AN ASSESSMENT OF LEADERSHIP STYLE PRACTICES AT ETHIO TELECOM AND THEIR EFFECT ON EMPOYEE MOTIVATION

Abstract

With fast developing economy today, motivation of employees becomes critical resource for organization success / failure. The purpose of this research is to examine the motivation of ETHIO TELECOM employees’. Actually, the main aim of this research was to evaluate the leadership styles that practiced by the Ethio-telecom management who were assigned at different managerial posts and also to examine the effect of practiced management style to motivate and contribute to their effectiveness. The research was used quantitative survey method that employed descriptive and explanatory type of research design is employed which aimed at to identify the perceived leadership style and its impact to motivate employee in the company. To address this critical issue the research was guided by the following research question: What type of leadership styles are dominantly practiced at Ethio-telecom? Which leadership styles do employees at Ethio –telecom prefer? How looks like the relationship between the leadership styles and the motivation of employees? The sample respondents were randomly 158 staff members of Ethio Telecom from core divisions at head quarter and zone officers where leadership style and motivation are highly linked using appropriate formula. A highly structured questionnaire was used to collect data and SPSS –version 24 was used to organize and analyze the data captured from the respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to explain the current expected and practiced management style in the organization. Inferential statistics such as Correlation analysis was used to explain the relationship between the four leadership style and employee motivation. A multiple regression was employed to identify the most influential predictors. The research finding showed the dominant perceived /practiced/ leadership style in Ethio Telecom was transactional and followed by autocratic, which is highly unexpected. In contrary transformational, transactional and democratic leadership are the preferred styles by the company’s employees. And also the study indicated that the perceived motivation employee emanated from those perceived transformational leadership, though they were few in number and followed from perceived democratic ones. On the other hand, the findings of the investigation about the association of employee motivation and different management style, democratic, transactional and transformational leadership were positively and significantly correlated. Finally, the multiple regression reviled that the transactional leadership the most influential leadership style in producing better employee motivation. The major challenges which reviled parallel to quantitative data were the implementation of the organizational transformation process which lets the seizure of key managerial posts by inexperienced staff by non-transparent procedure that might be the cause for de-motivating the company employees.