Analysis of the influence of leadership on the performance of employees in a cement factory in the North West Province of South Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between leadership and performance of subordinates in a cement factory. The research focussed on servant leadership as it is a leadership which can make real changes in industries in South Africa and yet it is not fully explored. While a lot of research has been done on servant leadership, very little has been done to investigate the how servant leadership affects performance of subordinates in industry environment. The present study therefore sought to answer how servant leadership influences performance of subordinates in industrial environment. Servant leadership dimensions namely servant leadership culture, servant leadership style, relationship that exists between servant leader and follower and the perception of followers on servant leadership were measured and correlated against performance of subordinates. Pearson (r) correlation analyses were used to examine the relationship between servant leadership dimensions mentioned above and performance of subordinates. A statistically significant and positive correlation was found between servant leadership and performance for the dimensions of servant leadership tested. The tests proved that the stronger the existence of servant leadership in an organisation the better the performance of subordinates.