Abstract :

Leadership plays a prominent role in contributing to the effectiveness of organisations carrying out business in competitive environments. Democratic leadership encourages collaborative decision making in organisations involving superior and subordinates. However, an organisational environment characterised by poor management and planning hinders successful application of democratic leadership. This study investigated how democratic leadership style affected the performance of selected food and beverages manufacturing companies in South-West, Nigeria based on a review of extant literature that indicated the need for more studies in this regard.

The study was conducted based on a survey research design. The questionnaire was used for data collection. Slovin’s formula was used for obtaining the sample size while stratified sampling technique was the basis for classifying the employees into levels – top management, middle management, and low-level workers. Simple random sampling was adopted in collecting data from each level. The predictor and outcome variables were measured on a four-point Likert scale that ranged from strongly disagree, 1, to strongly agree, 4.

The results of the study indicated that democratic leadership produced positive effect (β = .422, t = 8.663, p < 0.05) on corporate performance. The implied potential to boost the sales of the studied companies. However, the value of the coefficient of determination, .167, indicated the need for improving planning activities as a means of enhancing the potential of achieving increases in corporate performance through variation in democratic leadership style.

It was indicated in the conclusion of the study that it was necessary for future research to incorporate more leadership styles into the model of this study. This would enable the companies to determine the potential contribution of individual leadership styles to corporate performance as well as their collective contribution.

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Keywords :

Corporate Image, Corporate Performance, Democratic Leadership Style, Sales

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