THE EFFECT OF AUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP STYLE ON EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY A CASE STUDY OF POWER HOLDING COMPANY OF NIGERIA PHCN

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Centuries ago the belief held was that leaders are born not made. It was widely believed that leadership was uniquely endowed with work ability and also treats of people, which made it possible for them to become leaders. Autocratic leadership style characteristically is one in which leaders apply coercive reward and even legitimate force on their subordinates. The leader also uses threats and punishments to achieve their desires and does not allow the subordinate to contribute in the running of the organization, which made upward communication of the organization ineffective. The other types of leadership style are A. Laissez-Faire leadership style: leaders here don’t pay attention to the achievement of the organizational goals less emphasis is laid to the behaviour of the subordinates therefore they are le to o what they chose. These leaders are only there as figure heads. B. Likere leadership style: Reisis Life tree is a graduated from the university of Michigan and his associate has for decades based themselves on leadership style in enterprises. In this studies they came out to say that an effective manager as strong oriented to his subordinates relying on communication to keep all parties working as a unit, others include a. Benevolent b. Consultative c. Participate group

1.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

In the course of this study, the researcher tried to survey some theories that will further enhance the understanding of the concept of Autocratic leadership and its effect on employee productivity. Among the theories that are worthy of mention and explanation are A. The trait theory of leadership B. The behaviour leadership theories C. The situational leadership theories The trait theory posits that the leader has always occupied a central role in management theory most of the early researchers on leadership attempted to either compare the traits of people who became leaders with those who did not identify characteristics and traits possessed by effective leaders.

According to Weiss and Adler (1984:1) the trait approach to leadership is the evaluation and selection of leaders on the basis of their physical mental and social and physiological characteristics The behavioral school on the other hand is a product of the dissatisfaction with the trait theory. This theory focuses on how leaders should behave rather than on traits or characteristics they might possess According to a number of studies carried out in the United States like the Ohio state leadership studies. They made a series of in-depth studies of the behavior of leaders in a wide variety of organizations. The key concern of the Ohio state University study was the leaders behavior in directing the support of others towards group objectives.