ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF LEADRSHIP STYLE ON ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE (A SURVEY OF SELECTED PRIVATE SCHOOLS AT EJISU MUNICIPAL)

Abstract

The study aimed at assessing the impact of leadership style on organizational performance. The main objective of this study was to assess the impact of different leadership styles (transformational, transactional, autocratic, and laissez-faire leadership styles) on organizational’ performance. A cross section descriptive survey research strategy was adopted in which 100 usable structured questionnaires were collected from 100 questionnaires distributed. The leadership styles were measured through the Multi factor Leadership Questionnaire developed by Avolio and Bass (1995), modified to fit the context of the study. Employee performance was measured by the scale of Yousef (2000). The findings show that transformational leadership style is the most exhibited style at the Ejisu Municipal followed by the transactional leadership style and laissez-faire. Employee performance is above average. Overall, scores in transformational leadership style were found to be strongly correlated with both measures of employee performance and overall performance except for the intellectual simulation dimension, which had insignificant positive correlation with quality of performance. Transactional leadership style was found to be positively correlated with both measures of employee performance as well as overall performance. The results suggest that supervisors in organizations need to use a lot of transformational leadership behaviours or rather embrace transformational leadership style, but not laissez-faire leadership. From the results, transformational leadership could have greater effects on employee productivity and quality of performance. It is recommended therefore that Transformational and transactional leaderships are the most effective leadership styles.