THE INFLUENCE OF LEADERSHIP STYLE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF EMPLOYEES

Leadership is critically important because it affects the health of the organization. Research has found that leadership is one of the most significant contributors to organizational performance. The concept of managerial leadership permeates and structures the theory and practice of work organizations. In the management concepts, leadership has been defined in terms of traits, Behaviour, contingency, power and occupation of an administrative position. Most of the definition reflects the assumption that leadership involves a process whereby an individual exerts influence upon others in an organization context. There is a lack of total agreement in the reviewed literature as to the best leadership style to be used in law enforcement, but transactional theory appears to be more effective than contingency theory. There appears to be an ever increasing number of studies supporting the benefits of the transformational theory. In today’s ever changing climate, there are some researchers whose findings suggest the optimal leadership style may be a blend of transactional and transformational theories.

Leadership Style, Performance, Transformational Theory, contingency theory