1.

The Impact of Directive and Supportive Leadership Style on Employee Performance in Federal Medical Centre Asaba Nigeria Emmanuella Diuno

Abstract-The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of directive and supportive leadership style on employee performance in federal medical centre Asaba Nigeria. This research was guided by post-positivism philosophy; this was preferred because the study attempted to establish how one variable (directive and supportive leadership style) affects another (employee performance). A quantitative approach was used to explore the impact, where a properly structured questionnaire was distributed and collected after five working days. The sample size of this research was made up of 115 respondents and the selection was made using random sampling.

For this study a multiple regression method was used to analyze the findings. To test the hypothesis SPSS was used. The results obtained were presented in tables and bar chats and histograms. The results of the regression indicated that directive leadership style had a significant impact on employee performance in federal medical centre Asaba (F (.011) p<.05). The result showed that directive leadership style was a strong predictor of employee performance, based on this the study rejected the null hypothesis and accepted the research hypothesis. On the other hand, the results also indicated that supportive leadership style had no significant impact on employee performance in federal medical centre Asaba (F (.086) p>.05). The result indicated that supportive leadership style was not a strong predictor of employee performance, based on this the study accepted the null hypothesis and rejected the research hypothesis.

The study concluded that directive leadership style has a positive impact on employee performance while supportive had no impact on employee performance in federal medical center Asaba Nigeria.

The study further recommended that to be an effective leader, there is need to adopt a multiple leadership style than a singular style when dealing with employees in any organization. The study also recommends that leaders in all works of life treat people how they want to be treated. By this we mean leaders should show love, care and support to their employees.

Keywords: directive leadership, supportive leadership, employee performance, federal medical centre.

he issue of leadership is very vital for the growth and survival of any organization. Leadership has an important bearing on how effectively an organization reaches its goals and objectives.

Author: e-mail: [email protected] "The term Leadership has long being of existence among people and it has so many interpretations; it has been defined in terms of traits, behaviors, influence, interaction, patterns, role, relationships, and occupation of an administrative position. Generally, leadership could be defined as an influence, art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly towards the achievement of group goals." (Okpara, 2005). "In organization, there is need to acquire human resources in order to meet its objectives. Subsequently, when human resources have been acquired, there is need to maintain and keep them together. It should be noted that every individual has his personal expectation for working in an organization. To this effect, the leader must employ the various ways of making sure that the employee stay at work (thereby reducing absenteeism), feel contented (satisfied) with their job and thus ready to put on their best. Employees have shown to be an important tool for achieving organization's goal towards the production of quality goods and services. These Employees demonstrate a wide variety of positive and negative behaviors at work in the cause of carrying out the task at hand in their respective workplace." (Obi, 2015) According Linda-Ray (2014) "the type of relationship a leader forge with his employees plays a substantial role in how they behave." She also stressed that in other to encourage productivity and positive work environment, "the leader must pay attention to his or her own style." This explains that the type of leadership style of managers in an organization would have an impact on the employees' performance, and attitudes such as employee turnover, job commitment and job satisfaction. Krammer (2004) also argued that "the degree to which the individual exhibits leadership traits depends not only on his characteristics and personal abilities, but also on the characteristics of the situation and environment in which he finds himself. In an ideal world, leadership styles adapt to the need of an organization." Tifase (2014) stated that "leadership is imperative to any living human being; man or woman'. She states further that leadership style is what differentiates between a business thriving, sinking, or soaring and that there are various leadership styles with each having its implication of effective implementation on profit, work culture, organizational and individual goals."

Medical center managers have a leading role in the direct supervision of employees under them. A medical center is one of the most important social organization and health services, because it must address the health and medical problems that people deal with in their everyday lives.

Therefore, proper supervision, and leadership traits are very important in the management of a medical center. The managers have to know how to apply good leadership principles and styles in other to lead the organization to achieve its main goals and objective.

Firstly, a lot of research has been carried out based on "effect of leadership styles on workers performance" (okunade, 2011), but none has investigated the impact of directive and supportive leadership styles on employee performance in federal medical center Nigeria.

Secondly, improving the productivity and performance of health care workers in order to enhance efficiency in the medical centers, is a major challenge for African countries. Employee is the most important asset of health systems and performance of employees in medical centers depends mainly on how they are being led by their own leaders.

The main objectives of any medical center are primarily to serve humanity, increase health. And for an organization such as this, when employees do not perform their duties well, it will in turn have a drastic effect on the organization and the health & lives of people as well. It is against this backdrop that this study seeks to investigate the impact of directive and supportive leadership style on employee performance in federal medical center Asaba Nigeria.

To what extent does the directive leadership style impact employee performance in federal medical center Asaba Nigeria? 2. To what extent does the supportive leadership style impact employee performance in federal medical center Asaba Nigeria?

Hypothesis 1

? H0: Directive leadership style does not have an impact on employee performance in federal medical center Asaba Nigeria.

? H1: Directive leadership style has an impact on employee performance in federal medical center Asaba Nigeria.

? H0: Supportive leadership style does not have an impact on employee performance in federal medical center Asaba Nigeria.

? H2: Supportive leadership style has an impact on employee performance in federal medical center Asaba Nigeria.

© 2018 Global Journals 1 Numerous researchers and authors around the world have attempted to define leadership in their own ways thus giving rise to many definitions. One of the most recent definitions of leadership is taken from the speech made by Colin Powell, united state secretary of state, he defined leadership as "the act of accomplishing more than science of management." Daniel (2002) also gave his own definition as "a relationship through which a person influences the behavior of other people, it involves one person consciously trying to get other people to do something that he or she wants them to do." Oyenuga (1997) on the other hand defined leadership as "the process by which a person called the leader is involved in the responsibility of directing the activities of people i.e. its subordinates or followers towards the achievement of pre-determined goals. Falker (1970) looks at leadership as "the moral intellectual ability to visualize and work for what is best for the company and its employees. He also indicated some desirable quality of leaders, these are "compassion, clear thinking, a general understanding of technological operation without obsession with detail, integrity, ability to retain the confidence, ability to communicate and enthusiasm."

In a broad based definition, David B, Andrzy (2004) describes leadership as "a process and a

Employee performance Independent Variables Dependent Variable property." As a process, he sees it as the use of noncoercive influence to shape the goals of a group, motivate behavior towards the achievement of these goals and help define group or organizational structure. As a property, he sees leadership as a set of characteristics attributed to individuals who are perceived to be leaders. He summarizes this up by describing leaders as "people who can influence the behavior of others without having to rely on force and whom others accept as leaders."

"In the recent past years, leadership has engaged as a new effective approach for managing the employees and organization at large. The traditional concept of personnel administration has gradually replaced with the human resource management. This give importance to the strategic integration of new leadership styles into effective management of employees and to improve the employee performance. The effective leader must be a good diagnostician and adopt style to meet the demands of the situation in which they operates. Different leadership styles are used that fit to employees on the basis of amount of directions, empowerment, and decision making power. An administrative phenomenon reflects the contingency of leadership, and style, situation and performance criteria have been left to suffocate on their own. As a result, employee performance was affected due to lack of proper direction and application of strategic style in managing daily duties." (Iqbal, Anwar & Haider, 2014).

According to Davis (1993) "Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. As seen by the employees, it includes the total pattern of explicit and implicit actions performed by their leader."

"Leadership styles are a tool to achieve desired results through the activities of employees. From the stand point of organization, leadership styles are vital, because leaders have a powerful influence on individual and group behavior. Although many factors affect employee performance, but there is no doubt that leadership is one of the most important and determining factors at ultimate success of any organization."

For this research work, we are focusing on two leadership styles which are directive and supportive and how these leadership styles affect employee performance in medical centers. Barman (2009) defined directive and supportive leadership as: i. Directive Leadership Directive leadership is described as "Telling followers what needs to be done and giving appropriate guidance along the way. This includes giving them schedules of specific work to be done at specific times. Rewards may also be increased as needed and role ambiguity decreased (by telling them what they should be doing)."

"This may be used when the task is unstructured and complex and the follower is inexperienced. This increases the follower's sense of security and control and hence is appropriate to the situation."

ii. Supportive Leadership Supportive leadership is described as "Considering the needs of the follower, showing concern for their welfare and creating a friendly working environment. This includes increasing the follower's self-esteem and making the job more interesting. This approach is best when the work is stressful, boring or hazardous."

Performance Daft (2011) states that "a leader who uses a directive style usually informs followers on what is expected of them when performing their tasks. It is most effective when employees are unsure about the task or when there is a lot of uncertainty within the environment." "The directive style talks of scenarios where the leader guides followers clearly on the instructions required of them in order to perform the given tasks effectively." (Moorhead & Griffin, 2012). "The theory states that the directive style is instrumental in a situation where the subordinate roles and tasks are not clearly stated" (Quick & Nelson, 2013). "This style is characterized by leaders telling followers what needs to be done and giving appropriate guidance along the way even as the subordinates perform their respective tasks. This guidance includes giving the subordinates schedules of specific work to be done at specific times. Rewards may also be increased as needed and role ambiguity decreased by telling the workers what they should be doing" (Phillips & Gully, 2012).

"Directive leadership style may also be used when the task is unstructured and complex and the follower is inexperienced. This style is seen to be more beneficial because it increases the subordinates sense of job security as well as and control of their tasks" (Northouse, 2013).

Performance "Under supportive leadership, the leader makes work pleasant for the employees by showing concern for them and by being friendly and approachable. It is most effective in situations in which tasks and relationships are physically or psychologically challenging" (Luthan, 2011). "Under the supportive style, the leader focuses on making sure that the physical as well as the psychological needs and preferences of his or her subordinates are well taken care of thus creating a happy work force" (Quick & Nelson, 2013). "This leadership style is very appropriate in situations where the allocated tasks are very draining both psychologically and even physically" (Moorhead & Griffin, 2012).

"This style has put emphasis on three keys areas as follows; concern for employees by managers, satisfying subordinate needs and creating a friendly working environment. Some of the most successful companies with the most dedicated employees in most cases always put their employees first" (Murugesan, 2011). "Such companies have realized that happy employees treat customers better; this subsequently improves both employee and company performance through superior customer service levels and sales. Studies show that employees who feel their coworkers and managers genuinely care about them often perform better" (Mandal, 2012). "The more employees know they have support from the organization and management, the more they will support the organization, and the more profitable it will become" (Bhatia, 2013).

According Hartley, et al. ( 2008) "The international importance of interest in leadership is clear and evident in private and public healthcare organizations. There have been a series of policy papers asserting the importance of improving public services through the further development of leadership skills. As one of the most important public service organizations, healthcare organizations rely on well understood and highly developed leadership. This is important to improve the quality of healthcare, as well as organizational processes." "Consequently, leadership is seen as central to progressing organizational productivity and capacity.

The OED (1978) states that the meaning of performance is "a person's achievement under test conditions."

"The leaders' main aim is to reach the organizational goals with the assistance of their employees. This is the reason why companies develop policies and plans to motivate their staff, and the impact of this is then measured by determining whether employees perform their duties better than they did prior to motivation efforts, and that productivity or service delivery is high or within the set standards. Once motivational strategies are in place it becomes very important for the hospital to measure employee performance to ensure that it is according to set standards."

The method used in collecting data for this study was primarily a quantitative approach and the instrument adopted was the questionnaire.

Questionnaire was chosen because of its ability to reduce any bias and also to obtain all the necessary and authentic information needed for the data analysis. The questionnaire was divided into two sections. Section A dealt with demographic information of the various respondents, respondents are required to specify their personal details such as gender, age and marital status. Section B contained questions regarding the independent and dependent variable. This section was used to measure the impact of directive and supportive leadership style on employee performance in federal medical center Asaba Nigeria.

A cover letter was attached together with the research questionnaire. It is used to describe the purpose and title of the research. It also serve as a guidelines for respondents to know that all their answers were going to be kept confidential and used for the research purpose only. A seven point Likert scale was used to measure the answers of the respondents in the second part of the tool. Under section B, there were three sub subsections. In the first subsection, a scale of 1-7 was used to gauge the directive leadership style. The scale ratings were as follows: 1 = Never 2 = Hardly ever 3 = Seldom 4 = Occasionally 5 = Often 6 = Usually 7 = Always. In the second subsection, a scale of 1-7 was also used to gauge the supportive leadership style, where 1 was the lowest and 7 the highest. And for the third subsection, a scale of 1-7 was equally used to rate employee performance. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher based on the research questions given in Northouse, 2013 and salanova et all, 2005. Generally, these research instruments were structured to effectively address the research objectives and also to tackle the research problem based on the dependent and independent variables. This research used the multiple regression analysis and data analysis was conducted using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS).

The above table shows the reliability of all the variables according to Cronbach's Alpha in SPSS. The entire construct had a Cronbach's Alpha coefficient And from table 6 it can be deduced that 64 (55.7%) responded were single while 51 (44.3%) were married.

From table 7, it is seen that majority of the respondents, 57(49.6%), held bachelor's degrees. Further to this, those with a master's degree accounted for 41(35.7%), while those with doctorate degree accounted for 17(14.8%).

A study rejected the null hypothesis and accepted the research hypothesis. On the other hand, the results also indicated that supportive leadership style had no significant impact on employee performance in federal medical centre Asaba (sig (.086) p>.05). The result showed that supportive leadership style was not a strong predictor of employee performance, based on this the study accepted the null hypothesis and rejected the research hypothesis.

The multiple regression test established significant relationship between the directive leadership style and employees performance at a sig value of 0.011, p<.05. This is in line with the statement that leaders inform subordinates about what needs to be done and how it needs to be done.

This finding also comes to terms with Tulgan (2009) who acknowledged that with directive leadership styles, members with different work features will be more effective and productive. In other words, the leadership styles are significantly related to employees' attitude and behavior.

On the other hand, the multiple regression test established that there isn't a significant relationship between the supportive leadership style and employees performance at a sig value of .086, p>.05. At this stage it is concluded that leaders at federal medical center Asaba barely practice supportive leadership style. This comes to terms with Lacoma (2017) which stated that "Supportive leadership styles are not conducive to every business environment.

Based on the various literature incorporated in this research, it can be deduced that effective leadership is one of the most crucial factors that leads any organization towards great success.

However, in an environment that deals with division of labor such as federal medical center Asaba, the performance of employees is one of the most basic challenges. Reason being that performance as a phenomenon is closely related to aspects of effectiveness. Especially for doctors and nurses performance issues are inextricably linked to patient safety. Thus it is very vital employees' at medical center perform their uttermost best. And in other to achieve this, leaders should always clarify the path so employees know which way to go, remove roadblocks that are stopping them going there and increasing the rewards along the line.

One limitation this study faced included nonresponse due to ignorance of some of the respondents, out of the 130 questionnaire that was distributed only 115 were returned.

Based on the findings of the research, the following recommendations were developed:

? To be an effective leader, there is need to adopt multiple leadership styles than a singular style when dealing with employees in any organization. ? The study recommends effective flow of communication as a guide to effective leadership. This helps keep the employee working on the right projects with the right attitude and frame of mind. ? The study recommends that leaders in all works of life treat people how they want to be treated. By this we mean leaders should show love, care and support to employees. ? The study recommends team that leaders should always have the welfare of the employees at heart. The leadership team should create a very conducive atmosphere that will enhance employee participation in the day to day running of the organization.