dc.description.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.” | en_US |