EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP STYLE ON WORKER’S PERFORMANCE
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Leadership strategy is the collection of behaviour that a manager uses to influence his or her employees to accomplish organizational goals. Going by the sayings of Glassman, (1968), the style of a leader is determined to a greater extent by what the subordinate perceive it to be.
It can be seen in this present day that some leaders embark on a leadership style without working at it from the perspective of the subordinates which always causes disagreement between the leader and the subordinate and to a greater extent to have negative impact on the growth and development of the organization since organizational goal is dependent on employees’ performance. Therefore in managing human resource leaders must carry people along with them in a host of directions, they will transcend the uncertainties and insecurities of the modern business environment and followers must be prepared to fend for themselves.
Schein’s (1980) definition of formal organization is ―the planned co-ordination of the activities of a number of people for the achievement of the same common explicit purpose or goal.
Leadership, therefore, is not mystical or mysterious, rather effective leadership is complimentary and necessary for the achievement of management goals and objectives in an increasingly complex and volatile business environment.
Leadership is the process through which an individual tries to influence another individual or a group of individuals to accomplish a goal. Leadership is valued in our culture, especially when it helps to achieve goals that are beneficial to the population, such as the enactment of effective preventive health policies. An individual with leadership qualities can also improve an organization and the individuals in it, whether it be a teacher who works to get better teaching materials and after school programs or an employee who develops new ideas and products and influences others to invest in them.
Leadership can be exhibited in a variety of ways and circumstances. Mothers and fathers show leadership in raising their children with good values and encouraging them to develop to their potential. Teachers show it in inspiring students to learn and to develop their intellectual capacity. Health care workers can be leaders and develop services that meet the needs of the communities they serve or work in collaboration with other organizations to create cost-effective, prevention-oriented programs and services (Banjoko,1995).
Many studies have been done and many books and articles have been published on this subject. Through this work, a consistent set of leadership attributes has emerged. An effective leader does most, if not all, of the following:
Challenge the Process: search out challenging opportunities, take risks, and learn from mistakes.
Inspire others to come together and agree on a future direction or goal— create a shared vision by thinking about the future, having a strong positive vision, and encouraging others to participate.
Help others to act: Help others to work together, to cooperate and collaborate by developing shared goals and building trust, and help to make others stronger by encouraging them to develop their skills and talents.
Set an example: Behave in ways that are consistent with professed values and help others to achieve small gains that keep them motivated, especially when a goal will not be achieved quickly.
Encourage others: Recognize each individual’s contributions to the success of a project.
Another way of defining leadership is to acknowledge what people value in individuals that are recognized as leaders. Most people can think of individuals they consider being leaders. Research conducted by James Kouzes & Barry Posner, (1980) found that a majority of people admire, and willingly follow, people who are honest, forward-looking, inspiring, and competent.
An individual who would like to develop leadership skills can profit from the knowledge that leadership is not just a set of exceptional skills and attributes possessed by only a few very special people. Rather, leadership is a process and a set of skills that can be learned.
The word leadership can refer to the process of leading. Those entities that perform one or more acts of leading.
Hersey& Blanchard, (1988) stated that “Leadership is not a place, it‘s not a position,and it‘s not a secret code that can‘t be deciphered by ordinary people. Leadership is an observable set of skills and abilities. Of course, some people are better at it than others.”
In general terms, leadership can be defined as the ability to influence the behaviour of others.
This definition can be expanded when considering leadership in organizations to include the fact that the leader exerts influence within a working group in order that the group may achieve group tasks or objectives.Carter,(2008) states that leadership is an everyday art involving the skill of leading and dealing with people. The success in ruling new dominions is contingent upon both his ability to wield power effectively and the existence of an opportunistic situation. Problems, which result within organizational members, disagree on both the natures of the goals of which people disagree on both the natures of the goals of which people aspire and the act of leadership. Leadership, as we use the term refers to behaviour, undertaken within the context of organizational members behave. It could be observed that leadership and management envisage deeply into what the organization can achieve if the quality of recognition is accorded to them. Leadership has been propounded to include the sources of influence that are built into a position in an organizational hierarchy, (Fisher, 1995).
Leadership is very essential organization and greatly influences the whole organization because achievements and results occur corollary to the traits being projected by the leader. Leadership includes the ultimate source of power but has that positive ability in persuading other individuals and to be innovative in decision making. According to Bennis &Nanus (1985), many organizations are over-managed and under led. The difference is crucial, managed are people who do things right, but leaders are people who do the right things always. Problems are bound to occur within every noted organization and decision making is bound to generate conflicts while initiating policies (Adair, (2002).
People are expected to coordinate whatever they are doing to achieve organizational goals. In this light, the notion of leadership act is those which help a grouping meeting those stated objectives (Bavelas, 1960). In general terms, the acts of controlling other people consist uncertainty reduction, which entails making the kind of choice that permits the organization to proceed towards its objective despite various kinds of internal and external variables (Kourdi, 1999).
1.1 STATEMENTOF THE PROBLEM
There are so many problems that hinder the organizations for the achievement of the organizational aims and objectives. These problems are curled from the principles of management, which includes include planning, which is regarded as one of the crucial element/aspects of the administrative functions of the chief executives.
With the presence of effective leadership, there are efficient and effective management of government enterprises to perform up to expectations. Like most other tools for achieving organizational goals, effective leadership is faced with some constraints which prevent some enterprises from achieving their normal goals and objectives. Also, most management is not even aware of the exact constraints to effective leadership. The exigency of the situation created by effective leadership encourages research on the issue of “effect of leadership styles on worker’s performance”. The dream of any organization is to minimize cost and maximize profit, this can only be achieved through effective and efficient leadership and it is an account of this that this work is embarked upon (Katz & Kahn, 1989).
Many organizations have failed due to ineffective leadership style of the management team of such organization and institution in such a situation, the workers are not well organized, controlled or co-ordinated, the effect of this attitude arises from ineffective leadership style, low productivity, high operating cost, uncooperative attitude of employees- e.t.c. All these at the long run leads to the closure of the organization. Some organizations are faced with the problem of sourcing for competent leaders who have personality, knowledge, intelligence and experience to lead its subordinates to achieving the desired objectives of the organization, (Kootz, 1986).
1.2 RESEARCHOBJECTIVE
The purpose of the study is to:
- To ascertain if transformational leadership has any effect on employee performance in Aquafina Waters.
- To evaluate the effect of transactional leadership on employee performance in Aquafina Waters.
- To investigate the effect of laissez-faire leadership style on employee performance in Aquafina Waters.
- To examine whether the effect of autocratic leadership influences employee performance in Aquafina Waters.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The research question focus on the effect of leadership styles on worker’s productivity.
The question includes:
- What is the effect of Autocratic leadership style on employee performance in Aquafina Waters?
- To what extent does Democratic leadership style influences employee performance in Aquafina Waters?
- Will laissez -faire leadership style have effect on employee performance in Aquafina Waters?
- Will there be a significant relationship between Bureaucratic leadership style and employee performance in Aquafina Waters?
1.4 TEST OF HYPOTHESIS
The following hypothesis are assumed in the course of the research.
Hypothesis 1:
H1: There is a significant influence of Democratic leadership style on employee’s performance in Aquafina Waters.
Hypothesis 2:
H1: There is significant relationship between leadership styles and worker’s productivity
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research work is to serve as an effective and efficient tool for leaders/managers in the industries and the public so as to identify appropriate leadership styles that promote a cordial relationship between workers and management and also between leaders subordinates such that high productivity and efficiency is guaranteed. Also, this research work will be of great benefits to managers on how to be a good leader in increasing the performance of workers, which would yield productivity to the organization concerned. Employees or workers would also benefit from this research work as a preparation towards achieving their dreams when they establish a firm of their own thereby making them a successful entrepreneur in the future. Organizations as well would not be left out in achieving greater productivity from this research work by coordinating the heads and subheads of all departments of the organization, which in return would yield a positive result.
Finally, this research work would be useful scholars and researchers by extracting the materials and developing it even into a more standardized way for the usefulness of organizations and individuals. Also, researchers can use this research work as a reference in making further and deeper research in gaining more knowledge thereby making their research better than this.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this study covers the effect of leadership style on worker’s performance
This research work covers all the aspect of the leadership style in Aquafina Waters. This means that the questionnaires designed will be distributed to the Managers that occupy leadership roles within the organization hierarchy.
1.7 LIMITATION OF STUDY
This is limited to only senior manager in leadership roles within the organization hierarchy. Other limitations of the study may include non-response due to the ignorance of some of the respondents who respect the importance of the subject under review.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Some terms used in the study are defined to avoid misinterpretation of the objectives of the study. These terms include the following:
LEADERSHIP: Leadership is the process through which an individual tries to influence another individual or a group of individuals to accomplish a goal.
PRODUCTIVITY: This is the ability to yield a positive result in relation to the number of materials and employees needed.
AUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP: This type of leadership is obtained where there is absolute centralization of decision making authority in the leader.
DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP: This leadership style thrives on paver sharing relationship between the leader and the subordinate. Democratic leadership, in essence, seek to obtain the voluntary compliance of subordinates towards organizational goal attainment through the persuasive overture of the leader who gives orders why after consulting the group and sees to it that policies are worked out in group discussion and with the acceptance of the group.
LAISSEZ FAIRE STYLE: This type of leadership style boils down to a situation of leadership where subordinates are left entirely to their whims and caprices in the pursuit of the groups’ goals.
ORGANIZATION: an organized group of people with a particular purpose, such as a business or government department
SITUATIONAL:The definition of situational is a person or thing in regards to surroundings or circumstances. An example of situational is how a person reacts in different environments; called situational reactions.
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP:Transformational leadership is a style of leadership where a leader works with subordinates to identify needed change, creating a vision to guide the change through inspiration, and executing the change in tandem with committed members of a group
STYLE: Style is a manner or way of doing or presenting things.
BUREAUCRATIC LEADERSHIP: Bureaucratic leadership is leadership based upon fixed official duties under a hierarchy of authority, applying a system of rules for management and decision-making.
PERFORMANCE: The accomplishment of a given task measured against preset known standards of accuracy, completeness, cost, and speed. In a contract, performance is deemed to be the fulfillment of an obligation, in a manner that releases the performer from all liabilities under the contract.
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