HRM: Does Leadership Affect Work Performance? A Literature Review

This report examines the impact of leadership on work performance within Human Resource Management, providing a literature review of relevant theories and research. It discusses various leadership styles, including functional, transactional, transformational, and LMX theories, and analyzes their effectiveness in motivating employees and improving organizational outcomes. The report also critiques the research methodologies used in previous studies, such as primary and secondary data collection methods, surveys, and questionnaires. Furthermore, it identifies the key factors that affect employee performance, such as knowledge, flexibility, and behavior, and highlights the increasing adoption of leadership approaches in business industries. The literature review aims to address research questions about the effect of leadership skills on workplace performance and the role of leadership theories in motivating leaders and enhancing work performance. Desklib provides this assignment solution along with numerous other resources for students.

Human Resource Management: Does
Leadership Affect Work Performance

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: DOES LEADERSHIP AFFECT WORK PERFORMANCE
1
Introduction
In the last few years, leadership has engaged the new effective approach for improving
performance in workplace and it is one of the best approaches to control any kind of
situation. The traditional concept of personal administration has gradually replaced
with the HR management. Leadership provide a platform to improve the performance
and efficiency in the work place and many largest companies use this approach to
achieve their goals in an effective manner (Breevaart, et al., 2016). The aim of this
report is to discuss the importance of leadership on work performance and highlights
the key factors which affect the overall performance of an organization. A literature
review will be conducted to understand the views of other authors and experts and
relevant information will obtain from a previous investigation, journal papers, online
websites and books. It is observed that leadership affects the performance of a company
and the use of this approach has increased by 45% in the last five years. there are
various kinds of leadership theories developed, for example, functional theory,
transactional theory, environmental theory and leadership member exchange theory all
these will be discussed in this report. The opinions of other experts and investigator will
be highlighted in this report and the research gap in recent research or articles will
explain in this report.
Literature review
An effective leadership skill can meet the demands of the condition in which they
operate. Different kinds of leadership styles are used by consumers that fit employees
on the behalf of directions, decision making power and empowerment. In the last two
years many researchers provided their views and conducted research on this topic and
they identified that if any organization has an effective leadership approach than they
can increase the productivity of their business. Masa'deh, Obeidat, and Tarhini, (2016)
described the history of leadership style, various types of leadership theories and how it
impact on the performance of the employees work. There are main three kinds of
leadership styles observed by the author, for example, autocratic, participative, and
democratic. A survey is conducted for analysis to identify which one leadership style is
more effective that can be used to improve the performance of an organization.
According to Chang, (2016) leadership is defined as the potential to employ managerial

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competencies to organized performance processes through inspiring, motivation and
igniting to achieve the goal of an organization. The Fred fiedler provided the theory of
leadership model in which he evaluated that effective consumer performance
completely depended on the proper match between the leader's ability to control and
manage their work which involves the ability of leaders, behaviour and so on. This
theory observed that employees should develop that leadership style which best to the
condition and immediately improve performance in work place.
Chiniara and Bentein, (2016) identified the impacts of positive leadership on the
performance of employees and a survey was conducted by the author to enhance the
effectiveness of the investigation. Leadership play a significant role in the business
industry and Dunne, et al., (2016) proclaimed that effective leadership approach can
promote excellence in the development of the members of the company. The researcher
also provided their views on this topic and developed a situational leadership theory
that focuses on the motivation and leadership approach. There are few companies they
are developed numerous leadership styles and they evaluated that it affects the overall
performance in both positive and negative manner which depends upon various key
factors like knowledge, accountability, flexibility and many more. According to Jiang,
and Men, (2017) leadership is defined as interpersonal influence exercised in a
condition and directed by the communication procedure toward the company’s goal. It
is a kind of approach where one employee exerted influence intentionally to a team of
individuals in a business industry with the help of structure, relationship and guide.
Fischer, Dietz, and Antonakis, (2017) argued that laissez-faire leadership style in not
much effective rather than other which is associated with ineffectiveness,
unproductivity and dissatisfaction. It also avoids the making decision and positive or
negative feedback to subordinates and the author also highlights that more effective
leadership process depends on the nature of leaders. The author conducted a
questionnaire to collect data or information about research topic from difference
resources such as heads of accountants, branch managers and employees on face to face
communication.
A recent study analysed that transformational and democratic leadership theories are
more advanced and efficient techniques to control and handle the performance of the
business industries. Hoyt and Murphy, (2016) conducted an investigation on the

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leadership and discussed the impacts of leadership style in an organization and relevant
information gathered from the previous investigation, research papers and peer-
reviewed articles. Researcher avoids the drawbacks of the previous investigation and
identified numbers of key elements that impact on the productivity of an organization.
There are main four types of leadership theories used by many companies, for example,
functional theory, transactional theory, LMX theory and transformational theory. The
functional theory identifies the effective leaders in the work place and ensures that they
meet the requirements of consumers and company. The numbers of the investigation
show that leaders must perform main 5 functions for example train subordinates,
monitor the environment, participate in the team’s work, conduct different subordinate
activities and motivate their employees and consumers (Ling, Lin, and Wu, 2016).
Transactional theory observes that leadership increased from the consumer’s ability to
Effectiv
e
Leaders
hip
Work
perfor
manceFunctional theory
Leadership theories
Transactional
Theory
Transformational
Theory

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reward subordinates based on performance or their works. Leaders must design and
develop goals and implement them by providing training or education to subordinates
and must be provided with the authority to give rewards when they achieve their goals
or objectives. The transformational theory is one of the advanced leadership theory
which focuses on communication to motivate consumers and employees to work more
effectively towards their vision and mission. Many authors argued on leadership styles
and analysed that transformational theory is used by many companies to achieve their
aims and solve any kind of complex situation in the workplace. The LMX theory argues
that leaders favour several employees or workers more than other and treats them
according to their ability or overall work performance (Mo, and Shi, 2017).
An analysis section
There are following research questions used in the section of literature review:
 Does a leadership skill affect performance in the work place?
 What are leadership theories and styles and how they are used to motivate
leaders and improve work performance?
In the literature review the views of other researcher are discussed and they used
different kinds of leadership theories to understand the basic concept of leadership skill
and their importance in an organization. Functional, transformational, transactional and
leadership member exchange all these are explained in above literature review with
their importance. There are numerous research methods used in the literature review,
for example, secondary research strategy, qualitative e analysis approach, data collect
methods, survey and questionnaire to collect the quantitative data regarding research
topic (Durkin, and Gunn, 2016). In a qualitative approach the related information
obtained from many resources like journal papers, recent investigation on leadership,
online websites and books. There are much research produced by individuals and
author in the field of leadership styles or theories but no one research identify the main
impact of leadership on the performance of work. This literature review collects the
views of many investigators and highlights the key factor which affects the overall
performance of employees and evaluates the types of leadership theories used by
business industries (Montano, et al., 2017).

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Many researchers use the qualitative and secondary research methodologies because
they have the ability to find a better answer to the research question and help to achieve
the objectives of the research. Leadership skill is one the best technique which is used
by many largest business industries and companies to work in a group and solve any
kind of situation. There are many other research strategies and methods that can be
used to improve the effectiveness of research such as, quantitative or primary research
technique, interviews, focus group for collecting data, random data sampling process
and content analysis technique to identify the impacts of leadership on work
performance (Masa'deh, Obeidat, and Tarhini, 2016).
S. No Alternate research methods
1. The quantitative or primary process
2. Interviews and focus group to collect data
3. Random data sampling
4. Content analysis technique
In this paper, the data analysis technique is used by the investigator to evaluate
secondary data methods to track the pattern of the research topic. This approach also
helps with interpreting the data or information gathered through both primary and
secondary methodologies. There are many other techniques or methods that can be
used to improve the effectiveness of investigation, for example, content analysis,
disclosure analysis and many other. In many papers, authors mainly use the content
analysis approach that has the potential to identify the importance of leadership skill in
an organization and work performance.
A detailed critique of research methodologies
In the section of the literature review, there are main two methodologies used by the
researcher, for example, primary and secondary methods. Both are very common
techniques used by authors to collect data or information about leadership style and
they have the potential to improve the effectiveness of this research. With the help of
these methodologies individuals can achieve the goals and objectives of their
investigation and primary data is collected through various processes like survey,
questionnaire, face to face interview, focus group and so on (Newman, et al., 2017). The

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primary research method is one of the best techniques to understand the significance of
the leadership skill in an organization and the relevant statistics or data collected from
the recent survey. All these data put into a graph which helps readers to analysis and
understands how the rate of leadership is increased in the last five years. Distribute
questionnaire is a very best approach which is used by researchers to obtain the
opinions of participants and experts. Ng, (2017) used a five point Likert questionnaire
to design and implement the survey which is transferred to the individuals through
email services and collect their views. With the help of this survey, it is observed that
most companies are using leadership approach and it has strongly disagreed, neither
agree nor disagree, agree, disagree, and strongly agree. Total of 150 questionnaires was
transferred to employees with the help of sampling technique from various
departments like marketing department, sales department, production department, and
management department.
The convenience sampling approach was used by the researcher because it is
affordable, efficient and very easy to understand. In which only 130 forms were filled by
the employees that indicate that leadership play a crucial role in the business industries.
The questionnaire is one of the common methods to apply the primary research method
in any investigation and it contributes a crucial role in any investigation which helps to
understand the interpretations of individuals. A quantitative method was utilized in this
research and it included statistical tools to discuss the gathered data and facts about the
research topic. Investigator also used SPSS software to analysis the collected data or
information and gains the meaningful conclusion of overall research (Obeidat, Tarhini,
and Aqqad, 2016). To identify the impacts of leadership theories on the performance of
employee’s data analysis, normality test, descriptive analysis was used. Recent
investigation evaluated that lack of knowledge or experience, less flexibility, and
behaviour all these are key factors that impact on the performance of employees.
Between 2014 and 2017 the rate of leadership has increased by 55% and many
companies adopted this approach due to their advantages such as more effective,
increase productivity and performance, motivate employees and help to achieve the
gaols of an organization. it is analysed that the leadership encourages creativity, team
work, and innovation which help to increase the performance, job satisfaction and
productivity of the business. Democratic leadership play a very crucial role to design the

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final decision making process and employees can communicate with their consumers
(Salas-Vallina, et al., 2017).
Above literature review analysed that democratic leadership theory has a positive
impact on the performance and efficiency of the business industry and it also helps to a
quick decision without taking views of their team members. A secondary approach is
another research methodology which is used by researchers during their investigation.
Such kind of technique provides theoretical information about the research topic and
also helps to achieve the goals and objectives of the research. Qualitative method is a
part of the secondary research method that provides information about leadership style
and improves the effectiveness of this research. The relevant information is collected
from different resources like peer-reviewed papers, online and offline books, journal
papers and many more. There are many advantages of this approach, for example, low
cost, more effective, and very easy to collect data and increase the efficiency of the
investigation (Schmitt, Den Hartog, and Belschak, 2016).
The main reason for selecting this method is that it has the ability to provide adequate
discussion for the readers which will help them understand the concept of leadership
with their advantages and disadvantages. One other hand, such kind of approach
involve newspaper, journal content, investigation report, and various books in the field
of human resource management. Above literature review discussed the concept of
leadership and observed that most investigator uses a secondary method to gather the
relevant information about research topic (Sousa, and van Dierendonck, 2017). The
leadership approach can affect everyone in the organization and it also creates the
corporate culture which increases the numbers of employees and performance to meets
the gaols of a project. With the help of content analysis, the secondary research method
can be applied and the researcher used the data analysis method to understand the
views of other writers.
This technique plays a significant contribution in the research because it provides the
non-numerical information about leadership topic but the main problem of this
methodology is that it does not provide the authentic information. This is very costly
because there are many journals that take money to download the complete article and
any person can provide fake information about a research topic that affects the

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efficiency of the research. The main research gap in the recent paper is that they used
only the qualitative data analysis method which provides only information about
leadership. In future investigators can adopt the quantitative research method to
analysis and obtain data or statics about leadership and their impacts. Today, it is very
difficult to select a more effective leadership style due to which some companies lost
their performance and productivity. Autocratic style is also called authoritarian
leadership that provides the relationship between leaders and employees and it makes
the decision to develop the best team. Such kinds of leaders or employees are more
advance, more confident and comfortable with their jobs and responsibility (Tang, et al.,
2016).
Above research indicates that autocratic leaders display less creativity as compared to
other leadership styles and secondary process also help to gain efficient results. Under
this, the investigator is counted and compared the content or data by the clarification of
fundamental context. For gathering the quantitative information the investigator used
statistical analysis technique to present the facts with the help of a graph, chart, and
tables and for qualitative information, the researcher used data analysis to collect
information with the help of papers, articles and books. Secondary data method is most
time unreliable and used to complement the primary data gathered for better outcomes.
I literature review is conducted based on secondary sources which involve, books,
papers, and other online and offline resources. This research method provided a
platform to obtain first hand and related information regarding the topic of
investigation. To prepare the questionnaire researcher used Microsoft word and
transferred to the readers and participants and it provides the primary information
about leadership.
Therefore, with the help of these techniques any researcher than achieve the gaols, aims
and objective of the investigation. It is vital to host the authorization of the including
get-together before doing an examination, subsequently, the scientist went to a
consensual concurrence with the administration and the HR office to guarantee no
difficulties emerged. Likewise, the specialist circulated surveys just amid break time as
interfering with the subjects amid work hours is improper and may influence reactions.
Besides, the specialist ensured no infringement of privacy (of individual data and
reactions) emerged. The analyst guarantees no disclosure of character or other

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individual data was enquired while getting ready polls. There was additionally issue of
trust from the respondents; notwithstanding, the classification was ensured to keep
away from superfluous issues. Both essential and optional kinds of information will be
gathered in this examination. The optional information gathered from different sources
including books, diaries, sites, and others. The essential information will be gathered
through the survey which sent to the members who will take part in this exploration. By
utilizing the two information accumulation strategies, the analyst will have the capacity
to gather both essential and auxiliary information on the point which will bring about
expanding the viability of the examination. In this examination, the specialist will utilize
a likelihood testing strategy since the point of the investigation is emotional in nature.
The arbitrary information examining technique is utilized by the scientist to gather the
information on irregular premise which will diminish the danger of inclinations in the
exploration. The strategy for non-likelihood inspecting technique is dodged by the
scientist amid the examination to guarantee that inclinations did not bring about
affecting the result of the exploration. The poll for this exploration is sent to 50 people
that incorporate a few specialists who have involvement in the theme. The poll will help
with gathering the data on the point by assessing diverse feelings of people and
specialists on the theme (Yahaya, and Ebrahim, 2016). After the information
accumulation, information was dissected with the help of SPSS software. The crude
information was altered to guarantee that it was free of mistakes. Altering was likewise
important to take into account simple catching into the SPSS bundle. Every poll was
assessed also, checked to guarantee that every single required field was appropriately
replied by the respondents.
Conclusion
The leadership is one of the most important key factors which influence the workers
and employees attitudes and behaviour involving organizational commitment. In recent
years the use of this technique has increased by 35% and the largest companies are
using this step to improve the performance of their work. This report described the
essential idea of leadership style and analysed the importance of this technique in order
to enhance productivity and performance. In which the researcher conducted a
literature review that explained more than five journal papers and views of other

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writers in the area of leadership skill. A mixed method is used by the researcher to
improve the usefulness of the research and they achieved the objective of the research.
There are few other research methodologies which will be used in further research for
better understanding of research topics such as primary method, face to face interview,
data analytic approach, context analysis and many more. With the help of these
investigations, it is described that the leadership skill affects the overall performance of
an organization and a better leadership style can enhance the overall productivity of the
business. The literature review section also analysed which leadership theory achieves
best in terms of consumer performance. With the help of this report readers can gain
their knowledge and they can easily identify both positive and negative impacts of
leadership style in an organization. However, it is very complex to design and
implement the better leadership teams because it requires the flexibility, authority and
experience towards their works by which they can easily handle any kind of problem in
the work place. Integrity is one of the best key factors of effective leadership because
they set clear objectives and motivate individuals towards them. This report first
discussed the overview of leadership style after that a literature review is conducted
that contain the information and data about leadership. The main problem faced by the
companies is that they are not able to select the more efficient leadership style for their
business which can be resolved by conducting a survey. Therefore, leaders should
ensure that they work according to the set goal and motivate their team mates to
receive effective results and they can provide rewards after every task. In future, this
research will involve the key factors which affect the work performance and advanced
research methodologies to gain and achieve the aim of the investigation and researcher
will reduce the gap associated with the recent investigation.

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