Leadership styles, employee commitment to strategy and strategy implementation among NGOS in Kampala

Abstract

Existent research affirms that all organizations‟ creative well-crafted visions and strategic plans create stakeholders‟ value only when translated into action. Thus, Leadership and employee commitment were widely described in strategic management literature as key drivers of effective strategy implementation. Therefore, the major objective of this study was to explore the relationship between leadership styles, employee commitment to strategy and strategy implementation among NGOs in Kampala. The study was quantitative and used a cross-sectional design. A sample of 123 NGOs located in Kampala Capital City was generated and 204 respondents were interviewed with 83% response rate. Primary data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire from Executive Directors, Program/Project Managers or Coordinators and Project or Program officers. Data was tested for reliability, analyzed using SPSS version 20 and Pearson correlation was employed to determine the relationship between variables. Regression analysis was used to determine the extent to which independent variables predict strategy implementation among NGOs. Findings revealed a positive and significant relationship between the study variables. That is to say; leadership styles and employee commitment to strategy (r=0.638, p<0.01); leadership styles and strategy implementation (r=0.594, p<0.01) as well as employee commitment to strategy and strategy implementation (r=0.647, p<0.01). Regression analysis results also revealed that both Leadership styles (Beta = .306, p<.01) and employee commitment to strategy (Beta = .451, p<.01) were found to be significant predictors of strategy implementation by 46.3%. This implied that strategy implementation in NGOs significantly improves or deteriorates with the improvement or deterioration of both leadership styles and employee commitment to strategy by 46.3%. Therefore, Leaders in NGOs should practice a mix of transformational and transactional leadership tactic to ensure they create a fully committed workforce to the organizational strategies.