EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE A CASE STUDY OF NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE CORPS (NYSC) KOGI STATE

Abstract

The study aimed at evaluating the impact of effective leadership on organizational performance in Nigeria using National Youth Service Corps Kogi State office. The evaluation was done through the use of questionnaire and structured interview question, tailored towards: determining the impact of effective leadership on the performance of the organization; assessing the effect of the relationship between effective leadership and organizational performance in promoting maximization of the objectives of the organization examining whether three are leadership obstacles that hamper organizational performance in the Kogi Sate NYSC; finding out if there are possible way of enhancing organisational performance in the Kogi State NYSC. The study employed survey research design in the work. The questionnaire was structured in five point scale in line with the objectives set out to be achieved in the study. The instrument was checked for reliability using test-re-test method. A sample size of 82 was selected from a total population of 103 and stratified random sampling was used to select the respondents. The data generated from the field survey were presented and analysed using quantitative method like frequency distribution tables and simple percentage (%). The test of hypothesis was performed using chi-square statistical test. The result arising from the primary data tested at 0.05 co-efficient interval and degree of freedom revealed that there is positive and significant relationship between effective leadership and organizational performance in NYSC Kogi State. The study also revealed that there are no leadership obstacles that hamper organisational performance in the Kogi State NYSC resulting from the structure of the organisation management. However, the study revealed that in-spite of the above, there are other factors that affect organizational performance. These factors are lack of good office, equipments, insufficient funds and poor work environment. Again, the work also revealed that in the Kogi State NYSC there are possible ways of enhancing organisational leadership for effective performance. Above all, the study revealed that there are no empirical evidence to show the relationship between effective leadership and organisational performance. In view of the above, since it is people that make up organisation therefore, it has been recommended among others that all those things the people need to enable them perform at high level should be put in place for them.

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background of the Study

The role of leaders in ensuring excellent organizational performance can not be over emphasized. Adequate motivation, suitable work environment, compensation, efficient communication between managers and subordinates play an important role in promoting this goal. Planning and organisation of work is also very crucial in organisational attainment. Some researchers have argued that the most common problems affecting organisational performance in Nigeria business and other institutions are poor attitude to work among workforce, inefficiency as well as ineffectiveness of leaders in most places, though others share a contrary view. This second school of thought believes that organisations in Nigeria are manged through leadership styles that are strange to typical Nigerian are managed through leadership styles that are strange to typical Nigerian culture. In the wake-up call to address this issue, management practitioners in Nigeria have embarked on series of studies in an attempt to establish the relationship between effective leadership and organisational performance. Some found out that effective leadership styles are positively related to organisational performance while others have a different view. Still there is no empirical evidence to show how effective leadership styles impacts on organisational performance. Again given our cultural background, educational qualifications, environmental factors it is still not too clear how effective a leader can be if he must combine the three types of leadership styles to achieve high performance in Organisations Usoro 2000. given this scenario, this study will be important in that it tries to fill this gap.

The extent (degree) to which all members of an organisation use their abilities and influences in the effective utilization of resources depends upon how well the leaders of the organisation understand and perform their jobs. Maddock and fullton 1998 in Iyang (2006) explain that leadership styles and other processes of the organisation must be such that can ensure maximum probability within all interactions and relationships with the Organisations, each member will in the light of his background, values and expectation view the expenses as supportive and one which can build and maintains his sense of personal worth and importance.

Despite the above, we should note that individuals have their needs to satisfy and that is why they offered their labours to become organisational members and the extent to which they are committed to the organisation depends on the degree of their conviction that their membership of the organisation will enable them realize their predetermined objectives. In this case, the support an organisation gets from the individuals will be based on the realization that by doing that, his personal objectives and goals will be met, otherwise his interest in the organisation will wane. Based on that, leadership effectiveness should be given adequate attention it the organisaiton intends to achieve it objectives. That is why it is a common agreement among management scholars that the success or failure of an organisation is largely a function of leadership and its styles.

Iyang on his part sees effective leadership as a unique ways and integrating employees with the organisation to achieve its vision or objectives and that to a large extent the effectiveness of a leader is largely dependent to the styles adopted by mangers which he says is central in the management of Organisations. Speaking in the same vein Edem, observes that failure or success of an organisation, which affect the subordinates, the customers and agencies within and outside the organisation. Although there is no standard method through which a leader can be effective in achieving high performance in an organisation but that what is required is the modification and the combination of the variables that make a leader effective if the goals and objectives of the organisation have to be realized (Edem 2002).

1.2    Statement of the Problem

Managing people in Organisations is parts and parcel of management Process. Therefore, managers should realize, that people are the critical elements in rganisations and that they should be recognized as being synonymous with the organisation. But the problem is, to what extent do managers recognize this fact that employees are synonymous with Organisations and that they should be adequately motivated so that they can give their best to ensure high performance? Again the leadership behaviour/style in most organisations which believe that workers could be treated anyhow as a result of unemployment situation in the country which makes job switch difficult has resulted in the hardship workers face in their places of work in Nigeria. This behaviour/style of leadership has an impact on reforming and/or creating organisational culture which in turn affects organisational performance and commitment. So given this situation, how effective can a leader be to elicit the best response from subordinates and make for the highest or best performance (Usoro, 2000). Furthermore, some researchers are of the opinion that the most common problems affecting organisational performance in Nigeria businesses and other institutions are poor attitude to work among the workforce, inefficiency and ineffectiveness of leaders in most places, others still belief that organisations in Nigeria are managed through leadership styles and behaviours that are strange to typical Nigerian culture.

In view of the above contending issues, it was necessary to look at effective leadership and organisational performance in Nigeria using National Youth services corps Kogi State Secretariat as a case study. Therefore, this study will be investigating the following.

• To examine the impact of effective leadership on organisational performance.
• To study the effect of leadership behaviour on the execution/implementation of the programmes of the NYSC in Kogi State.
• To find out the extent to which the management structure of Kogi State NYSC influences the performance of the organisation.
• To suggest  recommendations aimed at  engendering effective leadership of the Kogi State NYSC.

1.3    Objectives of the Study

The general objective of this study is to examine the impact of effective leadership on organisational performance. The specific objectives are as follows:

1. To find out the effect of the leadership behaviour on the execution/implementation of the programmes of the NYSC in Kogi State.
2. To examine the extent to which the management str cture of Kogi State NYSC influences the performance of the organisation.
3. To suggest recommendations aimed at engendering effective leadership in Kogi State NYSC.

1.4    Significance of the Study

The significance of any research study lies in the application of its findings for operational purpose. It is believed that this study will be of immense importance because the empirical finding will reveal how effective leadership impacts on organisational performance. The study among others, seek identify the weaknesses or inadequacies of various variables of effective leadership. It is the researcher’s belief that this work through its findings will change the perception of the National Youth Service Corps Kogi State Secretariat leadership and other organisation’s leaders about their leadership behaviour and styles. Scholars and practitioners suggest that effective leadership behaviours can facilitate the improvement of performance when organisations face challenges (Avery 2008).

Again, leadership is viewed by some researchers as one of the driving forces for improving a firm’s performance. That is why effective leadership is seen as a potent source of management development and sustained competitive advantage for organisational performance improvement. This is because leadership helps organisations achieve their objectives more efficiently by linking job performance to valued rewards and by ensuring employees have the resources needed to get the job done.

Another theoretical significance of this study is that when organisations seek efficient ways to enable them to out perform others, a long standing approach is to focus on the effects of leadership. This is because team leaders are believed to play a vital role in shaping collective norms, helping teams cope with their environments and coordinating collective action’. The absence of leadership is so dramatic in its effects. Without leadership, organizations move too slowly, stagnate and lose their way. If decision making is timely, complete, and correct, than things will go well, yet a decision by itself changes nothing. After a decision is made, an organisation faces the problems of implementation – how to get things done in a timely and effective way. Problems of implementation are really issues about how leaders influence behaviour, change the course of events and overcome resistance. Leadership is crucial in implementing decision successfully. Furthermore, the result of this work will be of immense benefit to the leadership of Kogi Sate National Youth Service Corps. As managers of human and material resource, this study will assist them to understand leadership, managing people and other resources, harnessing resources both human and material to achieve organisational goals and objectives and what it takes to achieve maximum performance through effective leadership.

The result of this study will also help officers in managerial positions to become conscious of their roles as the propelling force towards development. It is hoped that the research findings will assist the Federal, State and Local government Areas especially Kogi State and the Local Governments in the state on the ways to adopt the right leadership styles that can support them so that the state secretariat will achieve its goals and objectives like any other state secretariat will achieve its goals and objective like any other state secretariat in the country.

It is also believed that the work will stimulate further interests in future researches who will be involved in research efforts in the same organisation. In addition to the above, it will add to already existing literatures on effective leadership and organisational performance which will serve as reference materials to scholars and researchers who may be interested in embarking on a research of this nature.

1.5    Scope of the Study

The scope of the study covers only National Youth Services Corps Kogi State Secretariat. Thus, the focus of the study is on effective leadership and organisational performance.

However, to facilitate a sound grasp of the subject matter within the thought framework of the objectives of the study, the scope of the study covered such issues as the concept of leadership, the relationship between effective leadership and organisational performance, leadership and motivation.

Others include motivation and job performance, leadership effectiveness and job performance and leadership styles. It also includes organisational performance, how to measure organisational performance, leadership and communication, characteristics and qualities of good leadership and managing subordinates in organizations.

1.6       Limitation of the Study

In conducting this research project, the work would have been more thorough if the thirty six States National Youth Service Corps offices in the country including the National Headquarters were covered. However, it was difficult to study all the thirty six States National Youth Service Corps Secretariats due to costs of associated logistics and time constraints. Owing to these constraints, this study focused on National Youth Service Corps Kogi State Secretariat alone.

A major limitation to research work in this part of the country is the inability of the researcher to get the necessary information which could have made the work richer were not obtained due to the unwillingness of the officials to give out rich information so the researcher resorted to getting the little to give out rich information so the researcher resorted to getting the little he could from the staff of the secretariat. Also, due to lack of culture of proper record keeping, only very limited data were gotten by the researcher for this work.

However, inspite of all these limitations and other constraints which may not be mentioned here, it does not in any way affect the reliability of the research work for the purpose of reference and its usage by all the stakeholders in national Youth Services corps especially the Kogi State Secretariat.

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