The purpose of this study is to determine if the multi-dimensional leadership orientation of the heads of departments in Malaysian polytechnics affects their leadership effectiveness and the lecturers' commitment to work as perceived by the lecturers. The departmental heads' leadership orientation was determined by five leadership dimensions adapted from Bolman and Deal's leadership frame and Sergiovanni's leadership model. A total of 917 respondents comprise polytechnic's lecturers and department heads, participated in this study. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to determine the department head's multi-dimensional leadership effect on their perceived leadership effectiveness and lecturers work commitment. Significant positive relations were found between human resource and cultural frames and lecturers' commitment to polytechnics and profession. However, department heads' leadership frames shows no significant positive relationship towards lecturers' commitment to students. In addition, the relationship between department heads leadership orientation and lecturers work commitment was influenced by the department heads' leadership effectiveness as perceived by the lecturers. (Contains 4 tables.)