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An Assessment of Leadership Styles and Employee Performance in Small and Medium Enterprises in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Received: 13 May 2015    Accepted: 23 May 2015    Published: 5 June 2015
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Abstract

Background: SMEs are generally regarded as an important engine driving the growth of many economies as well as providing opportunities for job creation and rural development, which accounts for 10 % of the total manufacturing output and 70% of employment in Nigeria. In view of the importance of SMEs, a sector that has the potential for solving Nigeria’s unemployment and poverty problems, it is important to understand and critically examine the factor(s) impeding its growth to be able to proffer solutions that would identify the strengths and weaknesses, analyze and assess problems in the SMEs and provide information on the effects leadership has on employee job performance. Some of the advantages claimed for SMEs include encouragement of entrepreneurship, greater likelihood for SMEs to utilize labour intensive technologies positively impact on employment generation. As argued by some researchers, the actual influence of leaders on organizational outcomes is overrated and romanticized as a result of biased attributions about leaders. Study Design: This quantitative cross-sectional study in the form of survey, administered questionnaire to randomly selected participants. The sample size for the quantitative component was 100 comprising of 21 management staff and 79 employees from the five selected SME firms in Yola, Adamawa State. In-depth interview involving 12 personnel (4 management staff and 8 employees) was also used. Results: Results were presented using both descriptive and inferential statistics. It was evident that the predominant type of leadership in the enterprises studied is participative democracy, and that leadership styles have effect on the performance of employee. This was supported by the fact that results of the computed Chi square test (24.55 and 17.39) for the first and second hypotheses (at P≤0.05, df = 95) are greater than the tabulated (0.078 and 0.136) (at P≤0.05, df = 95). Conclusion: This research was able to show that leadership styles have effect on the employee performance and also the leadership style in use is participative democracy.

Published in International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences (Volume 3, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijefm.20150303.29
Page(s) 319-324
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Leadership, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, Yola, Adamawa, Nigeria

References
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[2] Ekpenyong, D. B. and M.O. Nyong (1992). Small and medium-scale enterprises in Nigeria: their characteristics, problems and sources of finance. African Economic Research Consortium, Nairo AERC Research Paper 16. AERC P.O. Box 62882, Nairobi, Kenya.
[3] Mambula C (2002). Perceptions of SME Growth Constraints in Nigeria. Journal of Small Business Management 40(1), pp. 58-61
[4] Central Bank of Nigeria (2006). Annual Reports.
[5] International Union for Conservation of Nature (2004). Retrieved from http://www.iucn.org/about/union/secretariat/offices/asia/asia_where_work/pakistan/publications/pubs_2004/
[6] Skillsforbusiness (2007). SME’s and Entrepreneurship. Retrieved from http://www.skillsbusiness.org
[7] Chemers, M. M. (2002). Meta-cognitive, social, and emotional intelligence of transformational leadership: Efficacy and Effectiveness. in Riggio R.E, Murphy S.E, Pirozzolo,F.J(Eds.), Multiple Intelligences and Leadership. in: Leadership.
[8] Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2007). The Leadership Challenge. CA: Jossey Bass.
[9] Meindl, J. R., & S. B. Ehrlich, (1987). The romance of leadership and the evaluation of organizational performance. Academy of Management Journal 30(1): 91-109.
[10] Montana, P. J. and C. H. Bruce (2008) Management: Leadership and Theory, 4th English edition, Barron's Educational Series, Inc., Hauppauge, New York.
[11] Lewin, K., Lippitt, R., & R.K. White (1939). "Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates". Journal of Social Psychology 10: 271–301.
[12] Creswell, J. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
[13] Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A., & Buchner, A. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods 2007, 39 (2), 175-191.
[14] Gadot, E.V. (2007). Leadership style, organizational politics and employee performance: An empirical examination of two competing models. Personnel Review 36(5): 661-683.
[15] India Economic Times (2008). Retrieved from http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com.
[16] South African National Small Business Amendment Act (2004). Retrieved from www.thedti.gov.za/business.../acts/small_business_amendment_act.pdf.
[17] Issue Briefing Note: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (2004). Retrieved from www.iisd.org/pdf/2004/standards_sme.pdf. The International Institute for Sustainable Development, Canada.
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  • APA Style

    Fadimatu Jalal-Eddeen. (2015). An Assessment of Leadership Styles and Employee Performance in Small and Medium Enterprises in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria. International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences, 3(3), 319-324. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijefm.20150303.29

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    ACS Style

    Fadimatu Jalal-Eddeen. An Assessment of Leadership Styles and Employee Performance in Small and Medium Enterprises in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria. Int. J. Econ. Finance Manag. Sci. 2015, 3(3), 319-324. doi: 10.11648/j.ijefm.20150303.29

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    AMA Style

    Fadimatu Jalal-Eddeen. An Assessment of Leadership Styles and Employee Performance in Small and Medium Enterprises in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria. Int J Econ Finance Manag Sci. 2015;3(3):319-324. doi: 10.11648/j.ijefm.20150303.29

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijefm.20150303.29,
      author = {Fadimatu Jalal-Eddeen},
      title = {An Assessment of Leadership Styles and Employee Performance in Small and Medium Enterprises in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria},
      journal = {International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences},
      volume = {3},
      number = {3},
      pages = {319-324},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijefm.20150303.29},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijefm.20150303.29},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijefm.20150303.29},
      abstract = {Background: SMEs are generally regarded as an important engine driving the growth of many economies as well as providing opportunities for job creation and rural development, which accounts for 10 % of the total manufacturing output and 70% of employment in Nigeria. In view of the importance of SMEs, a sector that has the potential for solving Nigeria’s unemployment and poverty problems, it is important to understand and critically examine the factor(s) impeding its growth to be able to proffer solutions that would identify the strengths and weaknesses, analyze and assess problems in the SMEs and provide information on the effects leadership has on employee job performance. Some of the advantages claimed for SMEs include encouragement of entrepreneurship, greater likelihood for SMEs to utilize labour intensive technologies positively impact on employment generation. As argued by some researchers, the actual influence of leaders on organizational outcomes is overrated and romanticized as a result of biased attributions about leaders. Study Design: This quantitative cross-sectional study in the form of survey, administered questionnaire to randomly selected participants. The sample size for the quantitative component was 100 comprising of 21 management staff and 79 employees from the five selected SME firms in Yola, Adamawa State. In-depth interview involving 12 personnel (4 management staff and 8 employees) was also used. Results: Results were presented using both descriptive and inferential statistics. It was evident that the predominant type of leadership in the enterprises studied is participative democracy, and that leadership styles have effect on the performance of employee. This was supported by the fact that results of the computed Chi square test (24.55 and 17.39) for the first and second hypotheses (at P≤0.05, df = 95) are greater than the tabulated (0.078 and 0.136) (at P≤0.05, df = 95). Conclusion: This research was able to show that leadership styles have effect on the employee performance and also the leadership style in use is participative democracy.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
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    AB  - Background: SMEs are generally regarded as an important engine driving the growth of many economies as well as providing opportunities for job creation and rural development, which accounts for 10 % of the total manufacturing output and 70% of employment in Nigeria. In view of the importance of SMEs, a sector that has the potential for solving Nigeria’s unemployment and poverty problems, it is important to understand and critically examine the factor(s) impeding its growth to be able to proffer solutions that would identify the strengths and weaknesses, analyze and assess problems in the SMEs and provide information on the effects leadership has on employee job performance. Some of the advantages claimed for SMEs include encouragement of entrepreneurship, greater likelihood for SMEs to utilize labour intensive technologies positively impact on employment generation. As argued by some researchers, the actual influence of leaders on organizational outcomes is overrated and romanticized as a result of biased attributions about leaders. Study Design: This quantitative cross-sectional study in the form of survey, administered questionnaire to randomly selected participants. The sample size for the quantitative component was 100 comprising of 21 management staff and 79 employees from the five selected SME firms in Yola, Adamawa State. In-depth interview involving 12 personnel (4 management staff and 8 employees) was also used. Results: Results were presented using both descriptive and inferential statistics. It was evident that the predominant type of leadership in the enterprises studied is participative democracy, and that leadership styles have effect on the performance of employee. This was supported by the fact that results of the computed Chi square test (24.55 and 17.39) for the first and second hypotheses (at P≤0.05, df = 95) are greater than the tabulated (0.078 and 0.136) (at P≤0.05, df = 95). Conclusion: This research was able to show that leadership styles have effect on the employee performance and also the leadership style in use is participative democracy.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 3
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Author Information
  • College for Continuing Education, Department of Economics, Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria

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