ABSTRACT
Impact of leadership
style on workers’ productivity talks about improved productivity which been
described as providing more effective or higher quality services at the same
cost or the same services at the lowest cost possible. Effectiveness and
efficiency are the key concepts of productivity measurement in organizations.
In addition, all the mentioned and determined effects, problems and solutions
will be critically viewed to serve as possible recommendations to today’s
manager who may be willing to employ a particular leadership style. It will
create a better situation for the leader to select best types of leadership
systems. This study will also reveal to the government the need to improve the
productivity of employees in any business organization be it private or public
sector. It will expose them to understand that the personnel management is the
hallmark of any organization.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY
Improved productivity
has been described as providing more effective or higher quality services at
the same cost or the same services at the lowest cost possible. Effectiveness
and efficiency are the key concepts of productivity measurement in
organizations. The problems of productivity are of great concern because of its
financial implications. As far back as 1913, scholars had started showing
interest in productivity. For instance, in the year (1913), Munstaberg an
industrial psychologist started indicating interest in productivity. He worked
to determine how to find the best man possible, how to produce the best
possible work and how to ensure the best possible effects (Munstaberg, 1913).
The famous Hawthorn experiment conducted by Elton Mayo, and colleagues, were
also undertaken in between 1920-1930 to determine the factors responsible for
high productivity. Thus, managers need to study their workers with a view to
understanding them and their behaviours, why they behave they do and what need
to be done in order to direct their behaviours towards the attainment of
organizational goals. This therefore means that all those who are responsible
for the management of any organization must build into the enter system those
things that induce workers to contribute as effectively and efficiently as
possible.
Management literature
mentions leadership styles like autocratic leadership, bureaucratic leadership,
or participative leadership, laizezfaire leadership, task-oriented leadership,
transactional leadership, people oriented leadership or relations-transformational
leadership. Each style of leadership, impact organizational performance
differently, some of them helping organizations evolve and achieve success,
others only hindering their development and being a source of dissatisfaction
and de-motivation. For example, laizezfaire is a hands-off approach where no
one sets any objectives, directions, restrictions etc, hence the lack of
motivation, poor work practices and lack of performance. Another leadership
style which can have a negative impact upon the performance of an organization
is the autocratic style. It is an extreme form of leadership where the leader
exerts power upon the staff, offering them very few opportunities of saying
what they think or of involving themselves actively in the way the activity is
developed. Therefore, the level of performance is very low. On the other hand,
transformational leadership, which is one of the most modern and the most
successful styles of leading, is the style in which the leader plays the
role-model. He inspires his followers and challenges them to be more involved
in their work. Transformational leaders communicate with their people, delegate
responsibilities, try to know their staff, to understand their strength and
their weak-points in order to find the best way to optimize their performance,
thus optimizing entire organizations performance. Transformational leaders
change an employee from a worker who carries out tasks into a valuable team
member.
Thus, they can modify
the employees think and feel about their work and the organization by creating
an ownership mindset.
Transformational
leadership can help employees trust the organizations and its mission and thus
stop questioning the objectives of the organization and work harder to achieve
results.
A transformational
leader can elicit a stronger sense of commitment from the staff, which will
have a positive impact on effectiveness and efficiency of their work and
consequently of the organization. They believe in delegating responsibility,
getting the staff involved in important decisions and showing confidence in the
ability to make the right choices.
Accordingly, there are
four key dimensions of leadership that are used to accomplish the
transformation of subordinates, and of the organization. They include: charisma
and idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration
and intellectual stimulations. Akanu-Ibiam federal Polytechnic is endowed with
adequate and effective human resources which, when developed, can enhance its
productivity and make the Polytechnic second to none among the Polytechnics in
the country. However, despite the enormous human and material resources at its
disposal and the strategic location that the polytechnic enjoys, not much is
seen in terms of productivity and general development. What could have been the
reason for this sad situation at the polytechnic?
1.2
STATEMENT
OF THE PROBLEM
One of the most
researched and an understood variable of the management process is leadership.
For years, scholars have investigated on the nature of leadership; only in the
recent year have researchers conducted systematic investigation that gave
useful insights into dimension of leading. Even with this, there is still an
argument difficulty to establish the fact that leadership achieves the designed
result and when needed.
A good quality of
leadership style modifies the behaviour of their employees. Employers
themselves always like to back their job performance and their organization
according to the kind of leadership style their boss portrays. Inappropriate
use of some style and negative attitude of the workers towards their
productivity of the organization/firm, all these are rampant in most
organization today.
1.3
OBJECTIVE
OF THE STUDY
The broad objective of
this study is to evaluate the influence of leadership style on workers’
productivity. The following are identified as the specific objectives:
1)
Identify the type of leadership style
that exit in AkanuIbiam Federal Polytechnic Unwana.
2)
To determine the impact of leadership styles
on staff productivity.
1.4
RESEARCH
QUESTION
1)
What are the leadership styles that
exist in AkanuIbiam Federal Polytechnic
Unwana?
2)
Does leadership style have impact
on staff productivity?
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The research work has
limited time given for the execution of the project thereby affecting the
scope/coverage to a few organizations in Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic
Unwana.
1.6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The significance of
this study is basically a definite scope which will help elicit all the
problems and effects of different leadership styles. Also it will assist in
highlighting how management and employees react under stereotyped conditions.
In addition, all the
mentioned and determined effects, problems and solutions will be critically
viewed to serve as possible recommendations to today’s manager who may be
willing to employ a particular leadership style. It will create a better
situation for the leader to select best types of leadership systems.
This study will also
reveal to the government the need to improve the productivity of employees in
any business organization be it private or public sector. It will expose them
to understand that the personnel management is the hallmark of any
organization. The reading public will also gain from this work because some of
them wishing to establish their own organizations will also know the kind of
leadership style to adopt that will improve the employee productivity in their
organization. If employee productivity is improved through the use of the
factors suggested in this study, all things being equal the growth and
development of all other aspects of the organization is assured.
1.7 LIMITATION OF STUDY
In pursuing the
investigation about this study, the researcher had to surmount a lot of
challenges. These challenges ranged from lack of relevant data due to poor
responses from the respondents, time constraints and finance.
v
Time
constraint: Time was a matter to grapple with during the course of this
research work as the researcher had to create time for the study and other
academic related activities.
v
Financial
Constraints: Another challenge that was surmounted in the course of this
study was finance. This was needed for the trips to the area of study,
gathering of materials and typing of the project work. The fund raised
therefore, involved reducing to a large extent other forms of expenditures to
create adequate funds for the work.
v
Respondents:
Many of the respondents were unwilling to release the much needed
information because of the idea that the information they were being asked to
release were classified in nature and may impinge negatively on the image of
the institution if it does not portray the institution in a positive light.
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