The Influence Of Leadership Style On The Performance Of Emloyees Of The Bekwai Municipal Assembly: The Moderating Role Of Work Discipline.

Abstract

The reformation of the public service has been attempted by the Government of Ghana since independence in 1957, and yet, the performance of many public institutions in Ghana is still below expectations. There is general perception that the poor performance of employees of District Assemblies is largely due to leadership lapses that have actually bred employee indiscipline in the workplace. However, previous studies have focused on the direct linkage between leadership style and employee performance in the public sector, with limited emphasis on the moderating role of work discipline. This study therefore investigated the influence of leadership style on the performance of the employees, and the potential moderating role of work discipline. The explanatory study surveyed 117 staff of the Bekwai Municipal Assembly in the Ashanti Region using structured questionnaire. Data in IBM SPSS version 25 was imported in free format to LISREL Version 8.50 for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The hierarchical multivariate regression analysis was employed to test the developed hypotheses. The results showed that the Assembly is currently employing mixture of leadership styles, including transformational, transactional and laissez-faire. Work discipline had no significant effect on employee performance. The effect of transactional leadership style on employee performance was positively moderated by work discipline. The moderating effect of work discipline was highest at high work discipline, which was more elastic compared with low work discipline. However, work discipline was not a moderator in the effect of both transformational and laissez faire leadership styles on the performance of employees in the Assembly. In conclusion, whiles effect of transformational leadership on employee performance is not dependent on existing work discipline, the effect of transactional leadership on employee performance is high in high work discipline environment.