INFLUENCE OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE. A CASE STUDY OF SAFARICOM LIMITED

Abstract

Safaricom Limited has enjoyed phenomenon success in its organizational history starting as a department of the state Telkom parastatal to the largest company in East and Central Africa. The success of Safaricom has largely been attributed to its innovativeness as a competitive strategy under the leadership of visionary management team. The study examined the three components of transformational leadership that is inspirational motivation, individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation application at Safaricom. The theories that have been used for the study included the transformational leadership theory and the transactional theory. The study utilized a sample size of 109 respondents and proportionate stratified sampling. The structured questionnaire was utilized for data collection. The pilot study was used for checking of the reliability and validity. The SPSS was used for the data analysis. The study found a positive influence between inspirational motivation and employee performance. Respondents on average tended to agree with the presence of motivation to accomplish job goals and objectives, support for team building, leader’s expression of what employees should do, and leaders’ helping employees find meaning in their work. This implied that the changes in the inspirational motivation had significant changes in employee performance in which an increase in inspirational motivation led to an increase in employee performance. The analysis of the relationship between individualized consideration and employee performance was negatively correlated and statistically significant. The influence of the individualized consideration on the employee performance were measured using five metrics: receipt of support to improve on employee’s work; employee’s satisfaction with workplace conflicts settlements; employee’s receipt of help to find meaning in their work; employee’s receipt of support to overcome job challenges; and leadership issuance of job performance feedback.The responses for employee’s satisfaction with workplace conflicts settlements indicated lack of consensus due to a high standard deviation of 1.151 therefore the leadership need to put emphasis on conflict management mechanism so as to improve employee performance. Finally, the study found a positive influence between intellectual stimulation and employee performance. The influence of the intellectual stimulation on employee performance was examined using five metrics: Employee’s opportunity to work in a way he thinks’ best; employee’s permission to set own pace for change; employee’s allowance to make judgment in solving problem; employee’s receipt of help to rethink of ideas that had never been questioned; and employees’ challenge to think of old problems in new ways. The study therefore suggests the following aspects of transformational leadership for further studies; a research on effect of transformational leadership on organizational performance of Safaricom Limited and the effect of transformational leadership on financial performance on other communication service providers, government and private sector.

Key Words: Transformational Leadership, Employee Performance, Inspirational Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation, Individualized Consideration