The Effect of Leadership Style on the Performance of Civil Service Organizations in Addis Ababa City Administration

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to analyse the effect of leadership styles on the performance of civil service organization of Addis Ababa city administration. The study has employed concurrent mixed research, and both descriptive and explanatory research designs. The study has included 400 sample employees. Purposive and simple random sampling (lottery method) were used to select and access the sample key informants and for questionnaire distribution respectively. Both primary and secondary data were used. The data was collected using questionnaires, key informant interviews, and FGD. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical (regression) analysis. On the other hand, the qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings of the study show that the current level of performance of the civil service organizations is found to be low. Autocratic leadership is a dominant leadership style practiced in the study area, followed by democratic style. Laissez-faire leadership is relatively less practiced but has a positive and insignificant effect on organizational performance. Though, autocratic leadership style is dominant, it has significant negative effect on the performance of organizations. As a result, it has been suggested to the organizations and/or leaders to dominantly exercise democratic leadership styles and benevolent autocratic leadership styles, for in order to boost organizational performance.