Description
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The role of leaders in ensuring excellent organizational performance cannot 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 organization of work is also very crucial in organizational attainment. Some researchers have argued that the most common problems affecting organizational 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 organizations in Nigeria are mange 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 organizational performance. Some found out that effective leadership styles are positively related to organizational performance while others have a different view. Still there is no empirical evidence to show how effective leadership styles impacts on organizational 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 Organizations 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 organization use their abilities and influences in the effective utilization of resources depends upon how well the leaders of the organization understand and perform their jobs. Maddock and Fulton 1998 in Iyang (2006) explain that leadership styles and other processes of the organization must be such that can ensure maximum probability within all interactions and relationships with the Organizations, 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 organizational members and the extent to which they are committed to the organization depends on the degree of their conviction that their membership of the organization will enable them realize their predetermined objectives. In this case, the support an organization 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 organization will wane. Based on that, leadership effectiveness should be given adequate attention it the organization intends to achieve its objectives. That is why it is a common agreement among management scholars that the success or failure of an organization is largely a function of leadership and its styles. I yang on his part sees effective leadership as a unique ways and integrating employees with the organization 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 Organizations. Speaking in the same vein Edem, observes that failure or success of an organization, which affect the subordinates, the customers and agencies within and outside the organization. Although there is no standard method through which a leader can be effective in achieving high performance in an organization but that what is required is the modification and the combination of the variables that make leader effective if the goals and objectives of the organization have to be realized (Edem 2002).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Managing people in Organizations is parts and parcel of management Process. Therefore, managers should realize, that people are the critical elements in organizations and that they should be recognized as being synonymous with the organization. But the problem is, to what extent do managers recognize this fact that employees are synonymous with Organizations and that they should be adequately motivated so that they can give their best to ensure high performance? Again the leadership behavior/style in most organizations 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 organizational culture which in turn affects organizational 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 organizational 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 organizations in Nigeria are managed through leadership styles and behaviors that are strange to typical Nigerian culture.
In view of the above contending issues, it was necessary to look at effective leadership and organizational 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 organizational performance.
– To study the effect of leadership behavior 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 organization.
– 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 organizational performance. The specific objectives are as follows:
1. To find out the effect of the leadership behavior on the execution/implementation of the programmes of the NYSC in Kogi State.
2. To examine the extent to which the management structure of Kogi State NYSC influences the performance of the organization.
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 organizational 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 organization?s leaders about their leadership behaviour and styles.
Scholars and practitioners suggest that effective leadership behaviours can facilitate the improvement of performance when organizations 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 organizational performance improvement. This is because leadership helps organizations 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 organizations seek efficient ways to enable them to outperform 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 organization 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 behavior, 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 organizational 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 organizational 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 organizational 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 organizational performance, leadership and motivation. Others include motivation and job performance, leadership effectiveness and job performance and leadership styles. It also includes organizational performance, how to measure organizational 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, in spite 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.