Objectives: The emergence of presenteeism in the organizational environment can have significant negative consequences. A key point in this regard is that the quality of leader-member exchange can influence the increase or decrease of presenteeism. Additionally, organizational commitment has a significant relationship with presenteeism. Therefore, the present study aims to analyze the relationship between leader-member exchange and organizational presenteeism among university employees through the mediating role of organizational commitment.
Methods: This descriptive-correlational method was conducted using the structural equation modeling technique. The research population consisted of all 145 male and female employees of Malayer University, and due to their small number, a census method was used to select the samples. The required data were collected using three questionnaires, namely Leader-Member Exchange, Organizational Presenteeism, and Organizational Commitment. The gathered data were analyzed in SPSS version 23 and SMART PLS version 3 software packages using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.
Results: The research findings showed that leader-member exchange had a significant negative path coefficient (-0.271) on organizational presenteeism, leader-member exchange had a significant positive path coefficient (0.585) on organizational commitment, and organizational commitment had a significant negative path coefficient (-0.286) on organizational presenteeism, all at the 0.01 level of significance. Additionally, the indirect effect of leader-member exchange on organizational presenteeism through the mediating role of organizational commitment was significant, with a Sobel test statistic of 2.627 at the 0.05 level of significance.
Conclusion: Overall, the results of this study indicate that improving leader-member exchange as well as increasing organizational commitment can lead to a reduction in organizational presenteeism in an academic environment.
