ABSTRACT
This study deals on leadership styles as the predictor of corporate goals attainments in selected manufacturing organisations in Abia State, Nigeria with special focus on two manufacturing organizations namely: Nigeria Breweries Plc, Aba and Star Paper Mill Ltd Aba. This study sought to establish the relationship between the leadership style and attainment of corporate goals, To identify the leadership style that is most appropriate to the manufacturing firms, To ascertain the various factors that influence the choice of leadership style in an oragnisation and to examine the extent to which the size of an organisation affect leadership behaviour. The research adopted survey design. The total staff population for the selected manufacturing organizations in Aba, Abia State is 165. These manufacturing organizations were selected from the 14,564 organizations in Abia state using purposive sampling technique. The sample size of 136 was determined using Taro Yamane’s formula. The sources of data for this study were primary and secondary. Cronbach Alpha was used in testing the validity and reliability of the test instrument and 0.88 was obtained showing a high degree of positive relationship. The data generated from the field survey were presented using percentages. The four hypotheses formulated in the study were tested using the following statistical tools; hypotheses 1, 2 and 4 were tested using Z-test and hypothesis 3 was tested using factor Analysis. The results drawn from the tested hypotheses revealed that leadership style has a significant impact on the attainment of corporate goals, That there is no leadership style that is most appropriate in all circumstances, However, the staff in the manufacturing industry tend to prefer participatory leadership to other forms of leadership approaches. There was a significant relationship between different circumstances and leadership style in a manufacturing concern and also the problems encountered by leaders affect the leadership styles adopted. It was therefore recommended that managers should be made to undergo high quality leadership training and development programmes regularly. Leaders should be encouraged to share knowledge acquired from these trainings and workshops. Leaders should stir the emotions and passion of their subordinates, set clear goals, have high expectations, provide support and recognition and get them to look beyond their self to reach for their personal and organizational goals.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Leadership has over the years been a topic of interest across the globe. In Nigeria as it is in other countries, leadership has stirred controversy over how best to lead or govern. In organizations spread across the nation, leadership issues have been the center of discuss. It is actually that aspect of the organization, which guides the activities of people towards the attainment of set goals. The achievement of organizational plans and programs to a large extent depends on leadership. Agu (2003) writes that effective leadership creates and maintains the conditions necessary for sincere and rewarding interactions and commitments needed from employees to achieve designed objectives, but essentially it is a relationship through which one person influences the behavior or actions of other people. This means that the process of leadership cannot be separated from the activities of the group and effective team building.
A leader has the responsibility to mobilize those under him to carry out their respective functions to achieve the objectives of the organization. He creates the condition in
which mental as well as physical efforts are applied by members to achieve organizational goals.
In the past, the belief held was that leaders are born and not made. Prior to the 1930s, it was widely believed that a limited number of people were uniquely endowed with abilities and traits which made it possible for them to become leaders. These abilities and traits were believed to be inherited rather than acquired. Research work on leadership had focused on the trait aspect of a leader. Efforts were made to discover what traits or combinations of traits are required to make a good leader. The earlier position that attributed the style of a leader to his physical traits like body size, energy, height ability to speak has been proven wrong by the findings of studies that followed. Studies on leadership so far have confirmed that there is no single pattern of abilities and personality traits characteristics of a leader. Rather the qualities approach focuses attention on the man or woman on the job and not on the job itself. It is perhaps possible therefore to identify general characteristics of leadership ability such as self confidence, initiative, intelligence and belief in ones action.
Leadership challenges in most cases, can be properly handled if the leader possesses the knowledge of relevant
principles and requisite skills necessary to contain such challenges.
Leadership is the process of influencing other people to achieve certain objectives. Leadership plays a key role to bring about the capability to influence others such that they are made to willingly and enthusiastically contribute enormously to the actualization of set goals. Therefore, corporate goal is defined as the end result of organizational activities. It is also seen as what the organization tends to achieve. Leader must help a group/organization to attain objectives through the maximum application of its capabilities
Organizations often find it difficult to attain their corporate goals, and such fail to maximize their profits. This can easily be traced to the leadership style adopted by managers in such organization. Some times managers adopt the wrong style of leadership in given situations. However, leaders have not been able to close this gap in Nigeria especially in the manufacturing industries.
In organizations like Nigeria Breweries Plc and Star Paper Mill Limited Aba, it is assumed that individual employee works towards achievement of the goals and objectives of the
organization which are Profit Making and Customer Satisfaction among others.
The extent to which the leader contributes to the achievement of these goals depend on how well resources assets that contributed to the profitability of the organization are distributed or managed and therefore there is evidence that leader must be able to create organisation cultures that foster not only performance but a sense of pride and fun.
This research work is carried out to identify the leadership style as the predictor of corporate goal attainment. According to Bolman and Deal (1991), the style of leaders can either be effective or ineffective depending upon the chosen
behaviour in certain situations.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Manufacturing concerns in Nigeria have suffered serious set backs arising from bad leadership. The complexity of these organizations evidenced in their multiplicity of functions means that only an effective and functional leadership can ensure that they are profitably run. Incidentally, this is hardly the case in Nigeria manufacturing organizations.
In most cases, the failure of the manufacturing concerns is traceable to wrong choice of leadership style or inability of the leader to adopt the right combination of leadership styles to match the prevailing circumstances. The inability of the leaders to provide conducive environment for workers so as to attain corporate goals, in addition , lack of attention to workers interest attract conflict between the leader and the employee. This makes achievement of corporate goals difficult, if not impossible.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The specific objectives of this study include the following:
1. To establish the relationship between leadership style and attainment of corporate goals.
2. To identify the leadership style that is most appropriate to the manufacturing firms
3. To ascertain the various factors that influence the choice of leadership style in an organisation.
4. To examine the extent to which the size of an organisation affects leadership behaviour.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following are the research questions for this
study
1. What is the relationship between leadership style and attainment of corporate goals in manufacturing firms?
2. What leadership style is the most appropriate for Nigerian
Organisation?
3. What are the various factors that influence the choices of leadership style in Manufacturing Industries?
4. How does the size of an Organisation affect the leadership behaviour?
1.5 HYPOTHESES FORMULATION
For the purpose of the study the following research hypotheses are formulated and will be tested
1. Ho: There is no significant relationship between leadership style and attainment of corporate goals.
HA: There is significant relationship between leadership style and attainment of corporate goals.
2. Ho: There is no Leadership style that is most appropriate for Nigerian organisation.
| HA: | There is Leadership style that is most appropriate for Nigerian organisation. | |
| 3. | Ho: | The factors that influence the choice of managers do not depend on leadership style. |
HA: The factors that influence the choice of managers do depend on leadership style.
4. Ho: The size of an Organisation does not significantly affect leadership behaviour.
HA: The size of an Organisation does significantly affect leadership behaviour.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study is significant considering that it is happening at a time when the nation is paying more attention to entrepreneurship development as one of the strategic programmes to enable it achieve its economic development blue print –“vision 20:2020”, meant to position Nigeria among the World 20th economic nation in the year 2020.
The findings and results of this study will be of immense benefit to the following set of people:
1. Organizational managers, who will use the information, provided to fine tune their leadership styles.
2. Researchers, who will find the dissertation report as a useful material for further studies in the concerned area or related discipline.
3. Leaders in various organizations public or private, will find the research results useful.
4. General readers, who will increase frontier of knowledge by reading through the work.
5. Human resource organization/training institutes, whose resource persons can use the information provided for their training and development programmes.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study focuses on examining the effect of leadership on the attainment of corporate goals in manufacturing organizations. The time frame of this work is from 1995-2005. The geographical area of study is Aba, Abia State in the south East of Nigeria with studies conducted on two (2) firms:
1. Nigeria Breweries Plc, Aba, and
2. Star paper Mill Ltd Aba
1.8 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
A lot of impediments were encountered in the process of conducting the research study. The most salient of them are:
Time Factor
The time allowed for the accomplishment of this study coincided with other activities and at such; the researcher could not cover so much in the study. There is no doubt whatsoever that data collection, collation, presentation, analysis and interpretation require so much time.
Financial Factor
The accomplishment of any research, be it academic or professional is finance – demanding. Therefore, inadequate finance constitutes a serious constraint to the accomplishment of studies of this nature and as such the researcher had to settle for just two organizations (as selected studies). Finance is needed for acquisition of study materials, data collection and production of research report, aside personal upkeep.
Attitude of the Respondents
The researcher had problem on collection of data from the companies used; some of the workers view releasing
information as exposing themselves to their competitors. Sometimes, the researcher got frustrated by such hostility.
1.9 BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SELECTED FIRMS
1.9.1 Nigerian Breweries Plc Aba
Nigeria Breweries Plc was incorporated on the 16th November, 1946 under the companies’ ordinance Cap 38 as Nigeria Brewery Limited. On the 7th January 1957, the name was changed to Nigeria Breweries Limited. In 1990 when the companies and Allied Matters Act of that year came into force, the name of the company was further changed to Nigeria Breweries Plc, after the company went public. Nigeria Breweries Plc is a subsidiary of Heineken Breweries B.V, which has a 54.10% interest in the equity of Nigeria Breweries Plc. Principal Activities
The principal activities of the company remain brewing and marketing of large beer, stout and non-alcoholic malt drinks and minerals (soft drink). However, the company has ventured into other areas of drinks like natural bottled water and juice drinks etc.
Review of Operations
With the successful completion and commissioning of the ultra-modern Ama Brewery in 9th mile Enugu state, and the conclusion of the optimization of facilities at other factory locations in 2002, the production/supply capacity was significantly enhanced. There have been increased marketing penetration activities and enhanced trade intimacy, induced market penetration resulting in high sales volume and turnover.
The dedication pursuit of the company’s affordability strategy ensured that there was no price increase during the last five (5) years, despite inflationary spiral, foreign exchange volatility and depreciation. However margins of profit declined as consequences of changes in the new Ama Brewery in 2003 even before the realization of it full installed capacity.
Company Equity
With about 60.000 shareholders the authorized share capital of the company is N762.5m and about 54% of the share held in Heineken, Netherlands who is both a technical and commercial partner while 46% is held by Nigerians amongst who are company employees of various categories. The company’s turnover in 2003 alone was N12.03 billion out of which the sum of N179 million was paid to federal and state governments as taxes and levies. In 2002, the company’s profit
before interest and tax (PBIT) was N5.268 billion. In the same year it paid a dividend of N2.287 billion in N1.50k per share. Ever since, the Nigeria Breweries Plc has continued to dominate the brewing industry in Nigeria recording mileage of profit as well as satisfying consumers of its products.
Research and Development (R and D)
Nigeria Breweries Plc keeps pace with the contemporary happenings and technological advancement in the industry. It has been playing active role in the research and development segment, ensuring that its system operation procedures are always in conformity with proven practices in most part of the world. It is in line with its policy to be R&D focused that it established a research and development center in 1987 to enhance its research activities.
Social Responsibility
Nigeria Breweries Plc is a socially responsible corporate citizen with an enviable record of rendering corporate philanthropy in the area of sports, health, education and many others. For instance, the company recently established an education trust fund of N100 million to take more active part in the funding of education and research facilities of higher institutions. All these are in an effort to provide and encourage
academic excellence in Nigeria. This is in addition to its secondary and university scholarship programme for the staff that gains admission into higher institutions for disciplines relating to their job.
Manufacturing Organization
This refers to that organization, which engages itself in the conversion of raw materials and other input resources into output (tangible products) through a conversion process. Performance
This is how effective and efficient the organizational goals are realized.
Power: This is the ability of influencing the behavior of others.
It is also seen as the capability to make the subordinates do what they would have not done if left alone.
Responsibility
This is defined as obligation of the subordinates to carry out assigned duties within the units of delegated authority. Transformational Leadership
Is a leadership style, in which the leader identifies the needed change, create a vision to guide the change through
inspiration, and execute the change with the commitment of the members of the group.
Predictor
This is the determinant factor that helps transformational leaders to develop strategies to solve problems, handle crises and is able to self promote personality.
Corporate Goal
This refers to the end result of organizational activities. It is seen as what the organization tends to achieve.
Nigeria Breweries Plc is a model of corporate success in the private sector. The company’s successful operations can be traced to high product quality, strategy penetration into the market, sound business ethics, consumer/customer-friendly attitudes and habits in addition to high social responsibility.
1.9.2 Star Paper Mill Limited Aba
Star paper Mill Limited (RC 22622) was incorporated as a paper converting company in 1977. Now the company operates:
A stationery plant at Umungasi Aba
A paper recycling and conversion plant at Owerri
A second paper conversion plant at Ibadan
An ultra-modern (state of the art) printing facility at
Umungasi, Aba
Star Paper Mill Limited also has offices in Lagos, Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano and Suleja. The premier plant located at Aba, produces school exercise books of different types and a wide range of stationery. It has an installed capacity of 25,000 metric tones per annum, which translates into 38 million exercise books per annum in addition 152 million envelopes of various sizes. Other products include: typing sheets, duplication papers and foolscap fly. The current percentage utilization is about 75 percent.
The factory was commissioned in 1984 as a waste paper recycling plant; with an installed capacity of 10 metric tones of tissue paper in jumbo reels per day. By 1992, a new paper machine was installed with capacity of 15 metric tones of tissue per day. Presently, the Owerrinta plant has a total capacity of
60 metric tones per day. This plant utilizes waste paper and paper off-cuts as its main sources of raw materials and that constitutes 90% both in volume and in naira value of the plant requirement locally sourced. In this plant also exists a toilet rolls production line, which utilizes the jumbo reels at input and produces 140,000,000 units of toilet rolls and paper napkins
per year. This in effect positioned the company as the largest producer of toilet rolls and tissue products in Nigeria, with marketing outlets throughout the country. Just recently a new product line, sanitary towel for ladies with a brand name “every woman” became a new addition to the stable.
Star paper Mill Nigeria Limited’s most recent expansion in the paper related industrial sub-sector is the introduction of a new line of computer based digital scanning commercial printing press. The products from this project when fully commissioned will range from computer-based flyers, posters, brochures, annual accounts, magazines, stickers, label, calendars and possibly book publishing as well as newspaper production. There can as well be the producers, invitation cards etc. with high resolution digital printing.
1.10 DEFINITION OF RELEVANT TERMS
The following terms are operationally defined as they were used in the research work:
Effectiveness: doing the right in an organization. It means productiveness on the part of the organizational worker on the organization itself.
Efficiency: accomplishment of results with the least amount of input resources it refers also to doing things right, without wasting resources.
Hypothesis: tentative statement of relationship between two or more variables.
Leadership: art or process by which individuals in a group are influenced by another in the same group, such that they behave or act in a manner good enough to result in goals attainment.
Leadership Style: the way and manner adopted by a leader to influence his/her subjects or subordinates. It refers to pattern or method of leadership or approach to leadership.
Management: an organizational process involving the mobilization and utilization of resources, and performing the functions of planning, organizing, directing and controlling such that set goals are achieved.
Manager: individual in the organization who uses others to achieve goals. He plays the managerial roles as well as perform managerial functions to achieve goals.
Manufacturing Organization: organization, which engages itself in the conversion of raw materials and other input resources into output (tangible products) through a conversion process.
Performance: effective and efficient the organizational goals are realized.
Power: ability of influencing the behaviour of others. It is also seen as the capability to make the subordinates do what they would have not done if left alone.
Responsibility: obligation of the subordinates to carry out assigned duties within the units of delegated authority.
Subordinates/Employees: people who work in an organization to enable it realize its goals and objectives.
Predictor: determinant that helps transformational leaders to develop strategies to solve problems, handle crises and is able to self promote personality.
Corporate Goal: end result of organisational activities. It is seen as what the organisation tends to achieve.
This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research
LEADERSHIP STYLES AS THE PREDICTOR OF CORPORATE GOALS ATTAINMENT IN SELECTED MANUFACTURING ORGANISATIONS IN ABIA STATE NIGERIA
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