ASSESSMENT OF LEADERSHIP ON EMPLOYEE MOTIV ATIO AND PRODUCTIVITY: A CASE STUDY OF TAMALE POLYTECHNIC

Abstract

Employees are the driving force for any organization's success and if they are well motivated and taken good care of, productivity, growth and efficiency in the organization could increase. The main objective of the study is to assess the effects of corporate leadership behaviour on staff motivation and productivity in the Tamale Polytechnic. Key issues the study examined include; leadership styles of management of Tamale Polytechnic and how these impact on staff motivation and productivity. Research tools used for obtaining information by the researcher were: questionnaire, interview, focus group discussions and observation. The sampling techniques used were: simple, stratified and purposive for both academic and administrative staff. Primary and secondary data collected from employees and other sources for the basis of the study. The major findings for the study were that the Polytechnic authority adopts more of transformational leadership styles in its management and most of these leadership practices impact positively on staff motivation. A direct relationship between employee motivation and productivity was revealed. The study discovered that authorities of the Polytechnic used committee system in most of their decision makings. However, the authorities did not encourage power sharing as well as delegation of authority for staff to take strategic decisions and innovations are equally not encouraged. It further revealed that though productivity was a major concern for management, no target outputs were set for staff to achieve. From the study, recognition for staff contribution to the achievement of organizational goals as well as good working environment have been important motivating factors for staff to increase overall productivity. In conclusion, the leadership style of management of the Polytechnic was quite transformational and that staff motivation has a direct relationship with productivity. That motivation works better where leadership have a clear idea of how people feel at any particular moment and demands some form of regular review. It is the recommendation of this study that transformational leadership styles exhibited by the management of the Polytechnic should be encouraged and that motivational factors such as monetary and non-monetary reward systems should be put in place to influence staff productivity.