The impact of transformational leadership and a series of organisational factors on employee performance – a survey of organisations in ghana

Abstract

Within global competitive markets, some developing economies (e.g. Ghana) lag behind those of developed countries (e.g. the UK), resulting in a widening economic gap. The growing disparity between the developed and the developing economies has caused great concern among political leaders, organisat­ional leaders, management researchers, and other world bodies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Such disparity raises the question as to what factors account for the differences in performance between developing and developed economies. How do firms and organisations in developed economies obtain higher levels of performance than firms and organisations in developing economies? Research indicates that factors such as transformational leadership, organisational culture, organisational climate, organisational commitment, and national culture can influence performance in the western economies. However, such evidence does not exist in the developing economies like Ghana.

This thesis therefore explores whether these western concepts similarly apply in the developing economies like Ghana. Five hundred and eighteen (518) employees were sampled from fourteen (14) organisations in Ghana in a cross-sectional survey. Multi-varied analysis of the data revealed significant relationships amongst the research variables: Significant differences across research variables also exist between organisations from the different sectors. Analyses through structural equation modelling indicated that transformational leadership (stimulating leadership, and supportive leadership), organisational commitment, organisational climate, and organisational culture (innovative culture, tranquil culture, and bureaucratic culture) adequately explained the variance in employee performance. It was concluded that factors that affect employees in the western economies also apply, with some variation, in the developing economies like Ghana. Suggestions and recommendations were made for future research.