The Mediating Role of Leader–Member Exchange in the Relationship Between Paternalistic Leadership and Organizational Identification: A Study on the Banking Sector
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63556/ankad.v10i3.525Keywords:
Paternalistic Leadership, Organizational Identification, Leader-Member Exchange, Banking SectorAbstract
Despite the growing importance of leadership in organizations for influencing employees’ organizational attitudes, paternalistic leadership has not been sufficiently examined, particularly in societies such as Turkey where a patriarchal cultural structure prevails. Beyond widely recognized leadership styles such as transformational, transactional, or authoritarian leadership, paternalistic leadership offers a significant theoretical basis for explaining organizational identification, as it shapes leader-employee relationships based on trust, loyalty, and empathy. Grounded in social exchange theory this study positions leader–member exchange as a reciprocity-based “social bridge” through which paternalistic leadership is translated into organizational identification. The banking sector was chosen for the study because its high-stress environment, intense competition, and strict supervision conditions allow these relationships to be observed more distinctly than in other sectors. This study aims to test the direct and indirect effects of paternalistic leadership on organizational identification and to reveal the role of this leadership style in organizational outcomes within a holistic model framework. A quantitative research method was used. Data were collected through a survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings indicate that paternalistic leadership has a significant positive effect on organizational identification, and leader-member exchange plays a meaningful mediating role in this relationship. It is concluded that human-centered leadership approaches play a critical role in enhancing employee commitment and strengthening the sense of belonging in organizations and that paternalistic leadership can be considered a strategic leadership model, especially in highly competitive sectors such as banking.
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