Leadership Styles and Employee Job Performance in Serere District Local Government, Uganda

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION

APPROVAL ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv

TABLE OF CONTENT v

LIST OF TAI3LES viii

LIST OF FIGURES ix

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS x

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE 1

INTROI)UCTION I

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Backgrounds 1

1.1.1 Historical perspective

1 .1 .2 Theoretical perspective 4

1.1.3 Conceptual perspective 4

1.1.4 Contextual background 6

1.2 Problem Statement 6

1.3 Purpose of the study 9

1.6 Scope of the Study 10

1.7 Significance of the study 10

V

CHARPTER TWO .11

LITERATURE REVIEW 11

2.0 Literature Review 1 1

2.1 Concept of Local Government 11

2.2 Local Government Administration in Uganda 11

2.3 Concept of leadership styles 12

2.4 Autocratic leadership style 13

2.5 Laissei- Lure or delegate leadership 13

2.6 The Effect of Leadership Styles on Employee Performance 13

2.7 Transformational Leadership and Employee Performance 14

2.8 Laissez Faire Leadership and Employee Performance 15

2.9 Autocratic Leadership and Employee Performance 16

2.5 Theoretical Review 35

2.10 Empirical Analysis in Africa and Locally 39

2.11 Sources of Literature Review 40

2.12 Research Gaps 40

CHAPTER THREE 42

METHODOLOGY 42

3.0 Introduction 42

3.1 Research Design 42

3.2 Population 42

3.3 Sample sizc 42

3.4 Sampling strategies 43

3.8 Validity of the research instrument 43

vi

CHAPTER FOUR .45

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 45

4.0 Introduction 45

4.1 Description of the sample size 45

4.3 Findings 46

4.6 Authoritarian leadership 47

4.3.3.1 Correction analysis 49

CHAPTER FIVE 51

SUMMARY, CQNCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 51

5.0 Introduction 51

5.lOverview 51

5.2 Summary of findings 51

5.4 Recommendations 53

5.5 Limitations to the study and proposed areas for future research 54

5.6 Proposed areas for future research 55

REFERENCES 56

APPENDICES 61

QUESTION1\IAIRE 61

ABSTRACT This research study was conducted on leadership styles and employee job performance in Serere District Local Government located in Eastern region of Uganda in Teso-sub region. Fhe key leadership styles studied include; transactional, autocratic, Transformational leadership and laissez faire leadership styles. The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between leadership styles and employee job performance. The key objective was to find out the prevailing leadership style in Serere District Local Government. The research study used qualitative, descriptive, co relational and cross sectional research design. The study used a simple random sampling strategy in which a sample size of 181 was selected from the population of 330 comprising of 15 women organizations, 20 youth organizations, 15 opinion leaders and 280 leaders at Serere District Local Government. The significance of the study was to help local governments identify leadership styles associated with jot effectiveness; findings would also be used by other researchers as reference. Meanwhile, the central government would use findings for policy review. A multi factor questionnaire by Bass Avolio (1995) was used to derive a self~ administered questionnaire for data collection. The study revealed that the most dominant leadership style was transformational leadership, followed by transactional, laissez faire while autocratic was the least executed. The study further established a significant strong positive relationship between transformational leadership style and employee job perfo rmance while other leadership styles exhibited some degree of influence on employee job performance. In conclusion. I propose that leaders should use transformational leadership and should execute less of laissez-faire and autocratic styles of leadership. I recommend that government authorities set up training programs to enhance better leadership styles, leaders should always clarify expectations to employees prior start of work, there is also need for policy review by central Government and leaders ought to lead by example, leaders should treat subordinates with respect and confidentiality. Future research should focus on: attitude of employees towards a job and employee performance. Generally, it should focus on other factors that impact on employee job performance other than styles of leadership.