Influence of Participative and Achievement Oriented Leadership Styles on Employee Job Satisfaction in Commercial Banks in Kenya

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of participative and achievement-oriented leadership styles on employee job satisfaction in commercial banks in Kenya.

Methodology: The study adopted positivism research philosophy and descriptive correlation research design.  The target population of the study was 15,030 employees in all the 43 commercial banks licensed to operate in Kenya as of June 2018. Using stratified sampling technique, the study drew a sample size of 386 employees reporting to middle level managers. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 Results: The results of the study showed that participative leadership style positively and significantly predicted employee job satisfaction, R² = .500, F(1, 364) = 181.811, p < .05; β = .673, p < .05. The study findings of multiple linear regression analysis also revealed that achievement-oriented leadership style positively and significantly predicted employee job satisfaction, R² = .507, F(2, 366) = 190.086, p < .05; β = .639, p < .05. From the results of the regression analysis after moderation, it was revealed that environmental contingency factors significantly moderated the relationship between path-goal leadership style and employee job satisfaction, R²=0.090, F(5,364) = 35.04, p < .05; β= 0.229, p<.05.

Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study provides a unique contribution to the theory and practice of path-goal leadership styles in a new perspective in terms how path-goal leadership styles associated with the constructs of participative leadership and achievement-oriented leadership styles influence employee job satisfaction in commercial banks of Kenya. The future researchers should include all bank employees in their study to determine the influence of participative leadership style and achievement-oriented leadership style on employee job satisfaction.