Paternalistic Leadership Style, Leader Effectiveness and Employee Engagement among Employees in the Horticultural Industry in Uganda

Abstract

Employee engagement is a worldwide challenge that organizations are facing. According to the Gallup research, only 13% of employees around the world are actively engaged at work. Leaders in organizations are responsible for the decisions made on employee engagement drivers like recognition, employee decision in-put, performance goals which affect the commitment and dedication of employees to their work. Therefore, through this study, I investigated the association between paternalistic leadership style, leader effectiveness and employee engagement among workers at Wagagai Limited using a cross-sectional study design. A sample of 237 employees in the categories of harvest pickers, supervisors, managers, and Head of departments was utilized. Data was collected using standardized questionnaires and was analyzed using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression analysis in process macro. Findings revealed that paternalistic leadership has no significant relationship with leader effectiveness (r=.08, p≥.05), paternalistic leadership has a significant relationship with employee engagement (r=.30, p≤.01) and leader effectiveness has a significant relationship with employee engagement (r=.40, p≤.01). The study concludes that leader effectiveness does not mediate the relationship between Paternalistic leadership styles and employee engagement. A paternal leader can influence the engagement levels of employees without being worried whether they are effective leaders or not.