Authentic Leadership and Organizational Commitment: Empirical Evidence from Information Technology Industry in Nigeria

Authentic leadership as a contemporary leadership behaviour has generated more attention in this 21st century. Thus, this study investigated authentic leadership and organisational commitment in information technology industry in Nigeria focusing on Techmahindra Nigeria. The study employed survey research design as well as simple random sampling. Data were collected using questionnaires from 180 employees in Techmahindra Nigeria but 151copies of questionnaire were retrieved. The results from the regression analysis indicated that authentic leadership (self-awareness, internalised moral perspective, relational transparency and balanced processing) has a positive and significant effect on organisation commitment (affective, normative and continuance). The study recommended that organisations should organize training programmes for their leaders on how to exhibit the qualities of an authentic leader in the running of the organizations.


Introduction
For firm to accomplish an exceptional performance, the dedication of the employees' is very crucial. This is on the ground that workers are the drivers towards accomplishment of organizational objectives. Organization commitment is seen as the equivalent to employee commitment (Az, 2017;Negin, Omid, & Ahmad, 2013). Organisational commitment has become a global construct which indicates employees' action in accordance to the objectives of firm (Az, 2017;Boehman, 2006). As indicated by Khan, Zia-ur-Rehman,and Akram, (2012), high state of organisational commitment is helpful to the organization as it enhances employee performance, and reduces employee turnover. Organisational commitment shows the diminishing in the lateness, absenteeism and lackadaisical attitudes of the employees (Az, 2017; Irefin & Mechanic, 2014Hunjira, 2010Lo, Ramayah & Min, 2009).
Organisational commitment is the bond between organizations and its employees (Az, 2017) which could be determined by different factors. Akintayo (2010) referred organisational commitment as the degree to which a worker gives his/her efforts to an organization. Zheng, (2010) portrayed organisational commitment as just workers' frame of mind to organization.
Academic scholars had prescribed leaders and leadership conduct into various classifications. These classes incorporate ethical leadership (Resick, Hanges, Dickson & Mitchelson, 2006), charismatic leadership (Hoogh, Hartog, Koopman, Thierry, Berg, Weide, & Wilderom, 2004), servant leadership (Russell & Stone, 2002) among others. In this manner, authenticity was incorporated as one of the leadership approach at the end of 20th century (Irina, 2015) and authentic leadership is turning into a consideration for organization management, researchers, academicians and practitioners. Authentic leadership draws the attention of analysts because of the moral issues of organizational leaders (Mohammed, Kashif, Hina &Tahira, 2015). As indicated by Lee-Ann (2015), workers depend on talented, moral and solid leadership approach that will lead the organization towards accomplishing the objectives and goals of the organization. Mohammed et al. (2015) expressed that authentic leadership is progressively identified with a leader's authenticity and the genuine connection between the leader and the followers. Wolf (2017) considered authentic leadership as a pattern of behavior whereby leaders are conscious of their own nature, strengths, weaknesses, and impact on others; and their decisions and actions are in accordance with their self-beliefs and values.
According to Mohammed et al. (2015), authentic leaders are positive people with sincere self-esteem and are renounced for advancing transparency. Authentic leaders are not startled to express their feelings, their shortcomings and to associate with their workers or followers.
Globalization has made organizations to confront new challenges that have influenced the managerial approach that will result in employee commitment. As indicated by Dixit and Bhati (2012), the present organizations cannot perform at pinnacle levels without committed employee. The fundamental objective of authentic leadership is to ascertain its effect on employee attitudes (Alok & Israel, 2012;Avolio & Gardner, 2005).

According
to Lee-Ann (2015), organizations battle lack of commitment on the part of the workers which has been attributed to untrustworthy style of the leaders of the organisations. Employees in Nigerian organisations especially the medium sized organisations experiences absence of promptness, non-challant attitude towards work, absenteeism, delays among others and hence, there is absence of organisational commitment. Mohammed et al. (2015) explained that employees are eager to give in their best in their organizations, if there is sincerity in the leadership approach of the organisation. Mohammed et al (2015) pointed that 21st century employees prefer certified and genuine leadership style that will enhance their commitment.
An inappropriate approach adopted by a leader in leading the employee could result in lack of commitment on the part of the employees (Okunbanjo, 2016). Lack of organisational commitment has made organisations in developing counties like Nigeria to suffer setback in actualising the goals of the organizationa. In Nigeria, most firms especially small and medium sized information technology firms experienced challenges relating to the commitment of their employees. These challenges have results in high employee turnover and unsatisfactory performance and make the firm to struggle to survive. As noted by Okunbanjo (2018), when employees are not committed, it could result in poor performance due to high employee turnover, employee absenteeism as well as lackadaisical attitude. Wolf (2017) mentioned that authencity in the approach of organisation leaders could force employees to be committed to the mission and vision of the organisation. Therefore, it is uncertain if low level of employee commitment experienced in Nigerian small and medium organisations in information technology (IT) is a results of lack of authentic leadership approach.
It is observed that most of the studies on authentic leadership were done on performance of firms with indicators such as employee intention, firm size, work performance, organizational trust, employee creativity, job satisfaction, organizational effectiveness among others with different methodologies (Ajana, 2019;Iqbal, Farid, Khan, Zhang, Khattak & Ma, 2019;Lee, 2018;Mubarak & Noor 2018;Baek-Kyoo & Sung, 2017;Celia, Roncesvalles & Sevilla, 2015;Penger & Černe, 2014). There is little evidence of authentic leadership and employee commitment. Studies such as Rukh, Shahrukh and Iqbal (2018); Hlongwane and Oliver (2017); Albashiti, Hajjaj, and Thabet (2017); Hlongwane (2016); Rego, Lopes, Nascimento (2016); Emuwa (2013) attempted authentic leadership and organisational commitment. These previous studies reviewed were not conducted in information technology industry as most of these studies were conducted in education sector, manufacturing sector, health sector, financial sector etc. Thus, there is a gap on the connection between authentic leadership and employee commitment in Nigeria focusing in information and technology industry.
It is on this premise that an investigation is needed to explore authentic leadership and organizational commitment in Nigeria focusing on Techmahindra Nigeria as an information technology firm. Capturing all indicators of authentic leadership-selfawareness, internalised moral perspective, relational transparency, balanced processing identified by Ajana (2019); Rukh et al (2018); Emuwa (2013) and all indicators for organisation commitmentaffective, normative and continuance commitments as identified by Belal, Khaleel, and Wael (2017).
Also, most of the studies affirmed that there is positive association between authentic leadership and employee commitment except the study of Quraishi and Aziz (2018) that found mixed results between authentic leadership and organizational citizenship behaviour. Thus, there is a need to see if the similar or dissimilar results will be confirmed in Nigerian information technology industry.

Literature Review Theoretical Foundation
There are different theories on leadership propounded by various researchers at different periods of time. Some of these theories include transformation theory, transactional theory, great man theory, behavioural theory, contingency theory among others (Okunbanjo 2018;Darvish & Rezaei, 2011). According to Stoner, Freeman and Gilbert (2000), the focal point of all the leadership theories is that "leadership is the way toward managing and impacting on the activities of individuals in organization". Ghorbani (2009) stated that the capacity to influence the subordinates' conduct in accordance with the organizational qualities is the most crucial purpose of leadership. In this manner, leaders need to consider the good and humane qualities of leadership with the goal that the subordinates will trust the leaders and be submitted. Authentic leadership focuses on philanthropy like Fry (2003)'s spiritual leadership. Thus, spiritual leadership theory is the theoretical foundation for this study. Spiritual leadership theory shows concern to the necessities of the subordinates. It centers on benevolence of the leadership which makes the subordinates to comprehend the idea of their jobs and care about the jobs. Spiritual leadership theory supports subordinates to have an emotion of character, reliability and desire to remain in the organization.

Authentic Leadership
Authentic leadership is "an approach that draws from positive mental capabilities and highly developed organizational context that results in both more prominent self-awareness and selfcontrolled positive practices with respect to leaders and associates, cultivating positive self-improvement" (Ajana, Nereida & Natasa 2019;Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing, & Peterson, 2008;Luthans & Avolio, 2003). It envelops self-direction that indicates controlling of one's own conduct in accordance with one's own beliefs, while maintaining clear and open relations with the followers or subordinates.
Authentic leadership depends on the personal and standard conduct of the leader and his relationship with the followers, towards advancement of a positive moral atmosphere and encouragement of employees' psychological capacities (Walumbwa et al., 2008). Rego, Lopes, and Nascimento, (2016) stipulated that authentic leadership does not just influence people's practices and mentality emphatically but to incite them to build up their organizational citizenship practices. Penger and Černe (2014) portrayed authentic leaders as the incredible capacity of processed knowledge about oneself effectively and efficiency (their qualities, convictions, objectives, and sentiments), Authentic leadership entails clear personalities, a capacity to modify one's conduct in leadership in accordance with one's characters.
Authentic leadership is described by being straightforward, principled and honest with others, acting in line with one's qualities, convictions and assessments (Rego et al., 2016). The crucial part of authentic leadership is the genuineness of a leader as an individual (Emuwa, 2013). Authentic leadership spreads real relations with followers (Avolio & Gardner, 2005). Emuwa (2013); Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing, and Peterson (2010) expressed that the authentic relationship is portrayed by transparency, receptiveness and trust, direction toward commendable objectives, and devotee advancement. Gardner, Avolio and Walumbwa (2005) stated that followership is a fundamental piece of authentic leadership and authentic followers are relied upon as duplicate of authentic leader advancement. Therefore, followers mirror the conduct of authentic leaders.  Walumbwa et al. (2010;2008) had described self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, balanced processing of information and relational transparency as dimensions of authentic leadership. Ilies et al. (2005) displayed a model of authentic leadership with four dimensions-selfconsciousness, unbiased processing, authentic behaviour, and authentic relational orientation. Gardner et al. (2005) put forward a model of authentic leadership which comprised selfawareness and self-regulation. However, this research sees authentic leadership dimensions as self-awareness, an internalized moral perspective, balanced processing of information and relational transparency.
Self-awareness is the comprehension of one's capacities, learning and experience (George, 2003). Walumbwa et al. (2010) is of the opinion that leaders need to identify their own qualities and shortcomings and they should not conceal their shortcomings from others. Selfawareness involves four components which are feelings, values thought processes/objectives and comprehension (Mohammed et al. 2015). Self-awareness does not just assist leaders with being legitimate in an organization to think about themselves, it aids the leaders knowledge about the authenticity of their leadership.
Lee-Ann (2015) communicated that selfawareness gives a solid premise so the leader will act reliably and morally in testing circumstances that require genuine mediation. In the conclusion of Mohammed et al. (2015), self-awareness makes a leader to be real in act and concedes his shortcomings. Selfawareness 'alludes to one's consciousness of, and trust in, one's very own attributes, values, thought processes, emotions, and perceptions.
Internalized moral perspective alludes to leader's internal drive to accomplish consistency between his/her qualities and activities (Darvish & Rezaei, 2011;(Novicevic, Harvey, Ronald &Brown-Radford, 2006). This component of authentic leadership incorporates leaders' inner good standard and qualities (George, 2007;Sparrowe, 2005). Tapara (2011)  characterized internalized moral perspective as the way in which leaders utilize their qualities, morals and convictions to direct their conduct regardless of the difficulties from any edge.
Before choices are taking, immeasurably, essential information must be contemplated on. This makes the leaders decisions to be well thoroughly considered in all angles. Balanced processing is about investigating the information and selecting the essential information without any form of biasness before a choice is made (Penger & Cerne, 2014). As indicated by Kernis (2003), balanced processing is viewed as the stage of individual honesty. Balanced processing suggests that leaders dispassionately investigate certainties and information both inside (doing thoughtfulness of oneself) and remotely (considering helpful analysis from companions or even their leaders) (Lee-Ann, 2015). The leader does not overlook any information and considers the perspectives of individuals lead before finishing up an official choice (Avolio & Gardner, 2005). In this manner, balanced processing ensures limited biasness (Lee-Ann, 2015). Balanced processing incorporates exact and balanced recognition autonomous from inner self based barrier components, and assessment of oneself (Penger & Cerne, 2014;Gardner, Avolio, Luthans, May & Walumbwa, 2009;Gardner, Fischer & Hunt, 2009).
Relational transparency suggests how a leader shows his real self to other individuals, which infers that a leader probably would not have misleading personality (Walumbwa et.al., 2008). Goldman and Kernis (2002) portrayed "Relational transparency as a working system of self-disclosure where trust and sincerity is created between the laborer and the individual". The leader shows his or her real feelings and feelings, straightforwardly and does not cover anything (Lee-Ann, 2015). Penger and Cerne (2014) opined that relational transparency incorporates showing open, clear relations with partners, and it incorporates picture of a leader's real inside (and not acting). Lee-Ann (2015) pointed that relational transparency is a strategy for encircling a trusting in relationship among agent, supervisor and leader. The principles of sincerity and honesty assist the organization with being kept up Managers demonstrate their genuine inner parts when they display straightforwardness, self-disclosure, and in close relations with fans, trust (Gardner et al., 2005). Such direct relationship stimulates trust through the leaderfollowers relationship, in which information is shared, and veritable contemplations and feelings are conveyed (Kernis, 2003).

Organisational Commitment
Organisational commitment is a passionate expression that ties an employee to an organization which diminishes the issue of worker turnover. It is an outlook that ties an employee or gathering of employees to a game-plan that is of vital to hierarchical goals (Meyer & Herscovitch, 2001). Ongori (2007) portrayed organisational commitment as an enthusiastic reaction to the entire organization and the level of fondness or dedication employees feel towards the organization. Organisational commitment is a sentiment of commitment of an individual to the organization, eagerness to buckle down for that business, and the plan to stay with that organizational, and connection of the individuals to the organization (Udu & Ameh, 2016;Sharma and Bajpai, 2010)/ As indicated by Udu and Ameh (2016), the large amounts of exertion applied by employees with high amounts of organisational commitment would prompt a high level of performance which could boost the morale of the employees. In this way, one might say that organisational commitment is both beneficiary to the workers and to the organization Continuance commitment is alluded to the commitment of the employee experience towards the organization as aftereffects of investments they have made or in view of the expenses related with leaving the organization (Dipboye, Smith & Howell, 1994). As indicated by Dixit and Bhati (2012) this type of commitment is created when workers understand that they have aggregated speculations they would lose if they leave the organization or in light of the fact that their choices are restricted. Therefore, continuance commitment infers an attention to the expenses related with leaving the organization. At the point when workers are part of the organization, they will undoubtedly keep up a connection with the organization or resolved to stay with the organization since there is an absence of optional chance related with leaving the organization. It could be said that continuance commitment depends on two elements which are number of venture that will be lost and saw absence of option by the workers.
Az (2017) expressed that affective commitment demonstrates the degree to which the individual relates to the organization as far as recognizable proof, contribution and passionate connection. It implies that worker remains in an organization since he/she needs and wants to. According to Dixit and Bhati, (2012), affective commitment depends on how much individual 'need' to stay in the organization.
An employee who is joined to the organization would have faith in the objectives and values of the organization, and intends to remain with the organization (Anthony, 2017). Meyer and Allen (1996) connected affective commitment with work encounters where employees encounter mentally agreeable sentiments, expanding their feeling of fitness. The advancement of affective commitment includes perceiving the organization's values and internalizing its standards and gauges (Beck & Wilson, 2000).
Normative commitment is a type of responsibility concerning worker feeling of moral obligation to stay in the organization. Az (2017); Dixit and Bhati, (2012) characterized normative commitment as "a sentiment of commitment to proceed with an organisation". It depicts the degree to which a worker trusts and the worker ought to be focused on the organization. In this manner, workers with a high level of normative commitment feel that they should stay with the organization (Eslami & Gharakhari, 2012). The normative commitment viewpoint is the workers' impression of their ethical responsibility to remain with a particular organization, without considering the level of satisfaction the workers have achieved in the organisation (Dixit & Bhati, 2012).

Authentic Leadership and Organisation Commitment
Yeboah-Appiagyei, Kyeremeh, Amoako and Osei-Tutu (2018) studied authentic leadership and organizational commitment among tertiary institutions in Ghana to indicate that there is a significant and positive relationship between emotional and social and emotional intelligence and authentic leadership The study did not capture affective, normative and continuance as measures for organizational commitment. Also, measures for authentic leadership were not disclosed.
Lee (2018) concluded that there is a positive and significant correlation among authentic leadership, hope, growth mindset, grit and organizational effectiveness. The findings agreed with the conclusion of Chang (2018) Their studies failed to capture organizational commitment. The study of Ajana, Nereida and Natasa (2019) in Bosnia on authentic leadership style and job satisfaction was conducted in the financial sector. The findings indicated that authentic leadership style affects job satisfaction. Organisational commitment was not included in the study objectives.
Similarly, Iqbal, Farid, Khan, Zhang, Khattak and Ma (2019) found that authentic leadership is positively correlated with communal employee relationships. In addition, affective and cognitive-based trust are found to have a positive mediating effect on the relationship between authentic leadership and communal employee relationships.
Lee-Ann (2015) examined authentic leadership and organizational citizenship behaviour in government parastatsals. The research discovered there is a weak relationship between measurements of true administration (self-awareness, moral perspective, balanced processing and relational transparency) and the elements of organisational citizenship behaviour (altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy and civic virtue). The study did not employ employee commitment in its objective. Belal, Khaleel, and Wael (2017) examined authentic leadership and organizational commitment in Alazhar University-Gaza. The study uncovered that authentic leadership has positive and significant impact of organizational commitment dimensions-Emotional commitment EC, Ongoing commitment OC and Normative commitment NC). This study did not operationalize authentic leadership to know how its measurements influence organization commitment. Mohammed et al. (2015) discovered that there is a positive relationship between relationship authentic leadership and organizational affective commitment. Emuwa (2013) (2014) that expressed their indicators for authentic leadership but their studies were not conducted in Nigeria. Also, most of them did not focus on organisational commitment. It is evidenced that there is dearth of literature on authentic leadership in Nigeria. Therefore, it is important to know the influence of authentic leadership on organizational commitment in Nigeria.

Hypotheses of the Study
H1a: Self-awareness has a significant effect on affective commitment H1b: Self-awareness has a significant effect on normative commitment H1c: Self-awareness has a significant effect on continuance commitment H4a: There is a significant effect of balanced processing on affective commitment H4b: There is a significant effect of balanced processing on normative commitment H4c: There is a significant effect of balanced processing on continuance commitment

Methodology
The population of the study is the entire middle/junior staff of Techmahindra Nigeria.
Techmahindra Nigeria is selected because it is a multinational medium sized firm operating in Nigeria. Survey research design was employed in this study. This research design was used so as to seek direct opinion from the employees on authentic leadership behaviour within the organisation.

Source: Researchers' Conceptual Model
In order to avoid biasedness, simple random sampling technique was adopted so as to give the respondents equal chance of being selected as participants of the study. The respondents were selected without minding their positions and their personal qualities or details in Techmahindra Nigeria Primary data were collected through questionnaire. This source of data collection was adopted because it enables the researchers to collect information directly from the respondents and questionnaire was used for easier and explicit understanding of the questions to be answered by the respondents.
One hundred and eighty (180) structured questionnaires were administered to the employees in Techmahindra Nigeria.
Questions were asked from each variable employed. The study adapted the measurement scale of Walumbwa et al. (2008) on authentic leadership and Emuwa (2013) measurement scale on organization commitment was adapted. There were 28 questions in the questionnaire for the respondents to fill. Each variable employed in this study carried 4 items with 7 variables-selfawareness, relational transparency, internal moral perspective, business processing, affective commitment, normative commitment and continuance commitment. The questions were ranked using 6-point scale from strongly disagree, disagree, partially disagree, partially agree, agree to strongly agree. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis statistical techniques were employed. Commitment; CC= Continuance Commitment; SA= Self-Awareness; IMP= Internalised Moral Perspective; BP= Balanced processing; RT= Relational Transparency. β0, β1 = Parameters of the independent variable; µ = Error Term

Working Definitions of the Variables
Self-awareness: Self-awareness refers to a leader's awareness of, and trust in, his own personal features, values, motives, feelings, and cognitions Internalized moral perspective: Internalized moral perspective refers to leader's inner drive to achieve consistency between his/her values and actions Relational Transparency: Relational transparency represents a leader's behaviour in portraying himself with his own expressions of beliefs and feelings to his followers, fostering trust and sharing information with them, encouraging them to express their ideas, challenges and opinions

Balanced
Processing: Balanced processing implies considering all relevant information and point of view of the stake holders before making a decision Affective Commitment: Affective commitment refers to the employee's passionate connection to identifying with and involvement in the organization Normative commitment is a form of commitment concerning employee feeling of (Moral) obligation to remain in the organization.
Continuance commitment: Continuance commitment refers to the obligation the employee experience towards the organization as results of investments they have made or because of the costs associated with leaving the organization. Table 01 showed the descriptive statistics of the employees in Techmahindra Nigeria. It was shown that majority of the respondents that participated in the study were males 97(64.2%) while the female respondents were 54(35.8%). The age of the respondents showed that majority of the respondents were within the age of 31-40 years 74(49.0%). Respondents within the ages of 21-30 years, and 41-50 years were 65(43.0%) and 12(7.9%) respectively. The marital status of the respondents revealed that majority of the respondents were married 67(44.4%), those that are single, separated and divorced were 64(42.4%), 14(9.3%), and 6(4.0%) respectively. The educational background of the respondents also showed that most of them were graduates 100(66.2%), 19(12.6%), 26(17.2%) and 6(4.0%) of the respondents possessed ND/NCE, HND/B.Sc., M.Sc and Ph.D respectively. Lastly, the years of employment of the respondents indicated that 54(35.8%), 84(55.6%), 9(6.0%) and 4(2.6%) respondents had been employed from 0-2 years, 3-5 years. 6-8 years and 9-11 years respectively.   .416** (.000) .276** (.000) 14.753*** 29.629*** 14.349*** 3.841**** 5.443**** 3.788**** R-Square=* β=** Parenthesis=(P-value) F-Statistic=*** T-test=**** Table 3 showed the results of hypothesis 1a, 1b and 1c. Hypothesis 1a states that self-awareness has a significant effect on affective commitment; hypothesis 1b states that self-awareness has a significant effect on normative commitment and; hypothesis 1c states that self-awareness has a significant effect on continuance commitment; The R-square which is the coefficient of determination which implies in hypothesis 1a that 9% variations in affective commitment is caused by self-awareness while the remaining 91% are caused by other factors. In hypothesis 1b, self-awareness explained the changes in normative commitment by 16.6% while the remaining 83.4% are explained by other factors; and in hypothesis 1c 8.8% variations in continuance commitment is caused by self-awareness while the remaining 91.2% are caused by other factors The results of the hypotheses 1a, 1b and 1c revealed that self-awareness has a positive and significant effect on affective commitment (β=.309; p=.000; t test=3.841), self-awareness has a positive and significant effect on normative commitment (β=.416; p=.000; t test=5.443) and self-awareness has a positive and significant effect on continuance commitment (β=.088; p=.000; t test=3.788) respectively. Thus, it is affirmed that self-awareness has significant effect on organisation commitment-affective, normative and continuance.

Source: Researcher's computation
The results of the hypotheses 2a, 2b &2c were displayed in table 4. Hypothesis 2a states that internalised moral perspective has a significant effect on affective commitment. It was indicated that the Rsquare of internalized moral perspective caused the changes in affective commitment by 3.7% (.037). The results further showed that there is positive and significant effect of internalized moral perspective on affective commitment (β=.195; p=.019; t test=2.380). Thus, the hypothesis that internalised moral perspective has a significant effect on affective commitment is accepted.
Hypothesis 2b states that internalised moral perspective has a significant effect on normative commitment. The coefficient of determination which is the R-square showed internalized moral perspective explained 7.4% variations in normative commitment. Also, internalized moral perspective has a positive and significant effect on normative commitment (β=.277; p=.001; t test=3.462). Thus, the hypothesis that internalised moral perspective has a significant effect on normative commitment.

Source: Researcher's computation
The results of the hypotheses 4a, 4b &4c were displayed in table 6. Hypothesis 4a states that there is a significant effect of balanced processing on affective commitment. It was shown that the Rsquare of balanced processing caused the changes in affective commitment by 13.4%. The results further showed that there is a positive and significant effect of balanced processing on affective commitment (β=.367; p=.000; t test=4.810). Thus, the hypothesis is accepted Hypothesis 4b states that there is a significant effect of balanced processing on normative commitment. The R-square which is the coefficient of determination showed that balanced processing explained 21.6% variations in normative commitment. Also, balanced processing has a positive and significant effect on normative commitment (β=.462; p=.000; t test=6.462). Thus, the hypothesis is accepted Hypothesis 4c states that there is a significant effect of balanced processing on continuance commitment The Rsquare showed that 7.5% of the changes in continuance commitment is caused by balanced processing. It was revealed that there is positive and significant effect of balanced processing on continuance commitment (β=.248; p=.001; t test=3.582). Therefore, the hypothesis is accepted.

Discussion of the Findings
It is important for managers as leaders in the organisations to exhibit authentic leadership behaviour in leading the subordinates or followers. The finding of this study has revealed that authentic leadership is important in the running of an organization. Employees in today's organization want something that is real, honest and trust from their leaders. The findings discovered that authentic leadership is a determinant to organisational commitment. There is a positive effect of all proxies of authentic leadership on all proxies of organisational commitment. The more leaders are authentic in dealing or managing the employees the more the employees are committed to the goals of the organization. Also, authentic leadership can predict organizational commitment.
It is evidenced that when a leader in an IT organisation in Nigeria is aware of his personal features and motive towards leading and directing the subordinates, the subordinates will develop the emotion to be connected with the organizational missions and visions. Self-awareness as it is revealed in the findings enhances employees feeling of the responsibility to stay in the organisation to continue to wholeheartedly discharge his or her duties. It could be said that self-awareness makes employees to realize what they would lose if they leave an organisation. The consistency between a leader's value and action does not give room for employees to display attitudes or have a feeling of not being part of the organisation.
Internalized moral perspective pins employees down as members of an organisation. Also, the transparency in the relationship between organistional leaders and the followers fosters trust and confidence in the orgnisation. This could encourage the subordinates to help the organisation to achieve the predetermined goals. Similarly, the act of considering all relevant information by the leaders in an organisation before taking decision could make employees to belief in the management of the organisation and to trust the organisation for better judgement on any issue at hand.
Authentic leadership makes leaders to assess how he or she is leading the followers, it makes leader to act and lead in accordance to his or her beliefs and values; not to be bias in analysing information and to be transparent in his dealing. All these make employee to see such leader as a reliable leader and tend to be commitment in achieving the mission and vision of the organistion. The "realness" in a leader's behaviour is being cherished by the employees. The admiration of authencity of leaders approach in leading the followers reduces employee intention to leave the organsation. It could also make employee to be punctual and see themselves as part of the organisation. Also, trust and justice could be built via authencity in the leadership approach of a manager.

Conclusion and Recommendation
The objective of the study is to investigate authentic leadership and organizational commitment in Nigeria focusing of information technology industry. This objective has been achieved using Techmahindra Nigeria, an IT multinational firm in Nigeria. This study has identified that authentic leadership enhances organisational commitment. Self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, relational transparency and balanced processing as dimensions of authentic leadership have significant influence on affective commitment, normative commitment and continuance commitment. Thus, it is concluded authentic leadership is a paramount factor for organisational commitment. In line with this conclusion, the study recommended that organisations should organize training programmes for the employees at the management levelsmiddle and lower level management on how to exhibit the qualities of an authentic leader in the running of the organizations and also, leaders should train and develop themselves on self-awareness, internal moral perspective, relational transparency and balanced processing in order to for their followers or subordinates to be committed to the organization. The study therefore suggested that further studies on authentic leadership should focus on small and medium enterprises in Nigeria as well as tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Also, authentic leadership should be studied in Nigerian public sector.
The study has added to the body of literature on authentic leadership in Nigeria. Also, the study has established that authentic leadership being a contemporary leadership approach or behaviour has significant effect on organizational commitment.