TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF STATE CORPORATION IN KENYA.

Abstract

Leadership is vital in the overall performance of any organization. The leadership chosen is dependent on various contingent factors. The environment influences the link between leadership and performance. The combination of the various factors contributes to the leadership selected which influences the performance of the organization. Over the past three decades, transformational leadership has emerged as one of the predominant paradigms to understand leadership efficacy. Transformational leadership theory is based on the concept that certain leader behaviors transform followers' values, needs, preferences, and aspirations, and motivate them, “to perform above and beyond the call of duty”. Transformational leadership has gained extensive attention in the literature research because of its potential proposition for the performance of the organizations. Research indicates that this type of leadership can collectively influence workforce performance and loyalty leading to improvements in the workers motivation and creativity. In consideration to the past decades research findings and strength this forms the foundation for this study research on the importance of transformational leadership through its four constructs; idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration and their influence on organizational performance in fifty five state corporation in Kenya with commercial and strategic functions. A total of 257 surveys instrument questionnaires were distributed with 235 retuned and 215 were suitable for use. The data was analyzed using multiple regressions method with a significance level of p < 0.05. The measurement instrument used was on five likert scale ranging from strongly disagree as 1 to strongly agree as 5. The results indicate that while transformational leadership and three of its constructs; inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration contributed to 78.6 percent of the variation in organizational performance; idealized influence was moderately a significant factor contributing to the study outcomes. Top Leadership management may need to focus on these constructs of transformational leadership to improve performance of the organizations understudy.