Effects of Transformational Leadership on Work Stress among Top Managers in State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in Kenya

Abstract

Effective managerial leadership at all levels of society is essential for coping with the growing social and economic problems confronting a country. Currently most of the state owned enterprises (SOEs) are making losses or operating below their full potential. This poor performance could be influenced by the inability of top management to perform under stress. Work stress may reduce the productivity of the top management ultimately leading to poor performance. There are various factors that influence work stress among them is leadership styles. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of literature focusing on the effect of leadership styles on work stress in SOEs. This study sought to investigate the role of transformational leadership style on work stress in commercial SOEs in Kenya. Specifically, the study examines the effect of modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act and encouraging the heart on work stress among the top managers of Kenya SOEs. To achieve these objectives the study targeted 175 top managers of commercial SOEs but collected data from 162 managers representing a response rate of 93 percent. The study used factor analysis to create indices for modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, encouraging the heart and work stress. Correlation analysis was used to test the strength of the relationship between work stress and each dimension of transformational leadership. Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the magnitude and direction of each dimension of transformational leadership on work stress. The study found that model the way positively influence work stress and inspire a shared vision negatively influence work stress while other dimensions of transformational leadership have no significant effect on work stress among top managers of commercial SOEs in Kenya. The study recommends that managers should be trained and retrained in order to incorporate good leadership practices that will reduce work stress and increase productivity of the SOEs in Kenya.

Keywords: Work Stress, Transformational Leadership, State Owned Enterprises