Leadership Styles and Administrative Employee Performance: A Case of Uganda Christian University

Abstract

This dissertation was conducted on the topic “Leadership Styles and Administrative Employee Performance; a Case of Uganda Christian University”. The purpose was to study how leadership styles affect employee performance specifically considering three styles; namely, autocratic leadership style, laissez-faire leadership, and democratic leadership style, and their effect on administrative employee performance at UCU.” A quantitative approach with specifically a descriptive research design was adopted. A probability random sampling technique was applied to determine the sample size with a simple random sampling technique for determining inclusion in the sample size. Data collection was done using questionnaires with a proper Likert scale question. Secondary data was reviewed as already-published information. Data was analyzed using the SPSS software. The findings summarized that Autocratic leadership in UCU had a poor correlation with employee performance based on a Pearson correlation of 0.108, which was a very weak positive relationship between the variables because the value of r was close to 0, implying no linear correlation. The p-value greater than both the 0.05 and 0.01 significance levels suggests that the correlation between Employee Performance and Autocratic Leadership is not statistically significant. Secondly, a correlation analysis between Employee Performance and Laissez-faire leadership style showed a 0.502 and a Significance (2-tailed) of 0.000. Thus, indicating a moderate positive correlation which suggests that as Laissezfaire leadership increases, employee performance tends to increase. Finally, the Pearson correlation of 0.412 for democratic leadership indicates a positive relationship between the two variables implying that democratic Leadership increases, and Employee Performance improves on the other hand. The p-value for this correlation is 0.000, which is well below the commonly used significance threshold of 0.05. meaning that the correlation exists at the 0.01 level. The researcher recommended the following; Leaders should focus on building trust and confidence with teams, emphasize collaboration, autonomy, clear communication, and develop a strategy to evolve a balance of traditional reward systems with more personalized, intrinsic methods that align with employees’ preferences for autonomy and trust, and encourage Shared Leadership, with a democratic leadership approach towards managing teams.