THE IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP STYLE ON EMPLOYEES’ PERFORMANCE

CHAPTER ONE

1.0    Introduction

The importance of leadership in an organization can not be overemphasized. Leadership is a major element that sets successful and unsuccessful organizations and government apart. It plays central role in offering direction and purpose towards achieving goals of the organization. It is also an important element in the social relationship of groups at work. Leadership is the main factor that determines and shape group behaviour. When it is correctly applied, each employee enjoys a feeling of strong commitment towards achieving organizational goals. Regardless of equality of its members, every group will tend to have a system in which it will have a leader.

However, organizational goals can never be achieved without proper leadership style in play. It is important to note that the effective performance of an individual employee is a function of both his personal characteristics and the individual environment. A careful consideration of knowledge, skills, experience, attitude and motivation of an employee enhance maximum productivity and efficiency in the job. Since leadership deals with the human resource element, it provides the basis for effective utilization of material resources in an organization through individual skills, knowledge and ability.

Leadership can simply be defined as a process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group towards attainment of set goals. Leadership is the life wire of an organization. Douglas McGregor theory X and theory Y is to the view that leaders attitude towards human nature as a large influence on how that person behaves as a leader and how it affects the employee under the leader. It is however important to note that no single leadership style is likely to be effective in all circumstances, leadership style vary based on surroundings and circumstances.

However, instead of concentrating on a single leadership style, leaders can vary their approaches depending on three factors: forces in the leader, forces in the subordinate and forces in the situation. An effective leader is measured by his ability to manage and withstand forces around him and how to effectively utilize human and material resources to attain organizational objectives. Douglas McGregor put it clear that there is a close relationship between leaders’ expectation and the resulting performance of subordinates. He further explains that if leaders’ expectations are high, productivity is likely to be high.

1.1    Background of the Study

This study is on “The Impact of Leadership Style on Employees’ Job Performance in Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC).

Leadership as defined by Armstrong (2001) “Is the process of directing and inspiring employees to perform task and oriented activities of the organization”.

Edward (2002) in stressing the importance of leadership style, says the style adopted by the leader in every organizations especially in a manufacturing company affects the rate of the performance. He further stated that the personal qualities of a leader will largely determine the particular leadership style that can trigger employees to performance in a given organization. An autocratic leader for instance would tend to be a more direct kind of leader, while a democratic style will probably adopt participative leadership style. This however, does not imply that a particular style can always be more effective than the other rather particular style might be effective in specific circumstance.

It has also become quite clear that successful leaders seem to have similar qualities, this is because researchers tried to find out what make some leaders successful particularly when it come to influencing their subordinates.

Michael A. Germano, J.D., M.A., M.S. (2008) emphasize that Leadership has a direct cause and effect relationship upon organizations and their success. Leaders determine values, culture, change, tolerance and employee performance. They shape institutional strategies including their execution and effectiveness. Leaders can appear at any level of an institution and are not exclusive to management. Successful leaders do, however have one thing in common, they influence those around them in order to reap maximum benefit from the organization’s resources, including its most vital and expensive: it’s people organization require leadership just like business, government and non-profit organizations. Whether a public, special or academic organization that organization’s leader directly affect everything from patron experience to successfully executive stated missions, including resource allocation, services offered and collection development strategies. Infact, the influence of leaders and their effectiveness in moving people to a shared vision can directly shape the organizations employees, its materials, how patrons like or interact with them and whether or not that experience is beneficial. With leadership potentially playing such a vital role in the success of information centers and patron experiences, it is useful to consider different types of leaders and their potential impact in an organization.

This research work tends to examine the leadership style in Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) and its impact on employee’s performance.

1.2    Statement of the Problem

Every organization regardless of its size strives to remain at the top maintain a leadership position among competitors and in order to achieve this, it must struggle to maintain and improve its productions. Ideal as it may appear, one still achieve little, or even no improvement in their production, while an organization with smaller number of workforce could achieve more. This reason could be as a result of the leadership style in the organization, some organizations may have leadership style, but still achieve nothing in terms of productivity. Could this be related to the leadership style adopted by such organization?

It is based on the issue that the researcher has decided to undertake the study with the aim of proffering solution.

1.3    Objective of the Study

The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact leadership have on employee’s performance, specifically the study is intended to:

1.           Identify the different leadership styles and their relationship with employee’s performance.

2.           Ascertain the effects of leadership style on employee’s morale.

3.           Determine relationship between employees performance and placement.

4.           Examine the significance of leadership styles on organization' survival.

1.4    Significance of the Study

This research will be of benefit to the management and employees of Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC).

The researcher and other students/academicians that may wish to undergo further research in this or a similar topic.

The study will also be of benefit to other organizations and to the student of Business Administration.

It will be of benefit to the general public at large. Ways and manner in which the identified beneficiaries would benefit from the findings:

The Management will know the leadership styles to adopt in other to achieve the stated goals of the organization. It will help the employees to adopt to any type of leadership style to embark on by the management.

To the researcher and other students/academicians it helps them to gain more knowledge about leadership roles in an organizations. To other researchers who wish to embark on this research or similar research topic serves as a guide or provide information on the research topic.

To other organizations it helps the management to know the leadership styles that will be of help to them.

To Business Administration students, they will know the type of leadership style that can be effective in running an organization or enterprise.

To the general public, since every organization is involved in one business or the other, it helps them to know the type of leadership styles to adopt that will boost the organizational growth.

1.5    Research Questions

The following questions are expected to guide the researcher in carrying out this study.

1.           Does leadership style affect employee’s performance in an organization?

2.           Does leadership style boost employee’s morale in an organization?

3.           Does employee’s placement affect their performance in an organization?

4.           What is the relationship between leadership styles and organization’s survival?

1.6    Scope of the Study

The Scope of this study is limited to Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC). Consequently, the study is expected to involve two categories of employees, which comprises of senior and junior staff. The senior staff comprises of employees from grade 6-1, while the junior staff comprises of employees from grade level 4-1 respectively.

This study will cover the type of leadership style adopted by Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) within the period of last five (5) years from (2006-2011). If there have been increased in the employees performance due to the leadership style adopted by Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company KRPC during this period and whether the employees performance have been affected positively or negatively.

1.7    Limitation of the Study

The researcher in the process of carrying out the study encountered some problems which are stated below:

Getting information and materials to carryout the study was very difficult, most especially when the researcher visited the school library, state library and national library.

Most of the leadership textbook in these library were outdated and the researcher could not get any meaningful information from them to use.

Another problem the researcher encountered in the process of carrying out the study was that some of the questionnaires issued to the respondents were not returned, while among the ones returned, some of them were incorrectly filled while some were not filled at all.

1.8    Definition of Terms

Leadership:      The process of directing and inspiring employees to perform task oriented activities of the organization.

Style:                  The various behaviour patterns favoured by leaders during the process of directing and influencing employees.

Reward:            Feeling of satisfaction people derived from achieving recognition and competence.

Autocratic:       One who rules by his own power without seeking the opinions of his subordinates.

Democratic:     One who adheres to or promote individual participation as a principle.

Performance:   The act of carrying out an action or a piece of work.

Laissez-faire:   A Leader with a general principle of no interference with the free action of his subordinates.