Abstract:
The main objective of this study was to assess the influence of leadership styles (autocratic,
democratic, laissez-faire, transactional and transformational) on organizational performance
in case of North Shoa Administrative Zone Departments. To attain the objective, mixed
research approach was used in which 284 closed & 2 opened ended questionnaires were
distributed and 252 (88.7%) were collected. The leadership styles were measured through the
multifactor leadership questionnaire developed by Avolio and Bass (2004, 1992) and adapted
to agree the context of the current study. Descriptive statistical technique was used for data
analysis. The resultsindicated that transformational leadership style is the most influential
style on organizational performance in North Shoa Administrative Zone of selected
departments followed by laissez-faire leadership styles. A mean scores in transformational,
democratic, transactional, autocratic, and laissez-faire leadership styles were found to be
3.6865, 3.6429, 3.27721, 3.1429 and 3.0516 respectively. The correlation between
transformational leadership style and organizational performance is 0.366. The regression
analysis revealed that the five leadership styles explain 21% of organizational performance.
Relatively,organizational performance is predicted more by transformational leadership style
and followed by laissez-faire leadership style. But, transactional leadership style had
negative prediction withorganization performance. It has been recommended that, by
encouraging transformational leadership style, the administrative zonal departments should
place talented, skilled and calm leaders in their organization.
