Effective Leadership on Employee Performance in Telecommunication (Essay Sample)

IMPACTS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN THE TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY
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Declaration
Abstract
In the business world, effective leadership is essential for the success and continuity of organizations. In the current study, the researcher investigated the extent to which effective leadership contributes to the overall performance of employees with a focus on telecommunication firms in the United Kingdom. Besides, the study focused on identifying the leadership styles that are exerting the greatest influence on the performance level of workers. To assess the above, the researcher used quantitative method and gathered primary data using a questionnaire from a sample size of 200 employees from two telecommunication firms in London and analysed them using both descriptive and regression techniques.
The outcome of data synthesis identified autocratic leadership (35%), democratic leadership (20%) and transformational leadership (20%) as the styles that are used by the majority of managers in the UK’s telecommunication sector. Besides, they practice effective leader and often combine different styles depending on the existing situation. The level of work performance of labours was also found to be high. Lastly, the regression outcome indicated that the leadership styles have a moderate positive impact on performance and further identified participative and transformational leadership as the styles with the greatest impact.
However, the use of some styles such as democratic and bureaucratic tend to reduce the performance level of workers hence their use should be minimized. In conclusion, practising effective leadership is essential in the telecommunication sector for it has a higher potential of improving the overall performance of wooers. Thus the use of effective leadership should be encouraged in this industry and this can be achieved through training of managers on different leadership styles and how to use them effectively.
Keywords: Employee performance, effective leadership, leadership styles
Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Declaration PAGEREF _Toc51745669 \h iiAbstract PAGEREF _Toc51745670 \h iiiList of Tables PAGEREF _Toc51745671 \h viiiList of Figures PAGEREF _Toc51745672 \h ixChapter 1: Introduction PAGEREF _Toc51745673 \h 101.1 Background to the Research PAGEREF _Toc51745674 \h 101.2 Organisational Background PAGEREF _Toc51745675 \h 121.3 Significance of the Problem PAGEREF _Toc51745676 \h 131.4 Statement of the Problem PAGEREF _Toc51745677 \h 141.5 Research Aim and Objectives PAGEREF _Toc51745678 \h 151.5.1 Research Aim PAGEREF _Toc51745679 \h 151.5.2 Specific research objectives PAGEREF _Toc51745680 \h 151.6 Research Questions PAGEREF _Toc51745681 \h 161.7 Dissertation Structure PAGEREF _Toc51745682 \h 16Chapter 2: Literature Review PAGEREF _Toc51745683 \h 182.1 Chapter Introduction PAGEREF _Toc51745684 \h 182.2 Definition of Leadership PAGEREF _Toc51745685 \h 182.3 Leaders and Leadership Styles PAGEREF _Toc51745686 \h 182.3.1 Autocratic style of leadership PAGEREF _Toc51745687 \h 202.3.2 Democratic business leadership style PAGEREF _Toc51745688 \h 212.3.3 Transformational leadership style PAGEREF _Toc51745689 \h 212.3.4 Bureaucratic leadership style PAGEREF _Toc51745690 \h 222.4 Theoretical Framework PAGEREF _Toc51745691 \h 222.5 Review of past empirical evidence PAGEREF _Toc51745692 \h 242.5.1 Employee Performance PAGEREF _Toc51745693 \h 242.5.2 Influence of leadership on employee performance PAGEREF _Toc51745694 \h 252.6 Gaps in the literature PAGEREF _Toc51745695 \h 302.7 Conceptual Framework PAGEREF _Toc51745696 \h 302.8 Chapter conclusion PAGEREF _Toc51745697 \h 32Chapter 3: Research Methodology PAGEREF _Toc51745698 \h 333.1 Research Method PAGEREF _Toc51745699 \h 333.2 Research Philosophy PAGEREF _Toc51745700 \h 333.3 Research Approach PAGEREF _Toc51745701 \h 343.4 Research strategy PAGEREF _Toc51745702 \h 343.5 Research design PAGEREF _Toc51745703 \h 353.6 Data collection methods PAGEREF _Toc51745704 \h 363.7 Data collection instrument PAGEREF _Toc51745705 \h 363.8 Sampling strategy PAGEREF _Toc51745706 \h 373.9 Reliability and validity PAGEREF _Toc51745707 \h 383.10 Data analysis method PAGEREF _Toc51745708 \h 393.11 Research ethics PAGEREF _Toc51745709 \h 403.12 Limitations PAGEREF _Toc51745710 \h 403.13 Chapter Summary PAGEREF _Toc51745711 \h 41Chapter 4: Results and Discussion PAGEREF _Toc51745712 \h 424.1 Chapter Introduction PAGEREF _Toc51745713 \h 424.2 Preliminary analysis PAGEREF _Toc51745714 \h 424.2.1 Questionnaire reliability PAGEREF _Toc51745715 \h 424.2.2 Participants’ demographic profile PAGEREF _Toc51745716 \h 434.3 Empirical analysis and results PAGEREF _Toc51745717 \h 454.3.1 Leadership Styles PAGEREF _Toc51745718 \h 454.3.2 Effective leadership PAGEREF _Toc51745719 \h 474.3.3 Employee performance PAGEREF _Toc51745720 \h 494.3.4 Impact of leadership styles on employee performance PAGEREF _Toc51745721 \h 504.4 Discussion of the results PAGEREF _Toc51745722 \h 544.5 Chapter conclusion PAGEREF _Toc51745723 \h 58Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc51745724 \h 595.1 Research Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc51745725 \h 595.2 Research recommendations PAGEREF _Toc51745726 \h 615.2.1 Practical implications PAGEREF _Toc51745727 \h 615.2.2 Future research directions PAGEREF _Toc51745728 \h 625.3 Chapter Summary PAGEREF _Toc51745729 \h 63References PAGEREF _Toc51745730 \h 64Appendices PAGEREF _Toc51745731 \h 70Appendix A: Self-Administered Questionnaire PAGEREF _Toc51745732 \h 70Appendix B: Informed Consent Form PAGEREF _Toc51745733 \h 74
List of Tables
TOC \h \z \c "Table" Table 4—1: Participant’s Education qualification PAGEREF _Toc51745734 \h 43
Table 4—2: Participants’ work experience PAGEREF _Toc51745735 \h 44
Table 4—3: Leadership styles at the telecommunication industry PAGEREF _Toc51745736 \h 46
Table 4—4: Descriptive statistics of effective leadership PAGEREF _Toc51745737 \h 47
Table 4—5: Descriptive summary of employee performance PAGEREF _Toc51745738 \h 48
Table 4—6: Regression model summary PAGEREF _Toc51745739 \h 49
Table 4—7: Regression coefficient and other statistics PAGEREF _Toc51745740 \h 50
List of Figures
TOC \h \z \c "Figure" Figure 1—1: Organization of the Paper PAGEREF _Toc51745741 \h 16
Figure 2—1: Conceptual Model PAGEREF _Toc51745742 \h 31
Figure 4—1: Participant’s gender PAGEREF _Toc51745743 \h 42
Figure 4—2: Participants’ age group PAGEREF _Toc51745744 \h 43
Figure 4—3: Leadership styles at the telecommunication industry PAGEREF _Toc51745745 \h 45
Figure 4—4: Scatterplot of standardized residuals PAGEREF _Toc51745746 \h 51
Figure 4—5: Normal P-P Plot PAGEREF _Toc51745747 \h 52
Introduction
Background to the Research
Both theory and research directly suggest that a significantly meaningful correlation between the performance levels of employees and effectiveness of the type of leadership used by organizations but this relation has not been established for some sectors such as the communication industry. In sense, this study purposed to investigate how the level of performance of workers is regulated by modes of leadership adopted by the management of companies in the telecommunication industry in the United Kingdom.
Leaders and leadership styles of a company may have considerable influence on the level of job performance by employees, which happens because as pointed out by Shen, Chou and Schaubroeck (2019), they have a direct impact on the kind of policies adopted by the company as well as the nature of the interactions between the management and other employees. In addition, leaders and leadership styles used greatly influence the organizational culture established and are vital for creating a competitive work environment for employees (Niu et al. 2018). Chou and Cheng (2014) defined leadership as simply as the ability to apply managerial competencies by igniting, inspiring and motivating individuals or teams to achieve their organizational goals in the performance processes. As explained by Nasab and Afshari (2019), there are six main styles of learning and managing employees that are being practised in the business field such as telecommunication industry namely (a) autocratic, (b) democratic, (c) participative (d) transformational, (e) transactional, and (f) bureaucratic. It is essential to note that the democratic style closely resembles the participative style. Considerably, all of them might affect employee performance differently in terms of both the nature of effects and magnitude, which needs to be properly understood for the telecommunication sector.
According to Zhou, Long and He (2016), in the business world, leadership is being used as a tool for managing employees and the organization hence the increased interest in effective leadership. The concept of leadership in the organisation has been gradually changing which resulted in human resource management replacing the traditional idea of personnel administration (Lin et al. 2018), which gave importance to the need of effective leadership styles for effective management of employees and subsequently improving their performance levels for the benefit of the organization. The leadership of the organization must act as a good diagnostician and be able to adapt leadership styles that meet the specific needs of the employee’s work situations.
As a result, organizations try to use different leadership...