Transactional Leadership, Organizational Commitment, and Competence: Effects on Performance via Work Motivation

Abstract

Purpose: This study analyzes the influence of transactional leadership style, organizational commitment, and competence on employee performance, directly and through work motivation as an intervening variable, at the Regional Secretariat of Karimun Regency.

Methodology: A quantitative design was used, distributing a Likert-scale questionnaire to 144 civil servants and government-contracted employees at the Regional Secretariat, analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling.

Results: Transactional leadership style, organizational
commitment, and competence each had a positive but nonsignificant direct effect on performance (p=0.416, 0.561, 0.343). Each had a positive and significant direct effect on work motivation (p=0.006, 0.002, 0.000), and work motivation had a significant direct effect on performance (p=0.000). Work motivation significantly and fully mediated the effects of all three predictors on performance (p=0.014, 0.003, 0.000).

Conclusions: Work motivation is the decisive mechanism linking leadership style, commitment, and competence to performance, since none of the three predictors significantly improves performance directly, only through strengthened motivation.

Limitations: The study is confined to one regional secretariat and relies on cross-sectional self-reported data, limiting causal inference and generalizability.

Contributions: This research clarifies that work motivation, not leadership style, commitment, or competence alone, is the critical lever for civil servant performance, informing targeted policy in Indonesian regional government.