Hubungan antara tanggapan gaya kepimpinan, komunikasi kepimpinan dan komitmen afektif terhadap kualiti perkhidmatan di kalangan staf pentadbiran universiti swasta

The rapid growths of Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) in the country and increased competition among these institutions have changed the landscape of the industry. These institutions are paying more attention to the issues of providing excellent quality service in order to attract qualified students and achieve a high academic profile which is the benchmark for competitive advantage among them. However, the issue of affective commitment towards service quality among administrative staff at the private universities in Malaysia is given less attention, especially on student assessment towards service they received from the staff. The sequence to that, few universities in Malaysia have lost students due to level of the service quality that did not reached their expectations. Therefore, several factors need to be examined for a relationship that can be associated with affective commitment among the administrative staff at private universities such as perceived of leadership and leadership communication. Thus this study investigated the relationships between perceived leadership styles and affective commitment towards service quality among the private universities in Malaysia. The study also aimed to determine if leadership communication mediates the relationships between perceived leadership styles and affective commitment towards service quality. The quantitative survey method using a structured questionnaire was used to collect data, and the administrative staff of private universities in the Klang Valley was selected as samples for the study. A total of 1,825 questionnaires were distributed and 353 were returned, giving a response rate of 19.34 percent. The findings indicated that significant relationships exist between perceived transformational leadership style and perceived transactional leadership style and affective commitment towards service quality. Leadership communication was also found to partially mediate the relationships between perceived transformational leadership style and transactional leadership style and affective commitment towards service quality. The study concluded with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications as well as suggestions for future research