EFFECTS OF LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE ON WORK BEHAVIOURS IN SELECTED MANUFACTURING ORGANIZATIONS IN NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

One of the major challenges facing contemporary organisations is theirsustainability and efficiency through effective leadership. To this end, this study examines theeffects of leadership structure on work behaviour in selected manufacturing organisations inNorth Central Nigeria. The study adopted a mixed-method design to collect data from 403respondents for questionnaires and respondents for oral interviews from the three sampledorganisations. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, while inferentialanalysis was performed using the chi-square test at the 0.005 level of significance and contentanalysis for qualitative data. The study revealed that leadership structure is one of the criticalfactors determining work behaviour in the selected organisations. The results show thatworkers who work under transformational leaders are more likely to exhibit positive workbehaviour. This is because transformational leaders are mostly motivational and always adopta bottom-up approach in terms of communication and decision-making. They always makethemselves available to all workers, thereby making jobs more interesting and friendly toworkers as they discuss career and personal developments with workers. It can be furtherdeduced that lack of independence and freedom of workers may lead to negative workbehaviour. That is, giving workers freedom and independence leads to job satisfaction, whichis one of the measures of work behaviour. The study also revealed that the level of freedomand independence that workers enjoy determines their level of commitment as well as theirwork behaviour in the organisation. However, it is recommended that organisations provideenough freedom and assign employees responsibilities that could stimulate their jobperformance. Additionally, manufacturing organisations should adopt transformationalleadership structures since they are mostly motivational and always adopt bottom-upapproaches in terms of communication and decision-making.