The Influence of Leadership Styles on Service Delivery in Mombasa County, Kenya

Abstract

Leadership is considered as a practice where one or more people impact a group of people to act in a certain way. The extent to which an individual shows leadership qualities is determined not only by his features and personal abilities, but also on the circumstances and environment in which he finds himself. The implementation of devolved government system in Kenya has enabled most citizens to receive efficient and better services. This is facilitated by supportive leadership style such as democratic styles which enables different actors to take part in making decisions and implementation of service delivery. The objective of this study was to establish the influence of leadership styles on service delivery in Mombasa County. The research used the descriptive design because of the capability to collect a large amount of data quickly and at a minimal cost. The study population comprised 307 respondents from four departments namely; Health, Devolution & Public Service Administration, Trade, Tourism and Investments, Finance & Economic Planning, Agriculture, Fisheries, Livestock & Cooperatives and Transport, infrastructure & Public works. Stratified sampling technique was used to select the sample of 155 respondents for this study. Primary and secondary data was used to achieve the objectives of this study. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data in order to identify trends in the responses. The analysis was based on four leadership styles: autocratic, democratic, bureaucratic and laissez-faire. Findings on autocratic leadership showed that it is not widely practised in Mombasa County. The results revealed that democratic leadership is widely practised in Mombasa County. Managers involve employees before making final decisions to a great extent and also encourage active participation of employees in decision making. Bureaucratic leadership also influences the service delivery in Mombasa County to a great extent. Results on Laissez-faire leadership indicated that it is also widely practised and hence influences service delivery in Mombasa County. The results revealed that managers allow staff to make their own decisions without any interference and that every departmental staff is free to make approval of their work without involving the manager. All the leadership styles were found to be positively correlated with service delivery implying that some form of leadership is necessary for service delivery to take place in Mombasa County. The study concluded that democratic leadership is widely practiced in Mombasa County and has great influence on service delivery. The study also concluded that bureaucratic leadership is widely practiced in Mombasa County due to standard procedure requirements by the central government and the Constitution of Kenya. The study recommended that the County government of Mombasa should ensure that there is both employee involvement and participation in decision making to enhance service delivery. Employee involvement in decision making process ensures that they own the projects leading to improved service delivery. The study further recommended that all the officers in charge of County projects should be trained by the government on leadership skills which will in turn enhance service delivery in all departments.”