PurposeThis study examines the relationship between task-oriented leadership style, psychological capital, job satisfaction and organizational commitment: evidence from Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises.Design/methodology/approachThe method employed in the research is the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for testing hypotheses of data collected from a sample of 800 employees working in small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam.FindingsThe results show that the task-oriented leadership style has a positive impact on organizational commitment, limits job satisfaction and no obvious association with the psychological capital of employees. Besides, job satisfaction and psychological capital play an important role in the organizational commitment of employees in small and medium-sized enterprises of Vietnam.Originality/valueThis paper aims to shed light on a less fully explored topic for organizational behavior in small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets like Vietnam. In contrast to extensive studies on the participative and supportive leader, this study focuses on task-oriented leadership style in the testing and analysis to understand the theory of leadership style, psychological capital, job satisfaction and organizational commitment in emerging markets and provides more knowledge on employee behavior management for companies in Vietnam. This is a unique contribution to the original value of this article.