Exploring Leadership Styles: Their Impact on Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance

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Kasturi Sahay, Ashish Mohan, Manish Pd. Rajak, Sephalika Sagar, Avirup Mukherjee, Tamal Bhattacharya

Abstract

Leadership plays a crucial role in shaping employees' attitudes toward their work and influencing their overall performance. Research suggests that while transactional leadership tends to exhibit either a low or negative association with employee engagement, transformational and democratic leadership styles are more positively correlated with higher engagement levels. This study focuses on examining leadership behavior, employee commitment, and organizational productivity within various cultural contexts. A mixed-methods research design was utilized, integrating quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews conducted with a sample of 500 employees from the USA, UK, India, and Australia. Participants were chosen based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. Analytical techniques such as frequency distribution and correlation analysis were employed to explore the relationships among the variables. Comparisons across different nations provided insights into how leadership styles vary based on cultural sensitivity. The findings revealed a significant positive correlation between transformational leadership and engagement (r = 0.76, p < 0.01) and between democratic leadership and engagement (r = 0.65, p < 0.01). However, transactional leadership demonstrated only a weak positive correlation with engagement (r = 0.32, p < 0.05). Cultural differences also influenced leadership effectiveness, with transformational leadership being predominantly observed in the USA and the UK. This study emphasizes the importance of adopting transformational and democratic leadership approaches to enhance employee commitment and boost organizational performance. Additionally, the findings underscore the necessity of aligning leadership styles with cultural contexts to achieve optimal outcomes.

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How to Cite
Kasturi Sahay, Ashish Mohan, Manish Pd. Rajak, Sephalika Sagar, Avirup Mukherjee, Tamal Bhattacharya. (2024). Exploring Leadership Styles: Their Impact on Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance. European Economic Letters (EEL), 14(4), 1793–1800. Retrieved from https://www.eelet.org.uk/index.php/journal/article/view/2311
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