Employee power needs, leadership, and employee organizational commitment: A case study of high‐tech enterprises

Abstract Industry 4.0 brings opportunities and challenges to organizations. Studies have shown that employees with higher power needs have a higher level of organizational commitment, which is also affected by transactional leadership. However, existing studies lack effective conversion pathways and do not adapt to the new environment of Industry 4.0. From a systematic perspective, this paper covers eight high‐tech fields, such as electronic information, biotechnology, and medicine, and establishes a comprehensive model. We use multi‐level regression analysis and the bootstrap method to explore the transformation path of employee power needs to organizational commitment. The results show that in high‐tech enterprises, employee power needs positively affect out‐of‐role behaviours, and there is also a positive correlation between out‐of‐role behaviour and organizational commitment. In addition, employee out‐of‐role behaviours play mediating roles. Transactional leadership moderates the relationship between out‐of‐role behaviours and organizational commitment. This study explains (1) the driving force of employee power needs on out‐of‐role behaviours and (2) the complexity of changing organizational commitments, and expands the adjustment path of leadership. This study considers the enterprise as a system that helps various departments carry out collaborative actions and produce a synergistic effect, thereby improving the organizational commitment of employees and the overall effectiveness of the enterprise. It is of great significance to the management optimization and leader motivation of high‐tech enterprises, especially Industry 4.0 strategic emerging enterprises. In the future, we can also develop a system for leadership and employee power needs to help organizations analyse organizational commitment to improve organizational efficiency.