ASSESSMENT OF LEADERSHIP STYLE AND EMPLOYEES SATISFACTION IN THE CASE OF AWASH BANK

Abstract

The goal of this study was to assess the relationship of leadership style with employee satisfaction. A sample size of 300 respondents was involved from employees of Awash bank worked under head quarter in Addis Ababa. The study used descriptive and explanatory research design, and multifactor leadership questionnaire developed by Bass and Avolio (1995) was adopted. The first objective of the study was to show the relation of leadership style and employee satisfaction, the second objective was to identify dominant leadership style practiced in the company and the third objective was to determine the degree of relation between leadership style and employee’s satisfaction. The study used mixed approach to collect and analyze data. The sample size of 300 staffs were selected from target population using random sampling. A five-point Likert scale questionnaire, interview and document review were used to collect data. Descriptive tools and content analysis were used to analyze the collected data. Descriptive statistics show the relatively significant value associated with employee satisfaction is transformational leadership style followed by transactional leadership style. Correlation result shows that transactional and transformational leadership styles positively correlated to employee satisfaction, whereas laissez faire leadership style inversely correlated to employee satisfaction. According to the result of the study awash bank dominantly practiced transactional leadership style. To enhance perceived leadership influence on employee satisfaction, transformational leadership style advised to adopt, shared visions and values, participating employees in decision making and problem solving and providing employees and managers learning opportunity to enhance their knowledge’s and skills are among the recommendations forwarded.