Influence of managers’ leadership styles on employees’ access to their rights in education based non governmental organizations in Busia District, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of managers’ leadership styles on employees’ access to their rights in education based NGOs in Busia District. Busia was chosen because there exist rampant cases of labor rights violations. The study was guided by four research objectives. The objectives sought information on the extent to which managers’ leadership styles of democratic, autocratic, laissez-faire and charismatic influence employees’ access to their rights. The literature review relevant to this study laid the background for the study. The study employed descriptive research design. The target population comprised of 10 managers and 360 employees. The sample size was therefore 10 managers and 160 employees totaling to 170 respondents. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. Data were analyzed by use of descriptive statistics. From the study findings the most popular leadership style used by managers was democratic although employees also indicated that their managers used autocratic style. Democratic and charismatic leadership styles were found to enable higher percentage of employees’ access their rights. While autocratic leadership style was found to be retrogressive and largely did not enable employees access their rights. The study concluded that whilst managers’ leadership styles influenced employees’ access to their rights, the leadership styles played insignificant role in enabling employees form and join trade unions. This right was found to be influenced by other factors such as organizational policies and employment contracts. The study recommended that managers leadership skills need to be enhanced through frequent training to be able to handle better the human resource in their organizations and that managers of education based NGOs should ensure that organizations keep abreast with current regulations as well as any subsequent amendments or repeals so as to cater for employees rights adequately.