Influence of Directing Style of Situational Leadership on Employee Performance inPublic Universities in Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya, higher education faces numerous challenges that include quality assurance issues amidst rampant changes in policies and the regulatory framework with the Ministry of Educationregularly decrying the quality-of-service delivery in public universities. Employee performance is a key metric in determining the level of service outcomes.Leadership is also a critical component in this dynamic as leaders influence workers towards increasing productivity through decision making, provision of resources andgiving direction.This study investigated the influence of directing leadership style on employee performance in public universities in Kenya. Anchored on the Situational Leadership Theory, a positivist philosophy and a descriptive correlational research design, sampled heads of departments and administrators used self-administered questionnaires to provide the data that wassubjected to statistical analysis with the aid of SPSS version 30.High agreement among respondents (μ > 3), significant correlation results (p< .05), and R² = 21.1%demonstrateda positive and significant relationship between directing leadership style and employee performance. The study, aiming to inform policy in regards to quality of service delivery in public universities, recommends that public universities institutionalize directing leadership style practices to improve employee performance and subsequent organizational effectiveness.