ABSTRACT

The study the influence ofleadership style on employees’ performance (A study ofMinistry of Finance, Umuahia, Abia State). Specifically, the study determine the relationship between leadership style and employees performance; ascertain factors that affect leadership style in the ministry offinance Umuahia; identify different leadership style adopted by ministry of finance Umuahia and examine the effect ofleadership style on employeeperformance. Primary data sourcedfrom distribution ofquestionnaires to 226 staffofMinistry ofFinance, Abia State were usedfor the study. A test-re-test was conducted to ensure validity and reliability ofthe data. The data werepresented using simplefrequency andpercentage andwere analyzed using correlation coefficient model, multiple regression and Chi-square model. The result that majority of the respondents with 73.51% posit that the organization adopts democratic leadership style; 47.57%> of the respondents strongly agree that leadership style affects employees ’performance; majority ofthe respondents ’ rate the relationship between leadership style and employee performance positive with 74.59°/o; 50.27°% ofthe respondents posits that leadership style relates with employees’ performance to a very large extent; majority ofthe respondents 18.39%, 17.84% and 17.30°%> agrees’ that poor communication, level ofeducation and level ofcorruption respectively are the core factors affecting leadership style in Ministry offinance Abia State. The revealed there is positive relationship between leadership style and employees ’ performance in Ministry offinance Abia State, Nigeria. The result from factors affecting reveals that poor communication, organizationalpolicy, level ofcorruption and level ofeducation were significant, thus has significant effect on effective leadership style in Ministry of Finance Abia State. In addition, democratic, autocratic, laissez faire, transformational leadership style, transactional leadership styles have significant effect on employee's performance in Ministry of Finance Abia State. It was recommended that the ministry of Finance, Abia state and other organizations should evolve a leadership style for the management which should have the bestfeatures ofdifferent leadership styles. This will ensure that the leadership style is not too dictatorial nor overly tax.