Impact of leadership styles on employee engagement and performance at Maldives Airports Company Ltd / Hawwa Viuma Ahmed

Abstract

With the rising competition in the business, all organizations fight to have a sustainable competitive advantage over the other. Some Organizations today use the concept of employee engagement as a strategic tool for a positive impact on the performance of the organization which can in turn result in the overall profit of the organization. One of the key drivers is leadership. (Bedarkar and Pandita, 2014).

Therefore, this research is carried out to find the effect these three variables have on Maldives Airports Company Ltd (MACL) and which leadership style; from transformational, transactional and laissez-faire is most effective for the employees of MACL.
Quantitative methodology was adopted for this research. A survey was conducted on the staffs of MACL, by administering an online questionnaire to a sample size of 323. The results were analyzed through descriptive analysis and inferential analysis by using SPSS. The hypotheses were tested and accepted. The analysis of results determined that while all the leadership styles had a relationship with employee engagement and performance, transformational leadership had the strongest impact on employee engagement and performance. The level of employee engagement was found to be at 74% indicating that the staffs at MACL are engaged. The research was concluded with limitations of this study and with recommendations for future.

Key words: Leadership, Transformational leadership, Transactional Leadership, Laissez-faire Leadership, Employee Engagement, Performance