African Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 5(2), 77–90. https://doi.org/10.56893/pajes2024v05i02.06

Download Citation

References

Abt, G., Boreham, C., Davison, G., Jackson, R., Nevill, A., Wallace, E., & Williams, M. (2020). Power precision and sample size estimation in sport and exercise science research. Journal of Sports Sciences, 38(17), 1933–1935. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2020.1776002
Abu-Bader, S., & Jones, T. V. (2021). Statistical mediation analysis using the Sobel test and Hayes SPSS process macro. International Journal of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3799204
Agus, A., & Selvaraj, R. (2020). The mediating role of employee commitment in the relationship between quality of work life and the intention to stay. Employee Relations: The International Journal, 42(6), 1231–1248. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-07-2019-0292
Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. P. (1990). A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. Human Resource Management Review, 1, 61–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-Z
Avolio, B. J., & Yammarino, F. J. (Eds.). (2002). Transformational and charismatic leadership: The road ahead. Amsterdam: JAI Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3571(02)02001-6
Bass, B. M. (1999). Two decades of research and development in transformational leadership. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8(1), 9–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/135943299398410
Beblavý, M., Sičáková-Beblavá, E., & Bačová, Z. (2022). A conceptual framework for understanding and measuring the transparency of public policy. Sociológia, 54(2), 153–170. https://doi.org/10.31577/sociologia.2022.54.2.3
Bhatti, M. H., Ju, Y., Akram, U., Bhatti, M. H., Akram, Z., & Bilal, M. (2019). Impact of participative leadership on organizational citizenship behavior: Mediating role of trust and moderating role of continuance commitment: Evidence from the Pakistan hotel industry. Sustainability, 11(4), 1170. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041170
Blau, P. M. (1964). Justice in social exchange. Sociological Inquiry, 34(2), 193–206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1964.tb00583.x
Bosco, S. M., & Harvey, M. (2017). Dissemination of nonprofit financial information: Does policy communication have an impact on performance? Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 27(1), 4–20.
Bryson, J. M., & Crosby, B. C. (2018). Leadership for the common good: Tackling public problems in a shared-power world. Jossey-Bass.
Clampitt, P. G. (2012). Communicating for managerial effectiveness: Problems, strategies, solutions (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Cropanzano, R., & Mitchell, M. S. (2005). Social exchange theory: An interdisciplinary review. Journal of Management, 31(6), 874–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279602
De Clercq, D., Suhail, A., Azeem, M. U., & Haq, I. U. (2021). Citizenship pressure and job performance: Roles of citizenship fatigue and continuance commitment. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 59(3), 482–505. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12241
Dirks, K. T., & Ferrin, D. L. (2002). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 611–628.
Doyle, M., & Peterson, J. (2019). Effective policy communication in nonprofit organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(4), 567–582.
Eisenbeiß, M., Meffert, H., Burmann, C., & Kirchgeorg, M. (2019). Marketing: Grundlagen marktorientierter Unternehmensführung – Konzepte, Instrumente, Praxisbeispiele (13th ed.). Springer Gabler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-57682-6
Eisenberg, E. M., & Goodall, H. L., Jr. (2001). Organizational communication: Balancing creativity and constraint (3rd ed.). Bedford/St. Martin's.
Farid, H., Agarwal, S., Guera, D., Serra, E., & Delp, E. J. (2019). Exposing DeepFakes using inconsistent head poses. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (pp. 39–46). https://doi.org/10.1109/CVPRW.2019.00009
Galanaki, E. (2020). Effects of employee benefits on affective and continuance commitment during times of crisis. International Journal of Manpower, 41(2), 220–238. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-08-2018-0270
Garcia, I., Chandrasekhar, D., Ganapati, N. E., Ojeda, K. F., Diaz, J. E. V., & Williams, K. (2022). Health-related nonprofit response to concurrent disaster events. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 82, 103279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103279
Grego-Planer, D. (2019). The relationship between organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors in the public and private sectors. Sustainability, 11(22), 6395. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11226395
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2010). Canonical correlation: A supplement to multivariate data analysis. In Multivariate Data Analysis: A Global Perspective (7th ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall Publishing.
Kamrujjaman, M., & Obaidullah, M. (2016). Poverty eradication through the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives: A case study on two selected banks in Bangladesh. IJAR, 2(9), 43–50. www.allresearchjournal.com
Kaur, P., Malhotra, K., & Sharma, S. K. (2020). Moderation-mediation framework connecting internal branding, affective commitment, employee engagement, and job satisfaction: An empirical study of BPO employees in Indian context. Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, 12(3/4), 327–348. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJBA-10-2019-0217
Kim, H., Novak, D., & Ma, J. (2018). Linking employee attitudes and behavior to organizational mission and goals: A systematic review of the literature with implications for human resource development. Human Resource Development Review, 17(3), 236–264.
Kim, K. H., & Lee, Y. (2021). Employees’ communicative behaviors in response to emotional exhaustion: The moderating role of transparent communication. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 15(5), 410–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2021.1967959
Kotamena, F., Senjaya, P., & Prasetya, A. B. (2020). A literature review: Is transformational leadership elitist and antidemocratic? International Journal of Social, Policy and Law, 1(1), 36–43. https://doi.org/10.8888/ijospl.v1i1.15
Kouzes, T. K., & Posner, B. Z. (2019). Influence of managers’ mindset on leadership behavior. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 40(8), 829–844. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-03-2019-0142
Levy, P. S., & Lemeshow, S. (2013). Sampling of Populations: Methods and Applications. John Wiley & Sons.
Mayer, D. M., Kuenzi, M., Greenbaum, R., Bardes, M., & Salvador, R. B. (2009). How low does ethical leadership flow? Test of a trickle-down model. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 108(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2008.04.002
Men, L. R. (2014). Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication channels, and employee satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), 264–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318914524536
Mishra, R., Singh, R. K., & Govindan, K. (2022). Barriers to the adoption of circular economy practices in micro, small, and medium enterprises: Instrument development, measurement, and validation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 351, 131389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131389
Ngwama, J. C., & Ogaga-Oghene, J. O. (2022). Leadership change and employee commitment: An empirical study of transformational and transnational leadership style in a university. International Journal of Economic Behavior, 12(1), 101–121. https://doi.org/10.14276/2285-0430.3382
Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Shields, J. (2020). Leadership skills for frontline managers. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2020/09/leadership-skills-for-frontline-managers
Smith, S. A., Brown, J. W., & Walker, J. F. (2018). So many genes, so little time: A practical approach to divergence-time estimation in the genomic era. PLOS ONE, 13(5), e0197433. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197433
Sobel, M. E. (1982). Asymptotic confidence intervals for indirect effects in structural equation models. In S. Leinhardt (Ed.), Sociological methodology 1982 (pp. 290–312). Jossey-Bass. https://doi.org/10.2307/270723
Stafford, L., & Kuiper, K. (2021). Social exchange theories: Calculating the rewards and costs of personal relationships. In D. O. Braithwaite & P. Schrodt (Eds.), Engaging theories in interpersonal communication: Multiple perspectives (3rd ed., pp. 293–304). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003195511-33
Tourish, D., & Robson, P. (2006). Sensemaking and the distortion of critical upward communication in organizations. Journal of Management Studies, 43(4), 711–730. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2006.00608.x
Williams, T., & Cole, J. (2021). The impact of digital transformation on organizational performance. Journal of Business Research, 124, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.031
Wilson, D., & Jallah, D. S. (2019). Exploring working relationships between national and expatriate RNs on humanitarian aid missions: The perspectives of Liberian nurses. AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 119(6), 49–60. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000559806.91187.47

References

Abt, G., Boreham, C., Davison, G., Jackson, R., Nevill, A., Wallace, E., & Williams, M. (2020). Power precision and sample size estimation in sport and exercise science research. Journal of Sports Sciences, 38(17), 1933–1935. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2020.1776002

Abu-Bader, S., & Jones, T. V. (2021). Statistical mediation analysis using the Sobel test and Hayes SPSS process macro. International Journal of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3799204

Agus, A., & Selvaraj, R. (2020). The mediating role of employee commitment in the relationship between quality of work life and the intention to stay. Employee Relations: The International Journal, 42(6), 1231–1248. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-07-2019-0292

Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. P. (1990). A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. Human Resource Management Review, 1, 61–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-Z

Avolio, B. J., & Yammarino, F. J. (Eds.). (2002). Transformational and charismatic leadership: The road ahead. Amsterdam: JAI Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3571(02)02001-6

Bass, B. M. (1999). Two decades of research and development in transformational leadership. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8(1), 9–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/135943299398410

Beblavý, M., Sičáková-Beblavá, E., & Bačová, Z. (2022). A conceptual framework for understanding and measuring the transparency of public policy. Sociológia, 54(2), 153–170. https://doi.org/10.31577/sociologia.2022.54.2.3

Bhatti, M. H., Ju, Y., Akram, U., Bhatti, M. H., Akram, Z., & Bilal, M. (2019). Impact of participative leadership on organizational citizenship behavior: Mediating role of trust and moderating role of continuance commitment: Evidence from the Pakistan hotel industry. Sustainability, 11(4), 1170. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041170

Blau, P. M. (1964). Justice in social exchange. Sociological Inquiry, 34(2), 193–206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1964.tb00583.x

Bosco, S. M., & Harvey, M. (2017). Dissemination of nonprofit financial information: Does policy communication have an impact on performance? Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 27(1), 4–20.

Bryson, J. M., & Crosby, B. C. (2018). Leadership for the common good: Tackling public problems in a shared-power world. Jossey-Bass.

Clampitt, P. G. (2012). Communicating for managerial effectiveness: Problems, strategies, solutions (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.

Cropanzano, R., & Mitchell, M. S. (2005). Social exchange theory: An interdisciplinary review. Journal of Management, 31(6), 874–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279602

De Clercq, D., Suhail, A., Azeem, M. U., & Haq, I. U. (2021). Citizenship pressure and job performance: Roles of citizenship fatigue and continuance commitment. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 59(3), 482–505. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12241

Dirks, K. T., & Ferrin, D. L. (2002). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 611–628.

Doyle, M., & Peterson, J. (2019). Effective policy communication in nonprofit organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(4), 567–582.

Eisenbeiß, M., Meffert, H., Burmann, C., & Kirchgeorg, M. (2019). Marketing: Grundlagen marktorientierter Unternehmensführung – Konzepte, Instrumente, Praxisbeispiele (13th ed.). Springer Gabler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-57682-6

Eisenberg, E. M., & Goodall, H. L., Jr. (2001). Organizational communication: Balancing creativity and constraint (3rd ed.). Bedford/St. Martin's.

Farid, H., Agarwal, S., Guera, D., Serra, E., & Delp, E. J. (2019). Exposing DeepFakes using inconsistent head poses. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (pp. 39–46). https://doi.org/10.1109/CVPRW.2019.00009

Galanaki, E. (2020). Effects of employee benefits on affective and continuance commitment during times of crisis. International Journal of Manpower, 41(2), 220–238. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-08-2018-0270

Garcia, I., Chandrasekhar, D., Ganapati, N. E., Ojeda, K. F., Diaz, J. E. V., & Williams, K. (2022). Health-related nonprofit response to concurrent disaster events. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 82, 103279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103279

Grego-Planer, D. (2019). The relationship between organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors in the public and private sectors. Sustainability, 11(22), 6395. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11226395

Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2010). Canonical correlation: A supplement to multivariate data analysis. In Multivariate Data Analysis: A Global Perspective (7th ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall Publishing.

Kamrujjaman, M., & Obaidullah, M. (2016). Poverty eradication through the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives: A case study on two selected banks in Bangladesh. IJAR, 2(9), 43–50. www.allresearchjournal.com

Kaur, P., Malhotra, K., & Sharma, S. K. (2020). Moderation-mediation framework connecting internal branding, affective commitment, employee engagement, and job satisfaction: An empirical study of BPO employees in Indian context. Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, 12(3/4), 327–348. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJBA-10-2019-0217

Kim, H., Novak, D., & Ma, J. (2018). Linking employee attitudes and behavior to organizational mission and goals: A systematic review of the literature with implications for human resource development. Human Resource Development Review, 17(3), 236–264.

Kim, K. H., & Lee, Y. (2021). Employees’ communicative behaviors in response to emotional exhaustion: The moderating role of transparent communication. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 15(5), 410–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2021.1967959

Kotamena, F., Senjaya, P., & Prasetya, A. B. (2020). A literature review: Is transformational leadership elitist and antidemocratic? International Journal of Social, Policy and Law, 1(1), 36–43. https://doi.org/10.8888/ijospl.v1i1.15

Kouzes, T. K., & Posner, B. Z. (2019). Influence of managers’ mindset on leadership behavior. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 40(8), 829–844. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-03-2019-0142

Levy, P. S., & Lemeshow, S. (2013). Sampling of Populations: Methods and Applications. John Wiley & Sons.

Mayer, D. M., Kuenzi, M., Greenbaum, R., Bardes, M., & Salvador, R. B. (2009). How low does ethical leadership flow? Test of a trickle-down model. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 108(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2008.04.002

Men, L. R. (2014). Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication channels, and employee satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), 264–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318914524536

Mishra, R., Singh, R. K., & Govindan, K. (2022). Barriers to the adoption of circular economy practices in micro, small, and medium enterprises: Instrument development, measurement, and validation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 351, 131389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131389

Ngwama, J. C., & Ogaga-Oghene, J. O. (2022). Leadership change and employee commitment: An empirical study of transformational and transnational leadership style in a university. International Journal of Economic Behavior, 12(1), 101–121. https://doi.org/10.14276/2285-0430.3382

Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Shields, J. (2020). Leadership skills for frontline managers. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2020/09/leadership-skills-for-frontline-managers

Smith, S. A., Brown, J. W., & Walker, J. F. (2018). So many genes, so little time: A practical approach to divergence-time estimation in the genomic era. PLOS ONE, 13(5), e0197433. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197433

Sobel, M. E. (1982). Asymptotic confidence intervals for indirect effects in structural equation models. In S. Leinhardt (Ed.), Sociological methodology 1982 (pp. 290–312). Jossey-Bass. https://doi.org/10.2307/270723

Stafford, L., & Kuiper, K. (2021). Social exchange theories: Calculating the rewards and costs of personal relationships. In D. O. Braithwaite & P. Schrodt (Eds.), Engaging theories in interpersonal communication: Multiple perspectives (3rd ed., pp. 293–304). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003195511-33

Tourish, D., & Robson, P. (2006). Sensemaking and the distortion of critical upward communication in organizations. Journal of Management Studies, 43(4), 711–730. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2006.00608.x

Williams, T., & Cole, J. (2021). The impact of digital transformation on organizational performance. Journal of Business Research, 124, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.031

Wilson, D., & Jallah, D. S. (2019). Exploring working relationships between national and expatriate RNs on humanitarian aid missions: The perspectives of Liberian nurses. AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 119(6), 49–60. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000559806.91187.47

Frontline Leadership in Communicating Organizational Policies and its Mediating Influence on Employee Commitment in Nonprofit Organizations in Monrovia, Liberia

Article Sidebar

Main Article Content

Abstract

Keywords

Article Details

Frank O. Bannor, Adventist University of West Africa, Liberia

Derrick O. Deya, Adventist University of Africa, Kenya

Josephine Ganu, Adventist University of Africa, Kenya

References

References

Most read articles by the same author(s)