Comparative Study on Leadership Style and Staff Productivity in Kwara State University
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The primary aim of this research was an Comparative study on leadership style and staff productivity in kwara state university, in Nigeria. The scope of leadership style was restricted to transformational and transactional leadership styles. The following are key factors considered to constitute the success factors which distinguish the bank within the Nigerian banking industry;
- To examine the effects of transformational and transactional leadership on employee performance in the Nigerian banking sector using Kwara state university as a case study.
- Evaluating the systems of corporate governance of the bank which accounts for its outstanding performance amongst other financial services provider in the country.
- Analyzing the impact of its strategic leadership policies on the employee performance in the Kwara state university.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview
This chapter is a review of the literature related to the study, previous studies have been conducted by academic scholars in relation to the research topic under discuss. The review is an ideal framework used for the survey of dependent and the independent variables.
Leaders and Leadership Style
The leader plays a very valid and instructive role which is essential to groups, organizations and business entities whose priorities are set on achieving their set goals. It is the belief of most managers that leadership is the major factor which determines organizational success and productivity. This belief is evident and displayed in the huge amount invested by the management of organizations into leadership training (Note: these amounts run into millions of Naira spent on an annual basis) both for individuals and corporates on leadership skills and development programs. Over the years, this topic “leadership” has been widely researched by so many scholars, and there is still yet to be any universally accepted definition of the term leadership.
Leadership amongst a list of other topics of interest has been described as one of the most talked about and debated topics in the field of social sciences (Avolio, Sosik, Jung, &Berson, 2003; Bass, 1990; Bennis, 2007). According to Stogdill (1974), he claimed that the differing views about the definitions of leadership are as much as the many different scholars attempting to define the term “leadership”. The following are words synonymous to the term leadership; directing, guiding and persuading, the leader uses all of these element at one point in time to help employees to attain their personal and organizational goals and objectives.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The research design is a detailed roadmap on the data which will be collected in the course of a research study. The designed is structured to provide answers to the research questions and to control the variance. The study adopted a sampling plan. The main essence of sample survey is to adequately capture representatives of a population which will help the researcher make inferences and draw conclusions.
Population/Sample
The target population of this study comprised all employees of Kwara state university. They include the staff of the institution. The proximity to respondents was considered in reducing the sample survey to kwara state university. The sample population for the purpose of the study is 600 employees in the school, from the above population of respondents; the researcher consulted the Human Resource department to obtain a number of 300 permanent employees which constituted the sample size.
CHAPTER FOUR
DISCUSSION AND DATA ANALYSIS
Introduction
This chapter deals with the analysis of data, which was collected from a sample of 300 respondents. The analysis was aimed at addressing the purpose of the study, to examine the impact of various leadership patterns on the overall performance of employees at Kwara state university, in Nigeria. The level of productivity for the employee was determined in relation to various independent variables; the transformational and transactional styles of leadership as mentioned in chapter two of this research study for further analysis. The number of questionnaires distributed via emails were approximately 300. However, only 249 was returned completed by the respondents representing an 83℅ response rate. The research questions this chapter was designed to answer are thus:
- What are employee’s perception on the application of various leadership style in Kwara state university?
- What is the effect of leadership style on employee performance?
- Is there a significant relationship between leadership style and employee performance?
The analysis of the findings have been grouped into3 parts;
- The first examines response rate and is presented in charts and tabular form.
- The second part focused on the inferential statistics where chi-square was used to test raised hypothesis.
- The third part presents the discussion on the findings. SPSS was used for the statistical and pictorial presentation of the results.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter will discuss the conclusions drawn from finding based on the research objective guiding the research study and the implications were also examined with relevant recommendation.
CONCLUSION
The purpose of the study was to conduct an empirical examination of the effect of leadership styles on the performance of employees using Kwara state university, Nigeria as a case study. The first chapter was a general introduction to the research study, highlighting the problems and objectives of the study. This introductory part focused on the role of leadership in employee’s performance and it resultant effect on the entire organization. The chapter showed that an effective leadership style is one which is focused on improving performance of employee, and increasing total output of the bank. However, it was necessary to conduct an empirical investigation on the above assertion in the banking sector, hence the choice of Kwara state university Nigeria as a case study.
The chapter two of this research study was focused on discussing relevant literature, the theoretical framework, an evaluation of previous works on the subject matter and various types of leadership style were identified, discussed and criticized in light of the current realities on the study.
The third chapter of this study discussed the methodology and design used in conducting and analyzing the research. A descriptive research model was used in the study, with a total sample size of 300 respondents. However, given the duration for administration and collation, the response rate of the distributed questionnaire was 83%.
In Chapter Four, an analysis of the data were conducted and a discussion on the summary of the main results were presented. The study carefully captured research questions and assumptions, respectively. Based on the findings of this study, it was found that most respondents had completed a bachelor’s degree and some already pursuing their master’s degree indicating that they had sufficient knowledge of the subject. The result of the analysis revealed that the transactional and transformational leadership styles were practiced more at the bank and less of the laissez-faire leadership style. In addition, the study showed that a leadership style had a significant effect on employee productivity.
The role of transformational leaders in an organization will depend on the leader’s ability to effectively motivate employees or subordinates by adopting effective leadership styles that will improve workers’ commitment to their jobs and motivation. Given that the transactional leadership style reflects the reality of the workplace and continues to be the predominant model in most organizations, its efficient application will reinforce workers’ commitments to meeting organizational objectives which will subsequently improve performance. It can be concluded that the degree to which an organization attracts a good work environment depends to a large extent on the leadership style used. Academics say that this style of leadership could result in a voluntary increase in the employee’s objective and in enhancing the creativity of workers in the fulfillment of their duties (Liargovas 2011). According to Liargovas (2011) to improve productivity at work, the leadership style should be favorable and encouraging. In our study, most respondents agree with that fact.
RECOMMENDATIONS
It can be said that leadership style and employees performance is not a new phenomenon to research, the practice is as old as the emergence of an organization. Also, this study has shown that “there is a significant relationship between the styles of leadership of and employee’s performance”. With this understanding, the following are recommendations for the study;
- Superiors in the bank should be committed to providing exemplary leadership to their employees to will improve performance o employee.
- There should be provision for an appraisal of performance for employees to be used as a basis for rewards to foster better and satisfactory performance.
- There is need to integrate the employees in some level of the decision making, most importantly on issues that concerns their welfare.
- The results of this study suggest that there is generally a favorable agreement that transactional leadership style has a greater impaction employees productivity hence banks should ensure that leaders in their organizations practice this leadership style.
- Organizations should provide standard remuneration and improved working environment to maximize the potentials of employee.
- More cooperation should be fostered between stakeholders and employees.
STUDY IMPLICATION
The study has some implications for theory and practice. This study adds to the different studies conducted on leadership and leadership styles providing empirical evidence on the banking sector. In this regard, the study is significant in understanding the relationship between the leadership style adopted by the supervisors at the bank and employee performance perhaps explore avenues to improve this relationship. Confining the research study to the transactional, transformational and laissez faire styles of leadership in Nigeria and by extension other developing countries in Africa and the world at large. The current study suggests that transactional, transformational and laissez fair is valid in the Nigerian banking sector judging from the example of our case study Kwara state university, Nigeria.
This implies that the leaders who are aware of the leadership style can adapt to effectively favorable leadership styles to conduct the affairs of their organization which can help maximize the organizational objectives.
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The nature of the study demands for an analysis of the employee’s performance of Kwara state university and its relationship to the applied leadership style. It was limited to the three main styles of leadership and its application; transformational, transactional and laissez faire. Also, the scope of the research was limited to only the Victoria Island region of the bank due to proximity to data and reducing cost.
Another limitation of the study is the extent to which the results can be generalized to represent the Nigerian banking sector. In view of the number of banks in the banking sector, inferences to the entire population should be made with caution, although this might not affect the results of the analysis in total.
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