Impact of Leadership Styles on Employee Performance.

Impact of Leadership Styles on Employee Performance
Introduction
The employees are the key pillars whose effort, hard work, dedication and
commitment help business organizations achieve greater heights and success.
Adequate engagement and commitment of the employees highlights improved
performance that offers several benefits for the business organizations.
According to Nanjundeswaraswamy and Swamy (2014), leadership is defined
as the ability of the individuals to influence and inspire others for achieving
goals, take swift decisions and outperform the competitors. Different
leadership styles are used and practiced by the business organizations for
ensuring effective and efficient performance out of the employees
successfully (De Hoogh, Greer and Den Hartog 2015).
Problem statement
One of the major problems that affect the performance of the employees is not
including them in the decision making process due to which they feel
insignificant and less valued for the business organizations (Yahaya and
Ebrahim 2016). As a result, input from their side is less and the employees
lack adequate dedication, commitment and engagement towards their job
roles and responsibilities that affect their overall performance (De Hoogh,
Greer and Den Hartog 2015). Another issue that affects the performance of
the employees is restricted scope of creativity and flexibility that prohibits the
employees to take extra initiatives and innovative measures thereby, affecting
the performance negatively (Saeed et al. 2014).
References
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Purpose
The aim of the research is to analyze the impact of
leadership styles on the performance of the employees.
Proposed research methodology
Research philosophy
The two philosophies are positivism and interpretivism where interpretivism interprets
the views and opinions of individuals whereas positivism pilosophy makes quantifiable
observations.
Positivism philosophy will be used because this will help in using logic and factual
knowledge about leadership and leadership styles thereby, making quantifiable
observations on the impact on the performance of the employees. Using positivism
philosophy will help in backing up the findings of the impact of leadership styles on
employee performance with scientific and statistical evidence. As a result, the data
obtained will be reliable and valid that will help in ensuring data authenticity (Kumar
2019).
Research approach
The two approaches are inductive and deductive where inductive approach demands
developing new theories and concepts from the observations whereas deductive approach
deduces observations from existing theories and concepts.
Deductive approach will be used because this is the most-suited approach when
positivism philosophy is used. As the name indicates, using deductive approach will help
in referring to previously existing information about leadership and leadership styles and
make suitable observations regarding its impact on the performance of the employees (De
Hoogh, Greer and Den Hartog 2015). Referring to previously conducted studies and
literatures will help in analyzing the concepts, theories and models related to leadership
styles and employee performance by comparing and contrasting the views and opinions of
different authors. As a result, deductive approach will help in developing in-depth study
on the impact of leadership styles on employee performance (Mackey and Gass 2015).
Research design
Descriptive design will be used because this will help in analyzing the impact of
leadership styles on employee performance by applying the characteristics of both
exploratory and explanatory research designs. Using descriptive design will help in
identifying ad exploring the issues pertinent to each of the leadership styles that are used
by business organizations. Additionally, descriptive design will also facilitate in
determining the emergence of the issues in respect to each leadership style that affect the
performance of the employees (Silverman 2016).
Research strategy
Survey research strategy will be used because this will help in gathering responses and
data from a large population thereby, minimizing biasness and improving data accuracy.
The employees will be selected as the population from whom the impact of different
leadership styles will be analyzed. Using survey research strategy will help in collecting a
bird’s eye view about the impact of leadership styles on the performance of the
employees. Additionally, survey research strategy will be used because this method is
cost-efficient and in less time huge data can be gathered that ensures efficient analysis
(Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault 2015).
Sampling technique and sample size
Simple random probability sampling technique will be used because this will provide
random and equal chances for all the employees to be a part of the data collection process.
From the specific population of the employees, simple random probability sampling
technique will offer equal and random chances for all the employees to take part in the
data collection process and share their opinion on the impact of leadership styles on their
performance. 50 employees will be selected in this research for analyzing the impact of
leadership styles on employee performance (Flick 2015).
Data collection process
Primary data collection process will be used because this will help in collecting data
from primary sources and analyze the impact of leadership styles on employee
performance. Primary data collection process will facilitate collecting recent and updated
data from the employees about how their performance is affected due to different
leadership styles. Therefore, using primary data collection process will be justified and
effective for undertaking this research (Neuman and Robson 2014).
Data analysis technique
Quantitative data analysis technique will be used because this will help in analyzing the
collected data quantitatively. The data collected will be analyzed using mean and
percentages that will be presented and explained using graphs and charts. The quantitative
results obtained will help in justifying whether leadership styles have an impact on the
performance of the employees or not (Alvesson and Skoldberg 2017).
Ethical considerations
Ensuring compliance with the ethics of the research is necessary for completing the
work successfully. Data confidentiality will be one of the significant ethics that will have
to be maintained while undertaking the research. In accordance with this ethics, the
identity and data shared by the participants will have to be kept confidential and cannot
be disclosed without individual consent. Other important research ethics are prohibition
of data manipulation, collecting data from inauthentic sources, using the collected data for
commercial purposes, harming the surrounding environment and forcing the individuals
for participating in the data collection process (Bresler and Stake 2017).
Research objectives
To study the different types of leadership styles
To critically analyze the factors affecting leadership styles
To assess the relationship between leadership styles and employee
performance
To provide suitable recommendations for overcoming leadership
styles issues and improving employee performance
Research questions
What are the different types of leadership styles?
What are the factors affecting different leadership styles?
What is the relationship between leadership styles and
performance of the employees?
What are the suitable recommendations for overcoming leadership
styles issues and improving employee performance?
Research hypotheses
H0: Leadership styles do not have an impact on employee
performance
H1: Leadership styles have an impact on employee performance
Literature review
Conceptual framework
The conceptual framework developed in this research based on factors such as
demographics, leadership styles and employee performance. The study will
investigate these three variables are related that will help in answering the research
questions. The variables will be discussed in detail in the literature review chapter.
Leadership styles
For the success of the business organization leadership and leadership styles are
undeniable truths and largely affect the ability of the employees. As mentioned by
CAillier (2014), leadership is defined as the ability of the individuals or the actions
undertaken by individuals for leading group of people or an organization
successfully. Ensuring effective leadership styles is highly crucial, as this
encourages, inspires and motivates the employees in performing their best.
Types of leadership styles:
Autocratic leadership style
According to De Hoogh, Greer and Den Hartog (2015), autocratic leadership
style is an extreme style of leadership where the leaders posses the complete
authority of exercising power over others. As a result, the ideas and perspectives of
the leaders are imposed on others. However, as argued by Iqbal, Anwar and Haider
(2015), the employees are allowed to share their inputs in this leadership style.
Therefore, the employees feel insignificant and undervalued that affects their
performance negatively to a certain extent.
Democratic leadership style
Democratic leadership style is also known as participative leadership style
because the employees are given adequate opportunities of participating in the
decision-making process. As a result, the employees feel valued and encouraged
that affects their performance positively (Puni, Ofei and Okoe 2014). However, on
the contrary, democratic leadership styles makes the decision making process slow
and inefficient because considering the inputs of individual employees is not
always feasible and practical (Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololube 2015).
Bureaucratic leadership style
As mentioned by Van Der Voet (2014), bureaucratic leadership style ensures that
the organizational policies are followed rigorously and preciously without any
compromise. As a result, the employees are bound to abide by the existing policies
and cannot incorporate anything new. However, as argued by Cunningham,
Salomone and Wielgus (2015), bureaucratic leadership does not facilitate
innovations, flexibility and creativity that impose a negative impact on the
performance of the employees.
Charismatic leadership style
For this leadership style, the leaders project their strengths for influencing the
employees that helps them in boosting their performance by rectifying the
mistakes and overcoming the issues (Shamir, Arthur and House 2018). However,
on the contrary, the strengths of the leaders might underdetermine the abilities and
capabilities of the employees thereby, affecting their performance negatively
(Zehir et al. 2014).
Concept of employee performance
As the employees are the pillars of the business organizations, it is necessary for
them to perform efficiently. As mentioned by Anitha (2014), the concept of the
employee performance is defined as the job related activities expected from a
worker along with determining how well the employees are performing their job
roles and responsibilities.
Impact of leadership styles on employee performance
Leadership and leadership styles are said to have a significant impact on the
performance of the employees. According to Chen et al. (2014), suitable leadership style
makes the employees feel significant and valued for the business organizations thereby,
deriving the best out of them. As the employees are included in the decision making
process and encouraged for the initiatives they take, the employees feel positive and
highly engaged that inspires them to give their best. As a result, improved employee
performance is noticed if suitable leadership style is applied. However, as argued by
Bedarkar and Pandita (2014), as the leaders only have the ultimate power of taking
decisions, the employees feel that the ideas and decisions shared by them are of no use.
As a result, the employees feel demotivated and retrieve themselves from sharing ideas in
the future that imposes a negative impact on their performance.