JMGT_V11_N4_RP2 Albert E. Smothers Deb S. Lawton Journal on Management 2230 – 715X 11 4 21 29 Leadership Style, Employee Perception, Organizational Commitment, Behavior, Transformational, Transactional In today's rapidly changing world, managing a local government or municipality has become extremely challenging. Municipalities are competing with local organizations to recruit the best talent and face many of the same issues, particularly managing and leading a diverse workforce. This study involved two very important aspects in the field of organizational behavior: leadership styles and organizational commitment. The main purpose of this study was to describe the employees' perception of the Mayor's leadership style, identify the employees' demographic profile (age, gender, race, education, and length of service), and determine its impact on the employees' level of organizational commitment within their municipal department. This study examined the relationship between the independent variables (leadership style and demographic profile) and the dependent variable (organizational commitment). March - May 2017 Copyright © 2017 i-manager publications. All rights reserved. i-manager Publications http://www.imanagerpublications.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=13449