Befekadu Zeleke (Ass. Prof.)Milion Bekele2025-05-222025-05-222025-01https://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/5527The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of leadership styles on the Job Satisfaction and organizational commitment of academic staff and the mediation effect of job satisfaction in Polytechnic Colleges of the Amhara Region, Ethiopia. The study employs a quantitative research method. It also employed a descriptive survey and correlational designs to answer the basic questions posed. Simple random sampling and census sampling techniques were used to select the sample respondents. The empirical data were collected from 411 respondents using questionnaires. The data were analyzed with SPSS and Amos software by using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, such as regression and structural equation modeling. The descriptive statistic result of the study indicated that the most common leadership style was transactional. There were also some differences in perception among academic staff and academic leaders regarding both transactional and transformational leadership. The academic staff have been found to have an average level of organizational commitment, with an average more on normative commitment than the other two dimensions. Academic staff's mean job satisfaction score was below average, suggesting a low level of job satisfaction. Transactional and transformational leadership styles had a substantial, moderate, and positive link with academic staff job satisfaction, while laissez-faire leadership had a negative and statistically negligible correlation. Transformational and transactional leadership styles predict job satisfaction. Besides, statistically significant link was found between transactional and transformational leadership styles and academic staff organizational commitment, but there was no statistically significant association discovered with laissez-faire leadership. Additionally, both leadership types predict organizational commitment. A positive, moderate, and statistically significant link showed up between academic staff job satisfaction and organizational commitment. From the analysis of the structural equation modeling (SEM) that there was a partial mediation effect of academic staff job satisfaction on the link between academic leaders’ leadership style and academic staff organizational commitment. From this, it can be concluded that transformational and transactional leadership styles significantly contributed to the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of academic staff, thereby enhancing the effective and efficient achievement of PTCs' goals and objectives. As the motivated and committed academic staff would enhance the effectiveness of the polytechnic colleges' goals. This has implications for policymakers, who ought to design various programs that enhance the leadership qualities of academic leaders. It can be suggested that polytechnic academic leaders should include the academic staff in the decision-making processes of the college. Consequently, academic leaders ought to ensure that the academic staff are provided with a pleasant working environment and that they are provided with promotion programs with the zonal and regional labor and skill bureau and the Minister of Skill and Labor. In such a case, future studies will demand qualitative studies that focus on the reasons for high unexplained variances in regression model. Keywords: leadership styles, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, polytechnic colleges, academic staff, and academic leaders.enleadership stylesjob satisfactionorganizational commitmentpolytechnic collegesacademic staffand academic leadersThesis