CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

• BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Leadership is an important area in management that occupies a central position in our everyday life. Leadership is conceived as a process where one or more persons influence a group of persons to move in a certain direction. The word leadership has been used in various aspects of human endeavour such as politics, business, academics and social works. Messick and Krammer (2004) argued that the degree to which the individual exhibits leadership traits depends not only on his characteristics and personal abilities, but  also on the characteristics of the situation and environment in which he finds himself. Therefore, an individual will support the organization if he believes that through it, his personal objective and goals could be met, if not, the person’s interest will decline.

Leadership style is a key determinant of the success or failure of any organization. A leader is person who influences, directs and motivates others to perform specific tasks and also inspire his subordinates for efficient performance towards the accomplishment of the stated corporate objectives. Leadership style is the manner and approach of proving direction, implementing plans, and motivating people (Audra Bianca, Demand Media).

According to Ngambi et al. (2010) and Ngambi (2011), cited ion Jeremy et al. (2011), leadership is a process of influencing others’ commitment towards realizing their full potential in achieving a value added, shared vision, with passion and integrity. The nature of this influence is such that the members of the team cooperate voluntarily with each other in order to achieve the objectives which the leader has set for each member, as well as for the group. The relationships between the leader and employee. As well as the quality of employees’ performance, are significantly influenced by the leadership style adopted by the leader (Jeremy et al. 2011). Leadership style in an organization is one of the factors that play significant role in enhancing or retarding the interest and commitment of the individuals in the organization (Obiwuru et at., 2011).

Lian, (2011) say leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans and motivating people. Having acquired the human resources, there is the need to maintain and keep them together, it should be noted that every individuals has his personal expectation for working in an organization. To this effect, the leader must employ the various ways of making sure that the employee stay at work, feel contented, ready to put in their best and that their expectations are met without neglecting the overall corporate objectives(s) of the organization.

There are numerous styles of leadership but for this study, the transformational leadership, transactional leadership  style is more effective, productive, innovative, and satisfying to followers as both parties work towards the good of organization propelled by shared visions and values as well as mutual trust and respect (Avolio & Bass, 2010). Transactional leadership style as opined by Burns (1978) indicate that transactional leaders are those who sought to motivate subordinates to achieve expected levels of performance by helping them to recognize task responsibilities, identify goals and develop confidence about meeting desired performance level, Bass (1990), while laissez-faire style is an absolutely passive leadership. Laissez-faire leadership, also known as delegation leadership is a type of leadership style in which leaders are hands-off and allow group members to make decisions. It generally leads to low productivity. Bad leadership is expensive, under the watch of poor leaders and managers, staff morale declines and workers feel less committed to the organization and its mission that tends to lead to work of lesser quality and things getting done more slowly. Poor leadership can stop planner from producing new ideas and solution to problems.

The kind of leadership style influences how organizations cope with improving productivity, the transformational leadership style play a crucial role in improving productivity by way of improved marketability and creating strategic vision of the organization. Leadership style affects the overall operational performance of effectiveness, efficiency, profitability, large market share and as well as the organization commitment to achieve a stated goal. behind the wonderment of any organization productivity in every organization is largely centre on labour productivity, perhaps human-labour is the universal key resources required of any organization and the ascertain that a critical element in all successful productivity effort to date has been due to good leadership style.

In recent times, many organizations in the Nigerian banking industry, have recorded cases of immoral and unethical, banking practices, gratifications, high labour turnover, inability to meet basic required obligations, and incessant financial distress syndrome, which has led to many banks being merged and acquired. This may be as a result of lack of effective leadership. The prime motive of many organizations is to achieve its stated objectives, hence the need to effectively coordinate and motivate the workers by an effective leader. Unfortunately some organizations do not take cognizance of the leadership style adopted by their mangers. it is on this premises that this research set out to examine.