Influence of Leadership Styles on Employees’ Engagement Among Non-Academic Staff of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Engagement of an employee with the work describes the identification with the organization he/she works for in which they have expectations from the work, are provided with the resources to do their work, have opportunities to participate in making the organization better, and receive feedback on how well they perform in their roles.  The foregoing concerning the employees and their organization and this can be influenced by the style through which those employees are led. The study made use of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) and Leader Member Exchange (LMX) to collected data from the selected sample. The result of the analysis revealed autocratic style of leadership (F(1,92)=.147;p>.05, does not independently predict employee engagement  as well as democratic style (F(1,92) = .671; p<.05) and laissez-faire style (F(1,92) = 4.005; p<.05). Taken together, leadership style is important to the employee engagement of the selected workers. This study concludes that a highly engaged workforce is the sign of a healthy organization, and having them contribute their best to the success of the organization which is influenced by the way they are lead will contribute to the overall success and accomplishments of members of the organization and the organization at large. This study recommends that leaders within the Nigerian university should appropriately incorporate cultural values in conjunction with the styles with which they lead people that will promote work environments that fosters positive work engagement among employees.

Keywords: leadership, engagement, employees, effectiveness, style, organization, university