Leadership style is the most prevalent factors that influence employees’ attitudes and behaviours including organizational commitment. Leaders have adopted various styles when they lead others in the organization (Kuppers, 2007. Some leaders use democratic, people or relationship cantered approach and others prefer autocratic, production cantered method in order to achieve a similar goal, which is organizational effectiveness. Chiang & Wang, (2012) added that the choice of a managerial style is contingent on diverse factors such as personality traits of leaders, followers’ acceptance of the leaders, their readiness, task complexity and the norms and values embraced by the organization’s members. Therefore, managers must possess special ability to diagnose the organization’s environment accurately, identify the contingent factors and subsequently make a sound decision in leading the organization towards success. Emery & Barker (2015), added that emotional intelligence ability offers great help to guide a manager in choosing the right leadership styles as emotional intelligence is a set of abilities to accurately assess the emotions of self and others, regulate the emotions to achieve the desired state and use the emotions towards achieving the expected performance
Hu & Liden (2011) noted that managerial style is an ‘influence process’ between leaders and subordinates where a leader attempts to influence the behaviour of subordinates to achieve the organizational goals. Effective managerial style is a factor that have been regarded as fundamental for organisational success because an effective manager is a leader who is capable of providing direction for the organisation and lead followers towards achieving desired goals. An organisation that fosters good managerial style is capable of retaining and attracting employees with the skills that it needs (Mosadegh Rad & Yarmohammadian, 2006). Lok and Crawford (1999, 2001) and Mosadegh Rad and Yarmohammadian (2006) also examined the relationship between the two factors and concurred that the style adopted by the management of an organisation has significant impacts on employee turnover as an effective managerial style enhances employees’ psychological and physical wellbeing and positively affects employee performance (Vroom, 1964; Porac, Ferris, & Fedor, 1983).
According to Mosadegh Rad and Yarmohammadian (2006), employee job satisfaction refers to the attitude of employees towards their jobs and the organization which employs them. Messick and Kramer (2004) argued that the degree to which a manager exhibits leadership traits depends not only on his characteristics and personal abilities, but also on the characteristics of the situation and environment in which he finds himself. Managerial styles are characteristic ways of making decisions and relating to subordinates. Managerial styles can be categorized into two main contrasting styles, autocratic and permissive. Morales, Barrionuevo & Guti”rrez (2012) stressed that management styles are also divided into the main categories of autocratic, paternalistic, and democratic styles and that the differences in individual features such as personality and managing style are the most important causes in expecting whether certain job conditions will result in stress or not which will eventually lead to employee turnover.
Morales, et al., (2012) also noted that what is stressful to one person may not be stressful to another. Managerial style can impact the employee’s self-esteems and their ultimate success in either a positive or negative manner.
Epitropaki & Martin (2005) added that Since human beings become members of an organization in other to achieve certain personal objectives, the extent to which they are active members depends on how they are convinced that their membership will enable them to achieve their predetermined objectives. Therefore, a staff or an employee will support an organization if he believes that through it his personal objectives and goals could be met; if not, the employee’s interest will decline. Managerial style in an organization is one of the factors that play significant role in enhancing or retarding the interest and commitment of the individuals in the organization. Glantz (2002) emphasized the need for a manager to adopt the best form of leadership style.
The Nigerian banking industry has witnessed and is still witnessing revolutionary metamorphosis in recent years as a result of the restructuring programmes channelled towards resolving the existing problems of the industry by the apex bank. The most recent is the recapitalization exercise which has shaped the structure of the Nigerian banking industry significantly. The consolidation proposal which represents the latest attempt by the CBN to tackle the problem of bank distress and failure and restore investors’ confidence through building an industry that is strong; safe and sound has altered grossly the structure of the Nigerian banking system. First, the number of banks shrank from 89 to 25 and currently 24 just as there was an increase in minimum capital base from N2 billion as at July 2004 when the then CBN governor presented the consolidation proposal to N 25 billion as at December ending 2005 that marked the expiration of the date which banks were given to meet the N25 billion minimum capital requirements.
In many banks, the changes in placements resulted into serious job cuts and rationalization in both consolidated and non-consolidated banks. This only served to make bankers regard their jobs as unstable. Job cuts are continuous in the banking sector and this has the tendency to make employees less committed to their jobs and as well accentuate the already worsen labour turnover in the sector. For instance, the thirteen non-consolidated banks were dissolved and their operating licenses withdrawn and the implication here is that some or most of their employees lost their jobs. The number of those who lost their job as a result of the consolidation of banks was put at 45,000 employees involving all categories and cadres. This may be considered high in an economy in where the labour market is saturated and graduate unemployment situation has remained very critical.
These structural changes occasioned by the consolidation reform have some serious implications leading to mergers. As a result of these mergers, there has been downsizing leading to forced resignations and retrenchment of more than 45,000 trained bankers, (Ernest, 2011). It is understandable that most staff will focus on retention of their positions against the backdrop of labour instabilities. Alarmingly, however, in spite of the current state of the job market, the industry is experiencing a growing trend in voluntary turnover, a situation where a worker resigns and not necessarily to take up a more lucrative job in a conducive employment. It is in light of this that the researcher decided to undertake this research work in order to evaluate managerial style and its impact on staff turnover. This research is also expected to contribute to empirical studies on managerial style and staff turnover, proffer quantitative-based recommendations for policies and programmes to reposition the Manager (Especially in the banking sector) to adopt the best form of leadership style that can be used in managing their employee so as to reduce overall staff turnover.
Since the banking sector is very wide, the researcher elected to narrow down the scope of the survey some branches of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc for better management and accuracy of the research results.
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