Effect of Leadership Styles on Employees’ Performance Among Multinational Audit Firms in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of leadership styles on employee performance among audit firms in Kenya. The study aimed at addressing the following research questions: what types of leadership styles are adopted by the audit firms in Kenya? How do the leadership styles affect the performance of employees among audit finns m Kenya? And how does leadership development influence employee performance among audit firms in Kenya?This study adopted a descriptive research design and targeted the big four public accounting and consultancy finns in Nairobi . The target population comprised of 365 managers and employees in the four audit firms. A sample of 110 respondents was selected from the target population by use of Stratified random sampling. This study utilized a questionnaire to collect data. The questionnaire designed in this study comprised of two sections. The questionnaire was designed to include both structured and unstructured questions pre-testing of questionnaire was conducted using 4 staff members in the human resource department , one per organization hence four questionnaires were administered for pretesting. The questionnaires was administered through drop and pick later method where the researcher delivered the questionnaires in person at the respondents' places of work and collected them once they were completed. Data collected was analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Scientists (SPSS Version 20.0). The data was analyzed in frequencies and percentage and other questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The findings of the analyses were then presented in tables and graphs.From the findings the study established that there are vanous leadership styles adopted among the four multinational audit firms in Kenya. The styles adopted brought about continuous change with the organization and affected the performance of the employees to a great extent. The findings also revealed that the leadership styles adopted had impact on the skills, behavior and attitude of the employees in relation to their performance. The findings also showed that the organizational culture and performance was affected by the effects of the leadership style adopted on the performance of the employees. On leadership development the findings revealed that leadership development affected the performance of the employees to a great extent. The responses also showed that leadership development had an impact on the skills of the employees, team work in the organization , employee productivity and strategy implementation by the employees. Leadership development has also improved employee delivery tasks and enabled attainment of targets among the employees due to the improved performance of the employees.On leadership styles adopted at the four finns, the study concludes that the managers challenge the employees to high standards, managers give individualized attention to every staff, communicate optimism about future goals, inspires employees to achieve and increases trust in other staff for responsibilities . This study concludes that the leadership styles adopted have a continuous change on the employee performance. The study also concludes that the supervisor's comm unication skills has improved comm unication in the organization , teamwork spirit has improved employee oneness, interpersonal relationships has improved employee interactions ,the supervisor's trust in the employees has enabled delegation of duties, the supervisor's leadersh ip train ing and development has enhanced employees' career development, the supervisor's leadershi p strategy im plementation has improved attainment of targets in the organ ization, superv i sor's custom er service programmes have improved the level of customer satisfaction. the supervisor's customer service programmes has im proved the qual ity of services delivered to customers and the supervisor's performance management program has improved employee motivation in the organization.The study recommends that the management at the four audit finns hold consultations in form of a survey to establish how the leadership styles used at the organizations is affecting the employees and what new techniques can be incorporated to foster growth of the organization due to employees ' satisfaction thus optimal performance. The study recommends that an evaluation program be conducted on the how successful the leadership styles adopted at the firms have been effective in ensuring successful implementation of the strategies set by the management to ensure optimal employee performance . The study therefore recommends that audit firms adopt leadership development programs such as mentoring, coaching training and development so as to ensure development of effective leadership development programmes that will yield tangible results in employee performance.