Leadership Styles and Employees’ Performance of Deposit Money Banks in Minna Metropolis, Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

The performance of employees in deposit money banks which is essential for facilitating sustainable optimal organizational productivity, largely depends on the quality of leadership to facilitate motivation, innovation, and adaptability in a highly competitive financial environment. This study investigates the effect of three strands of leadership styles, namely transactional, transformational and strategic leadership styles on employee performance of deposit money banks in Minna Metropolis. A structured questionnaire was administered to 208 frontline workers (teller attendants and marketers) of twenty-five branches of deposit money banks in Minna Metropolis. Multiple regression was used to analyze the data using STATA software. The findings revealed that transactional leadership style, transformational leadership as well as strategic leadership style all had a positive and significant effect on employees’ performance of deposit money banks in Minna Metropolis. The study therefore concludes that all the three leadership styles play a critical role in shaping employees’ performance and aligning leadership approach with the dynamics of these leadership dimensions can go a long way in yielding optimal performance outcomes. Accordingly, it is recommended that bank managers should integrate a blend of the various leadership styles for sustainable performance by leveraging on the strengths of motivation and discipline from transactional leadership style, inspiration and innovation from transformational leadership, and foresight and adaptability from strategic leadership style.