Transactional and transformational leadership styles and their effect on job satisfaction for employees in uMgungundlovu District Municipality.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Changes in organisational structure, vision and leadership are inevitable in any organisation. Leadership style is a special distinctive trait that differentiates one leader from another. It is also a powerful effective force to influence followers to move from one direction to the next in achieving maximum results to efficiently and effectively deliver service to the community served. This research aimed at examining the influence of transformational or transactional leadership style on employee’s job satisfaction at uMgungundlovu district municipality. This was a cross sectional quantitative study conducted among 214 participants who were selected using stratified sampling techniques. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Results showed that the majority (82%) of the participants were in favour of the transformational leadership style. There was a significant relationship found between leadership styles and job satisfaction. However the study also found that there is a significant association between race and job satisfaction. Changes in organisational structure, vision and leadership are inevitable in any organisation. Leadership style is a special distinctive trait that differentiates one leader from another. It is also a powerful effective force to influence followers to move from one direction to the next in achieving maximum results to efficiently and effectively deliver service to the community served. This research aimed at examining the influence of transformational or transactional leadership style on employee’s job satisfaction at uMgungundlovu district municipality. Quantitative research as a research methodology, questionnaires were developed as research instruments to target a total of 214 respondents (sample population) with five Likert scale questions consisting of three sections, namely A being demographical information, section B being leadership style and C being job satisfaction, these were distributed amongst the respondents and collected after two weeks. The sampling process was achieved through stratified sampling among the four departments that constitute the municipality and the various levels of positions that form the cross-section of the sample. After collection was analysed through use of descriptive and inferential statistics (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient) for testing reliability of questionnaires. The results vii showed that the dominant leadership style depicted by management of uMgungundlovu district municipality is that of transformational, where about 82% positively sided with his leadership style, in the context of awareness of the company strategy. A correlation of job satisfaction to a leadership style was also achieved with most employees proving to be job satisfied in the context of participation in decision making, where about 70% of respondents were in the affirmative in this question. In comparison transactional leadership tendencies seemed minimal, for example; in the context of employees seen as lazy, only 32% were in affirmative as was only 46% in the context of low morale.