The relationship between leadership and communication with job satisfaction in the Road Transport Department (RTD) of Malaysia

Previous studies have proven the effectiveness of transformational and transactional leadership styles with leaders' communication competencies towards job satisfaction among employees. However, relevant study in the Road and Transport Department (RTD) of Malaysia is limited. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between the two leadership styles, leader communication competencies and job satisfaction of employees in RTD. Quantitative methods were used in this study. Stratified random sampling was performed in a selection of different samples of 322 respondents consisting of staffing from various scheme staff
within grades 40 to grades 19 from RTD branch in Klang Valley area. The research instrument used covered the leadership items from Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), the communication measures from Communicative Competency Scale (CCS) and the job satisfaction measurement using Minnesota
Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ). Descriptive analysis was conducted to identify the characteristics of the study sample. The findings reported positive, strong, and significant relationships between interpersonal communication competence, transformational and transactional leadership styles with job satisfaction. Multiple regression analysis, however, showed that only two factors significantly influenced job satisfaction, namely communication competence (p = 0.00) and transactional leadership styles (p = 0.41) at p<0.05. Future research should examine more aspects of leadership styles in order to determine which style would be the most dominant in enhancing job satisfaction amongst RTD employees.