THE EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP STYLE ON SUBORDINATE PRODUCTIVITY

ABSTRACT

From the immemorial, the role of leaders in ensuring excellence organizational performance cannot be emphasized. The need for adequate motivation suitable working environment, compensations efficient communication between employers and employees are important to promoting excellent organization performance. Though studies on motivation and leadership role amongst employees are well studied in financial organization in developed countries, less could be said of in financial organization in developing countries like Nigerian.  Therefore, it was important to evaluate leadership and organizational performance in financial intuitions in Nigeria. The evaluation was done through the use of questionnaires with questions tailored towards determining: the relationship between leadership and organizational performance, pattern of leadership and the extent of factors for worker’s low performance and leadership style affected labour management relations and productivity in two selected branches of United Bank for Africa being the study area. After analyzing the result with chi-square, it was concluded that  to attain the objectives of business establishment, it was necessary that leadership recognizes the needs of workers, employ appropriate motivational tool such as promotion of staff based on merit and skills, provide suitable working environment and provide an appropriate leadership style that will encourage free flow of information among employee superior officers and other employers.                                                 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

An organization is a social set up, which has a boundary that separates it from its environment, pursues its own collective goals, and controls its own performance (Kick and Gullet, 1995)., in a formal organization, interactions are rationally  coordinated and directed through  time on a common basis.

The person at the helm of affairs is usually the leaders.

Kraines (2001) stressed that the word leadership has been used by most discipline: political science, business executives, social workers and educationists. However, there is large disagreement as regards the exact meaning.

This view was also supported by Tafffinder (2006), who gave different definitions to leadership: “a simple meaning leadership is getting people to do things they are never thought of doing, do not believe are possible or that they do not want to do. With reference to an organization, he defined leadership as “the action of commitment employees to contribute their best to the purpose of the organization”. While on a complex and more accurate view, he explains that you only know leadership by it consequences – from the fact that individuals or a group of people start to behave in a particular ways as a result of the actions of someone else”.

Thus in many situations, “leadership ability” may only become apparent when a person has a formal role and hence has a power over reward and punishments or when  at least such power is relatively weak among other group members. The failure to make this distinction has caused some confusion in  the discussion of leadership.

Effective management is described as a means of getting things done by other people. It can further be described as a social process entailing responsibility  for the effective and economic planning and regulation of the operators of an organization in fulfillment of a given purpose or task.

Employees performance is been described as the work rate of individual that make upon the department, unit and ministries that actually carry out the goals and objectives of the  organization and it is through their performance each and every unit determines vis-à-vis the set goals of the unit.                                    

Employees have to be rewarded / motivated in terms of their effective performance and thus having to do with performance appraisal, which is defined as a systematic evaluation of employee’s past and present behaviour on the job based on standard format for use of the employee and employers.

Messick and Kramer (2004) further explained since human beings could become members of an organization in order to achieve certain personal objectives, the extent to which they are active members depends on how they are convinced that their predetermine objectives. Therefore, an individual will support an organization if he believes that though it, his personal objectives and goals could be met. If not the person’s interest in the organization will decline.