Leadership styles on employee performance

Abstract

The study sought to assess the “effect of leadership styles on employee performance|” using a case study of Stanbic bank, Uganda Limited at Umoja house. The study was guided by three objectives: to find out the leadership styles in Stanbic bank, to examine the impact of different leadership styles on employee performance and lastly to find out the approaches to leadership styles that can improve employee performance. The study adopted a case study design which helped in giving a detailed examination on the subject and the study employed both qualitative and quantitative techniques in the data collection process with a sample size of 44 respondent. Data was collected using self administered questionnaires and an interview guide. Purposive sampling was administered on the managers since they were knowledgeable on the subject and stratified sampling was administered on the employees in Stanbic bank The data collected was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) to generate the tables for which analysis and discussions were made The relationship between leadership styles and employee performance revealed that managers in Stanbic bank practice mainly the autocratic leadership style which mainly focuses on getting work done by the employees and its production oriented. It was also revealed that the style impacted on the employees both negatively and positively. Secondly the democratic leadership also impacted on the employees both negatively and positively but for the transformational leadership style it affected the employees positively. However some of the aspects of the above leadership styles had no effect on employee performance while others did. The researcher recommended that managers or leaders should adopt the democratic leadership style such that employees work to the best of their knowledge and in so doing get involved in the work done and also a varying number of motivators should be introduced at work so as to increase the performance levels. Finally, there is no one best leadership style so the same manager or leader can effectively use a variety of leadership styles depending on the situation, competence and commitment of individual employees