ST.

MARY’S UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

AN ASSESSMENT OF LEADERSHIP STYLE PRACTICES AT ETHIO

TELECOM AND THEIR EFFECT ON EMPOYEE MOTIVATION

BY

FIKREMARIAM BEREDED

(SGS/0187/2009B)

June, 2020

ADDIS ABEBA, ETHIOPIA

 AN ASSESSMENT OF LEADERSHIP STYLE PRACTICES AT ETHIO
TELECOM AND THEIR EFFECT ON EMPOYEE MOTIVATION

BY

FIKREMARIAM BEREDED

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO ST.MARY’S UNIVERSITY, SCHOOL OF

GRADUATE STUDIES, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQURENMNTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER’S OF BUSINESS
ADMINISTRATION (MBA)

JUNE, 2020

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

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 ST. MARY’S UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES
FACULITY OF BUSINESS

AN ASSESSMENT OF LEADERSHIP STYLE PRACTICES AT ETHIO

TELECOM AND THEIR EFFECT ON EMPOYEE MOTIVATION

BY

FIKEREAMAM EREDED

APPROVED BY BOARD OF EXAMINERS

_________________________ __________________________

Dean, Graduate Studies Signature & Date

_________________________ __________________________

Advisor Signature & Date

_________________________ ___________________________

External Examiner Signature & Date

_________________________ ___________________________

Internal Examiner Signature & Date

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 DECLARATION
I, the undersigned, declare that this thesis entitled “An Assessment of leadership style practices
at Ethio Telecom and their effect on employee motivation” is my original work and has not been
presented in any other university, and that all sources of materials used for the study have been
duly acknowledged.

Fikeremariam Bereded __________________________

St. Mary’s University College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia April, 2020

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 ENDORSEMENT
This thesis has been submitted to St. Mary‟s University, School of Graduate Studies, for
examination with my approval as a University advisor.

Goitom Abraham (Asst. Professor ) _______________

Advisor Signature

St. Mary’s University College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia June , 2020

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis advisor Assistant Professor Goitom
Abraham for helping me throughout the thesis process. Without his guidance and assistance the
completion of this research would not have been possible. I would also like to thank my brothers
Dr. Yared Bereded, Seyom Bereded and Yoseph Bereded and my sister W/ro Kidist Bereded for
their unreserved advice, support and guidance. I am thankful and grateful to all my friends for
their great support in the data collection process. Without their support, it would have been
difficult to get such a great response rate. Finally, I would like to thank my beloved wife W/ro
Alemensh Teklu and my son Biniyam Fikeremariam for their understanding and the support they
gave me and the sacrifice they rendered in completing my paper.

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 ABSTRACT

With fast developing economy today, motivation of employees becomes critical resource for organization
success / failure. The purpose of this research is to examine the motivation of ETHIO TELECOM
employees’. Actually, the main aim of this research was to evaluate the leadership styles that practiced by
the Ethio-telecom management who were assigned at different managerial posts and also to examine the
effect of practiced management style to motivate and contribute to their effectiveness. The research was
used quantitative survey method that employed descriptive and explanatory type of research design is
employed which aimed at to identify the perceived leadership style and its impact to motivate employee in
the company. To address this critical issue the research was guided by the following research question:
What type of leadership styles are dominantly practiced at Ethio-telecom? Which leadership styles do
employees at Ethio –telecom prefer? How looks like the relationship between the leadership styles and
the motivation of employees? The sample respondents were randomly 158 staff members of Ethio
Telecom from core divisions at head quarter and zone officers where leadership style and motivation are
highly linked using appropriate formula. A highly structured questionnaire was used to collect data and
SPSS –version 24 was used to organize and analyze the data captured from the respondents. Descriptive
statistics were used to explain the current expected and practiced management style in the organization.
Inferential statistics such as Correlation analysis was used to explain the relationship between the four
leadership style and employee motivation. A multiple regression was employed to identify the most
influential predictors. The research finding showed the dominant perceived /practiced/ leadership style in
Ethio Telecom was transactional and followed by autocratic, which is highly unexpected. In contrary
transformational, transactional and democratic leadership are the preferred styles by the company’s
employees. And also the study indicated that the perceived motivation employee emanated from those
perceived transformational leadership, though they were few in number and followed from perceived
democratic ones. On the other hand, the findings of the investigation about the association of employee
motivation and different management style, democratic, transactional and transformational leadership
were positively and significantly correlated. Finally, the multiple regression reviled that the transactional
leadership the most influential leadership style in producing better employee motivation. The major
challenges which reviled parallel to quantitative data were the implementation of the organizational
transformation process which lets the seizure of key managerial posts by inexperienced staff by non-
transparent procedure that might be the cause for de-motivating the company employees.

Keywords: leadership styles, transformation, placement, core divisions, motivation

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................. i
ENDORSEMENT ........................................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................... i
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background of the Study ............................................................................................. 2
1.2 Background of the Organization ................................................................................. 5
1.3 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................................ 6
1.4 Objectives of the Study ............................................................................................... 8
1.4.1 General Objective .................................................................................................. 8
1.4.2 Specific objectives ................................................................................................. 8
1.5 Significance of the study ............................................................................................. 9
1.6 Scope/Delimitation of the Study ................................................................................. 9
1.7 Definition of Key Terms ........................................................................................... 10
1.8 Organization of the Study.......................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER TWO .......................................................................................................................... 11
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE .................................................................................... 11
2.1 Theoretical Literature Review .................................................................................... 11
2.1.1 Leadership Theories ............................................................................................ 13
2.1.2 Principles of Leadership ...................................................................................... 16
2.1.3 Leadership Styles ................................................................................................. 17
2.1.3.1 Autocratic Leadership Style ................................................................................ 18
2.1.3.2 Bureaucratic Leadership Style ............................................................................. 19
2.1.3.3 Democratic/Participative Leadership Style ......................................................... 19
2.1.3.4 Laissez-Faire Leadership Style ............................................................................ 19
2.1.3.5 Transactional Leadership Style ........................................................................... 19
2.1.3.6 Transformational Leadership Style ..................................................................... 20
2.1.4 Factors That Determine Leadership Style ........................................................... 20

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 2.1.4.1 Size of an Institution/Organization ...................................................................... 20
2.1.4.2 Degree of Interaction/Communication ................................................................ 21
2.1.4.3 Personality of Members ....................................................................................... 21
2.2 Motivation ................................................................................................................. 22
2.2.1 The Concept of Motivation.................................................................................. 22
2.2.2 Content and process theories ............................................................................... 22
2.2.3 Theories of Motivation ........................................................................................ 23
2.2.3.1 Early Theories of Motivation .............................................................................. 23
2.2.3.2 ERG Theory ......................................................................................................... 23
2.2.3.3 Theory X and Theory Y ....................................................................................... 23
2.2.3.4 Herzberg‟s Theory ............................................................................................... 24
2.2.3.5 Three- Needs Theory ........................................................................................... 24
2.2.3.6 Contemporary Theories of Motivation ................................................................ 24
2.2.3.7 Expectancy Theory .............................................................................................. 25
2.2.4 Type of motivations ............................................................................................. 25
2.3 Empirical Literature Review ....................................................................................... 26
2.3.1 Empirical Literature Review Made Out Side Ethiopia ........................................ 26
2.3.2 Empirical Literature Review Made In Ethiopia .................................................. 27
CHAPTER THREE ...................................................................................................................... 28
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY ........................................................................ 28
3.1 Research Method ........................................................................................................ 28
3.2 Population and Sampling Techniques ......................................................................... 29
3.2.1 Population ............................................................................................................ 29
3.2.2 Sample and Sampling Techniques ....................................................................... 29
3.2.2.1 Population ............................................................................................................ 29
3.2.2.2 Sample population ............................................................................................... 29
3.3 Sources of Data and Data Collection Tools/Methods ................................................. 30
3.3.1 Source of Data ..................................................................................................... 30
3.3.2 Data Collection Tools .......................................................................................... 30
3.4 Data Collection Procedures......................................................................................... 31
3.5 Methods of Data Analysis ........................................................................................... 32

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 3.6 Reliability and Validity of Measures .......................................................................... 32
3.6.1 Reliability Assurance ........................................................................................... 32
3.6.2 Validity Assurance .............................................................................................. 33
3.7 Ethical Considerations ................................................................................................ 33
3.8 Conceptual Framework ............................................................................................... 34
CHAPTER FOUR ......................................................................................................................... 35
DATA ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION AND DISCUSSION ................................................ 35
4.1 Response Rate ............................................................................................................. 35
4.2 Demographic Characteristics of Respondents ............................................................ 35
4.3 Analysis of Data Collected for the Leadership style in ETHIO TELECOM ............. 37
4.3.1 Autocratic Leadership Style ................................................................................ 37
4.3.2 Democratic Leadership Style ............................................................................... 39
4.3.3 Transactional Leadership Style ........................................................................... 41
4.3.4 Transformational Leadership Style ..................................................................... 43
4.4 Effects of Leadership on Employee Motivation ......................................................... 46
4.4.1 Effects of ETHIO TELECOM Leadership on Employee Motivation ................. 48
4.5 Relationship between leadership style and employee motivation measures .............. 49
CHAPTER FIVE .......................................................................................................................... 55
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ..................................................... 55
5.1 Summary of Major Findings ....................................................................................... 55
5.2 Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 57
5.3 Recommendations ....................................................................................................... 57
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 59
APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................... 62

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 The sample population per six divisions and the head quarter ................................... 30
Table 3.2: Reliability Analysis ..................................................................................................... 32
Table 4.1: Demographic Characteristics of respondents .............................................................. 36
Table 4.2: Autocratic Leadership style ......................................................................................... 38
Table 4.3: Democratic Leadership ................................................................................................ 40
Table 4.4 Transactional Leadership type ...................................................................................... 42
Table 4.5: Transformational Leadership style .............................................................................. 44
Table 4.6: Rank based on Expected and Practiced Leadership scores ........................................ 45
Table 4.7: Employees motivation Practiced ................................................................................. 47
Table 4.8: Average motivation practiced per leadership category ............................................... 48
Table 4. 9: CORELATION ........................................................................................................... 50
Table 4.10: Multiple linear regression table (Coefficients) .......................................................... 53

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 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Degree of motivation of employees have been found to be a catalyst for employee‟s performance
and therefore for organization success. In this respect many companies struggle to offer attractive
benefits, salaries and incentives (Davis, 2004) to retain its human capital in a competitive
market. Because in this global age the success of a company is highly depend on the degree of
attracting and retaining employees in the company. As seen in different literatures multiple
individual, organizational and technological factors play significant role for the success or failure
of retaining employees.

Leadership is often regarded as the most critical factor in the success or failure of an institution
(Bass, 1990). However, leader must understand their impact on employees, and ultimately on the
organization. In particular, leadership style play an important role in creating an atmosphere and
culture of enthusiasm and productivity among the employees that help them do what they
supposed to do. As Dixon (2015) “Most large organizations… continue to spend millions each
year on motivation courses, training in motivation, meetings to boost motivation,
incentives to strengthen motivation, meetings to analyze problems in the workforce
motivation, tools to measure motivation, mission statement and so on…”.

Earl leadership researches focused on trait and behavior theories. Traits approach emphasizes
attributes of leaders such as personality, motives, values and skills. However researchers have
realized that no trait would guarantee leadership success (Yukl, 2002, P.12 )

Transactional and transformational leadership models began to materialize to ensure the

characteristics effective leaders. Transactional leadership, which is based on exchange, uses
reward or punishment as incentives to manipulate follower in to performing tasks (Avolio and
Bass, 2002) and serve as the basis for development of transformational leadership (Avolio,
1999). Transformational leadership has been ascribed with effective change by influencing
values, attitude and others (Avolio and Bass, 2002).

Collis and Montgomery (1995), in their research conclude that behind success of giant
organization, employees play the fundamental role. High level of efficiency of individual

1
performer can lead the organization to achieve their targeted goals as stated by Armstrong and
Baron, (2004).

The purpose of this study was to determine whether different leadership styles affect employees‟
motivation in Ethio-telecom. Ethio-telecom may use the results of this study to ascertain the
effectiveness of leadership styles that can motivate its employee and become an input for the
ongoing organization transformation project. Improving the leadership skills of managers and
supervisors may result in better telecom services where individual citizens get world class
services which could facilitate as a means to positively influence peoples‟ lives, business and
other sectors by producing social and technological transformation.

1.1 Background of the Study

Organization is a complex social system and is the sum of many interrelated variables such as
people, structure, purpose and exist in order to provide satisfaction for their members.

In today‟s competitive workplace, managers should equip themselves with leadership orientation
and employee behaviors knowledge. Doing business in a competitive environment, regardless of
the field of production or service, require leaders to have a clear vision and direction to maintain
and develop the company. To reach business success, there are several key factors such as:
leadership skills, environment impacts and the most important element are human resources.

Anderson and King (1993), concluded that with respect to the management of transformation
processes in organizations, there is a strong need for leaders who are more change-centered.
These leaders place value on the development of a clear vision and inspire followers to pursue
the vision. In this way they provide a strong motivational force for change in followers. He also
concluded that besides a participative leadership style, a clear vision or mission is most likely to
foster innovation.

The Ethiopian government has devoted a high share of its budget to pro-poor program and
investments. On the document released by Ministry of Finance and Economic Development
(MoFED) September 2010 GC Addis Ababa, it is stated that enhancing expansion and quality of
infrastructure development expansion and maintenance of infrastructure such as road, power,
water supply and telecommunication need to be seen from the standpoint of enhancing and

2
sustaining pro-poor growth by way of job creation, initiating domestic industrial development,
expanding human capital and improving human development. In line with this the government
has implemented different transformation projects in its public owned companies including Ethio
Telecom.

To improve the performance of Ethio - Telecom communication service the Ethiopian

government in the year 2008 GC has entered in to a huge expansion project through vendor
financing which amounts more than 3.5 billion dollars. The purpose of the network expansion
project was to upgrade the technology and coverage to give access to millions of prospect
customers. It was believed at then the very vast network coverage and deployment of the
upgraded technology need to review the incumbent company manpower structure and working
process. To conduct the study, the Board has decided to invite an international consultant and
entered into contractual agreement with an American based company. As per the agreement
Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) was selected as the first option to be seen as attempt to
enhance the company‟s performance.

But, the preliminary study of this consultant proved that the company cannot improve its
performance to the expected level by BPR and proposed the need for total transformation as an
imperative solution. The then Board of Directors, accepted the consultant‟s proposal and start
acting accordingly but, need for huge expansion project through vendor financing including the
consultant proposal for transformation was never been discussed among the staff. The governing
board immediately decided to re-establish the company and entered a two years management
contract with French Telecom Company, France Telecom. The company was tasked to transform
the company as a change management strategy. If change implementation ultimately depends on
the attitudes and behaviors of organizational members, then it is important studying change with
employees‟ motivation attributes.

Schwaninger (2008) stated that, creating and having well informed and motivated employees is
one of the most important aspects in time of transformation. But, as (Samuel and Chipunza,2009)
stated the imperative need to discover, comprehend and ensure employee motivation has become
a principal concern for organizations and managers because employee motivation has been, and

3
will be the deciding factor in work performance, success or failure of an organization and such
ambitious objective to be achieved has to be attributed with high employees‟ motivation.

The Consultant‟s responsibility was to study the manpower structure and assign staff to all job
positions including the key managerial posts, as well as coaching the key managers and manage
the operations of the company. Although transforming the company was a noble idea and the
implemented manpower structure was flatter with more centralized management, the direction of
the company was orchestrated at the very top where the lower levels of management and
employees are managed with a very strict and a top-down approach to execute their tasks.

But, the implementation of placement process which was carried out by inviting and
interviewing three randomly selected staff members for all managerial posts has resulted in the
occupation of key managerial posts by an inexperienced personnel through a non-transparent
recruitment process.

The above process was arguably against the job specification requirements of any standard
institutional restructuring and the flawed process could result in wrong job-fit. Expecting
appropriate leadership and motivation of employees from the new inexperienced mangers could
be a very unrealistic goal in any modern business management.

An organizations leadership style is considered to have a direct impact on the relations between
superiors and employees, thus affecting both the performance, job satisfaction and commitment
and the organizations total coherence (Wilderom, Berg and Peter, (2004).
Out of standard leadership models, anyone of the: transformational, transactional, democratic
and autocratic leadership styles could be applicable to Ethio Telecom. In this paper the above
models are individually reviewed to study which practices are dominant and the study tries to
assess their impact on the motivation of employees. Therefore, the whole intent of this research
paper is to assess the leadership style practiced by the newly appointed mangers and the
motivation level of the existing employees.

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By doing the assessment it is believed to fill the identified research gap and highlight the
consequence of practicing wrong placement recruitment procedures and its impact on the
motivation of the employees. It is the strong belief of the researcher that decision made by the
Board of Directors should have been based on scientific ground and should have the capability to
persuade the employees who are serving the company.

Any demotion or promotion that took place should have been backed by strong and realistic
justification. The staff placement which was conducted by the French Telecom Consultants was
the very reason that drives this researcher to conduct this study. The researcher‟s past experience
shows that keeping hierarchical ladder, to gradually grow up from lower to top managerial posts
would give the person the opportunity to accumulate the skills or knowledge and experience
required for the consecutive posts which could be wider in their scope and deeper in their
complexity as they promoted to higher levels.

If the conclusion reveals that the employees are demotivated or underutilized and negatively
affected by the inappropriate leadership style exercised by the newly appointed managers, it will
eventually trigger an interest in the Board of Directors or other responsible bodies to conduct a
further in depth research and seek proper solution that could mitigate the problem. As the
theoretical and empirical studies suggests, any business including Ethio Telecom needs to
address the employees‟ motivation issues to meet its organizational objectives and missions.

1.2 Background of the Organization

The introduction of telecommunication services in Ethiopia dates back to 1884 GC. The initial
phase was an installation of 477 kilometers long telephone and telegram lines from Harar to
Addis Ababa (Tele Negarit, 2007). In the year 1945 EC through proclamation No 131/43 the
telecommunication company became the sole service provider of telecommunication services.
And 44 years later it was transformed as a corporation and named Ethiopian Telecommunication
Corporation (ETHIO TELECOM) through proclamation No 10/89 EC.In December 2010 GC,
then was restructured and rebranded as Ethio Telecom.

The company is led by a Board of Directors appointed by the government. After receiving a
consultant preliminary company assessment report in year 2008 GC, the same Board of Directors

5
decided to transform the company which at the time was the only enabling option left to meet the
mission and objectives of the newly established company.

The company as a sole telecom service provider started its initial operation by providing voice
telephone service 1884 GC between Harrar and Addis Ababa, has developed into mobile, and
narrow band, GPRS, broadband data and internet services with a total geographic coverage of
75% of the country and serving more than forty million customers.

The new company has a vision as to be a world-class telecom service provider with a mission to
connect Ethiopian through state-of- the art telecom services and build its managerial capability
and manager‟s talent that enables Ethio Telecom to operate at international scale. It also state as
its companies values - “Lead with vision, respect customers, be committed to high level
organizational excellence, integrity and accountability.” (National telephone directory 2016/17)

This phenomenon which results in uncompressible job-fit mismatch from the commonly
practiced logical managerial practice was the bases for this research paper in studying what type
of leadership style is predominately exercised by this new appointee and its impact on the
motivation of their subordinate and employees. If the practiced leadership style does not
motivate its employees the need for revisiting the job designs, job specifications, organizational
structure and placement and promotion practice implemented at the transformation phase will get
better emphasis by the Board of directors for properly addressing the company‟s employee‟s
problem.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

The whole objective of the re-establishment of Ethiopian telecommunication to Ethio -telecom is
to upgrade its capacity and performance to meet the customer expectations which play its vital
role in the ever-increasing economic growth. The success of change implementation ultimately
depends on the attitudes and behaviors of organizational members, and then it is important
studying change with employees‟ motivation attributes. In this regard, Schwaninger (2008)
stated that, creating and having well informed and motivated employees is one of the most
important aspects in time of transformation.

As part of the change, the management part was outsourced to meet the demands of the fast-
growing telecom services in the country (Ethio Telecom company, profile, 2013). As the result

6
of this TEC was launched transformation of the company with the aspiration to be a world class
operator. Hence, main objective of the management contract with France Telecom among others
to establish a world class Telecom service provider capable of rendering international standard
services. Nevertheless, according to Reporter (July 30, 2011) evaluation, „the challenges faced
by Ethio Telecom and the customer dissatisfaction are increasingly worsening and for customers,
the future is highly unpredictable‟.

The reporter statements were also supported by ETHIO TELECOM general meeting held at the
end of 2010 company evaluation by saying that the consultant placement decision could not get
acceptance by the senior management group, who were devoid of their previous posts, including
the young employee who aspire for merit-based promotion (Annual general meeting
proceedings, 2010). Furthermore, the French Telecom Consultants made a small survey and
came up to conclusion that the former demotion or promotion that took place because of BPR
should have been backed by strong justification and which was the very reason that drives this
researcher to conduct this study. The researcher‟s past experience also showed that keeping
hierarchical ladder, to step up from lower to top managerial posts would give the person the
opportunity to accumulate the skill and knowledge and experience required for the consecutive
posts which could be wider in scope and deepen in their complexity as they promoted to higher
levels.

Though the organization transformation process is not coming to an end, ETHIO TELECOM
will face fierce competition from world class operators in the near future because government of
Ethiopia is allowed other international telecoms who are capable in financial and technological
investment to participate in telecom services. This may causes experienced and high and middle
level employees of TEC would be snatched by new coming operators easily by offering better
salary, incentives and work environment.

On the other hand, an empirical study made by Rima Ghose Chowdhury, student of Doctor of
Philosophy (BusinessManagement), at Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patil University‟s Department of
Business Management on November 2014 has proved that leadership and the different associated
styles have an immense impact on how employees perform and grow, to lead positive
organizational outcomes.

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In view of the above, this study has tried to explore leadership style practices at Ethio telecom
and their effect on employee motivation and at the end recommends a mechanisms how ETHIO
TELECOM motivate its employees to retain them and able to perform its tasks in competitive
telecom service in this ever changing telecom world by keeping its contribution to the GDP.

Basic Research Questions

The basic research questions that the study tried to address include the following:

1. What type of leadership style/s is/are dominantly practiced at Ethio- telecom?

2. What is the relationship between the leadership style/s practiced and the motivation of
employees?
3. Which leadership styles motivates employees to exert their level best effort to achieve the
goals and objectives of the organization.

1.4 Objectives of the Study

1.4.1 General Objective

The general objective of the study is to assess the leadership style practices at Ethio-telecom and
their effect on employee motivation.

1.4.2 Specific objectives

Specifically, the objectives of the study include the following:

1. To investigate the what dominant leadership style/s that is/are practiced at Ethio-
telecom,
2. To assess which leadership style/s employees prefer to be practiced by their
managers.
3. To examine the relationship between preferred and practiced leadership and
employee motivation and also examine the relationship between perceived
employee motivation with different perceived leadership type.
4. To examine the extent of motivation of Ethio-telecom employees
5. To examine the effect of the practiced leadership style/s on the motivation of
employees

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1.5 Significance of the study
The finding of this study may help Ethio-telecom‟s governing body to pin point the role of
appropriate leadership need to be practiced to motivate and retain its employee and utilize
effectively the available human capital potential to meet the goals and objectives laid by the top
management. Furthermore, the research finding contribute for developing proper strategy how
ETHIO TELECOM survive in the upcoming business competition.

While the study‟s primary aim is to assess the impact of leadership style on employees‟
motivation, it could also trigger the board of directors and other pertinent parties to revisit their
previous decisions in appointing management made at the transformation phase and to take an
appropriate action.

It may also serve as a stepping stone for potential researchers who are interested to conduct
further study in the area.

1.6 Scope/Delimitation of the Study

The scope of this study was delimited to employees working at headquarter and zone office
because of financial and time constraint. And the content of the study will be delimited to issues
related to leadership style of managers in Ethio telecom after it is established as rebranded
company as of 2000 GC after the department of the company staff and how mangers in ETHIO
TELECOM motivate their employees. And finally all efforts were highly focuses on releasing
the link between practiced management style and extent of motivation of the employees.

Although the company is operating at national level by using more than 15,000 employees, this
study is delimited to employees working at headquarter and zone offices because of the
researcher want to investigate the perception of employees on leadership style. To compensate
this limitation, the investigator intentionally included zonal offices residing in Addis Ababa

The research limit itself on examining the casual effect leadership type on employee motivation
even if the dependent variable could be affected by other factors because of time constraint

9
1.7 Definition of Key Terms
1.7.1 Leadership: A leader in a formal, hierarchical organization, who is appointed to a
managerial position, has the right to command and enforce obedience by virtue of the authority
of his position.
1.7.2 Management; -Company staff assigned at managerial post to lead the company by
placement procedure.
1.7.3 Motivation: - Employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that
a company's workers bring to their jobs.
1.7.4 Transformation: - Refers to organizational transformation, and about changes associated
with structure, policy, procedures, way of operating systems, customer handling philosophy,
technology implementation, benefit packages and the like.
1.7.5 Placement; - The human resource process carried out for appointing the company
permanent employees on the newly organizational structure based on the job specification
requirement stated and approved by the pursuant body. The process usually made in transparent
way to get the best job- fit between the organizational structure and employee available in the
company.
1.7.6 Core divisions: those divisions whose role and responsibility is critical to the organization
business, here in this research core division only includes Marketing, Sales and Network
(Operation and maintenance).

N.B. All definitions are the researcher own definitions

1.8 Organization of the Study

This study was organized into five chapters. Chapter one introduces the back ground of the
problem of the study areas and research questions, the research objectives, significance of the
study, scope and limitations of the study. Chapter two covers the review of the related literature.
Chapter three presents the research design and methodology that used to carry out this research.
Chapter four is the central theme or core of this paper where data are presented, analyzed,
interpreted and discussed. Finally, Chapter five comprises findings and discussions, summary,
conclusions and recommendations of the findings.

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 CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Theoretical Literature Review

The Concept of Leadership

Leadership is a „‟social influence process that is necessary for the attainment of societal and
organizational goals; it is both conspicuous in its absence and mysterious in its presence –
familiar and yet hard to‟‟ (Faeth 2010:2). Most Leaders in business organizations understand that
they have power and that they understand the source of their power: their position; their ability to
reward and to coerce; their expertise; and their personal appeal and charisma. They influence
their followers‟ behavior through communication, group dynamics, training, rewards and
discipline.

The above concept tells us that, leadership for it to be effective and successful, the leadership
method should be practiced through a multi-pronged approach. Above all, an understanding of
the subordinates to be effective and successful, the applied method should be practiced behavior
and potential be it in the upper management or down at the lower ladder of the structure is
beneficial to build a group dynamics and provide proper training when required.

Cole (2005) defines Leadership as a dynamic process whereby one man influences other to
contribute voluntarily to the realization and attainment of the goals objectives; aspiration of
values of the group that is representing the essence of Leadership is to help a group or an
Organization to attain sustainable development and growth. Employee commitment is defined as
the degree of identification and involvement that individuals have with their organization‟s
mission, values and goals. It is a multidimensional construct that comprises affective
commitment, normative commitment and continuance commitment.

Allen and Meyer (1997) also define affective commitment as the employee‟s emotional
attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization.

Howell &Avolio, 1989: stated that leaders who enhance followers‟ confidence and skills to
devise innovative responses, to be creative, and to take risks, can also facilitate the changeover

11
processes in organizations. As promoters of change, transformational leaders elicit performance
beyond expectations by instilling pride, communicating personal respect, facilitating creative
thinking and providing inspiration.

Swanepoel, Erasmus, Van Wyk and Scheck (2000) : Highlighted that leadership styles that
encourage employee commitment is essential in order for an organization to successfully
implement business strategies, achieving their goals, gain competitive advantage and optimizing
human capital. The above statement also indicates that without committed employee‟s
implementation of any company‟s strategy is very difficult. Employees commitment helps the
individual to share and own the vision and mission of the company.

Zeffann(2003: 979) : pined that “the answer to the question of employee commitment, morale,
loyalty and attachment may consist not only in providing motivators, but also to remove
demotivates such as styles of management not suited to their context and to contemporary
employee aspirations”. Thus, a leadership or management style that encourages employee
involvement can help to satisfy employees desire for empowerment and demand for a
commitment to organizational goals. The study potentiates the impact of leadership for employee
commitment which this study is trying to address.

Helliegel, Slocum, and Woodman (1992) describe motivation as “the force acting on or within a
person that causes the person to behave in a specific, goal-directed manner". Driving employees
towards a consistent behavior in a goal-oriented manner is essential for utilizing the full potential
of employees so as to ensure quality output and successful organizational out comes. The
imperative need to discover, comprehend and ensure employee motivation has become a
principal concern for organizations and managers because employee motivation has been, and
will be the deciding factor in work performance, success or failure of an organization (Samuel
and Chipunza, 2009). Ensuring employee motivation will enhance their commitment to build an
innovation and creative culture. This work place culture would be difficult to be achieved
through a simple top down managerial chain instructions or/and defined job descriptions.

Blickle (2003), asserts that as suggested by Drucker (1999), organizations are now evolving
toward structures in which rank means responsibility but not authority, and where the
supervisor‟s job is not to command, but to persuade. Hence, in order to be effective, it is critical

12
for managers to influence their subordinates, peers, and superiors to assist and support their
proposals, plans, and to motivate them to carry out with their decisions.

Buchanan (1974), Defines commitment as “loyalty, identification, and involvement with some
appropriate object”. In an organizational setting, such loyalty involves feelings of attachment,
which develops as individuals share values in common with other members of the group.

One of the common and best practices with successful businesses is that managers try to
replicate themselves in many ways thereby the subordinates always have a role model and aspire
to reach their potential. This approaches help companies to fill unexpected gaps when key
employees leave or resign for various reasons as well as expand their structure using internal
skills with a built up culture

Eisenberger et al.( 2001), Emphasizes that commitment is feeling of emotional attachment with
something or someone. This attachment might be mental or intellectual with a person, group or
with organization.

Gaertner (2000: 487): Argues that “more flexible and participatory management styles can
strongly and positively enhance organizational commitment”. Organizations need to ensure that
leadership strategies are aimed at improving employee commitment rather than compliance as
with autocratic leadership style.

2.1.1 Leadership Theories

2.1.1.1 Skills Theory
This theory states that learned knowledge and acquired skills/abilities are significant factors in
the practice of effective leadership. Skills theory by no means refuses to acknowledge the
connection between inherited traits and the capacity to lead effectively, but argues that learned
skills, a developed style, and acquired knowledge, are the real keys to leadership performance. A
strong belief in skills theory often demands that considerable effort and resources be devoted to
leadership training and development (Wolinski, 2010). While most research today has shifted
from traditional trait or personality-based theories to a situation theory, which dictates that the
situation in which leadership exercised is determined by the leadership skills and characteristics
of the leader (Avolio, Walumbwa, & Weber, 2009).

13
All contemporary theories can fall under one of the following three perspectives: leadership as a
process or relationship, leadership as a combination of traits or personality characteristics, or
leadership as certain behaviors or, as they are more commonly referred to, leadership skills. In
the more dominant theories of leadership, there exists the notion that, at least to some degree,
leadership is a process that involves influence with a group of people toward the realization of
goals (Wolinski, 2010).

Charry (2012), noting that scholarly interest in leadership increased significantly during the early
part of the twentieth century, identified eight major leadership theories. While the earlier of these
focused on the qualities that distinguish leaders from followers, later theories looked at other
variables including situational factors and skill levels.

Good leaders are thus made, not born. Good leadership is developed through a never ending
process of self-study, education, training, and the accumulation of relevant experience (Bass &
Bass, 2008).This theory give emphasis on the relevance of accumulated experience which is the
issue that this study tries to focus.

2.1.1.2 "Great Man" Theory

Great man theories assume that the capacity for leadership is inherent, that great leaders are born,
not made. These theories often portray leaders as heroic, mythic and destined to rise to
leadership when needed. The term great man was used because, at the time, leadership was
thought of primarily as a male quality, especially military leadership (See also, Ololube, 2013).

2.1.1.3 Trait Theory

The trait theory assumes that people inherit certain qualities or traits make them better suited to
leadership. Trait theories often identify particular personality or behavioral characteristics that
are shared by leaders. Many have begun to ask of this theory, however, if particular traits are key
features of leaders and leadership, how do we explain people who possess those qualities but are
not leaders? Inconsistencies in the relationship between leadership traits and leadership
effectiveness eventually led scholars to shift paradigms in search of new explanations for
effective leadership.

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2.1.1.4 Contingency Theories
Contingency theories of leadership focus on variables related to the environment that might
determine which style of leadership is best suited for a particular work situation. According to
this theory, no single leadership style is appropriate in all situations. Success depends upon a
number of variables, including leadership style, qualities of followers and situational features
(Charry, 2012). A contingency factor is thus any condition in any relevant environment to be
considered when designing an organization or one of its elements (Naylor, 1999). Contingency
theory states that effective leadership depends on the degree of fit between a leader‟s qualities
and leadership style and that demanded by a specific situation (Lamb, 2013).
Situational Theory

Situational theory proposes that leaders choose the best course of action based upon situational
conditions or circumstances. Different styles of leadership may be more appropriate for different
types of decision-making. For example, in a situation where the leader is expected to be the most
knowledgeable and experienced member of a group, an authoritarian style of leadership might be
most appropriate. In other instances, where group members are skilled experts and expect to be
treated as such, a democratic style may be more effective.

2.1.1.5 Behavioral Theory

Behavioral theories of leadership are based on the belief that great leaders are made, not born.
This leadership theory focuses on the actions of leaders not on intellectual qualities or internal
states. According to the behavioral theory, people can learn to become leaders through training
and observation. Naylor (1999) notes that interest in the behavior of leaders has been stimulated
by a systematic comparison of autocratic and democratic leadership styles. It has been observed
that groups under these types of leadership perform differently: Autocratically led groups will
work well so long as the leader is present. Group members, however, tend to be unhappy with
the leadership style and Democratically led groups do nearly as well as the express hostility.
Autocratic group. Group members have more positive feelings, however, and no hostility. Most
importantly, the efforts of group members continue even when the leader is absent.

15
2.1.1.6 Participative Theory
Participative leadership theories suggest that the ideal leadership style is one that takes the input
of others into account. Participative leaders encourage participation and contributions from group
members and help group members to feel relevant and committed to the decision-making
process. A manager who uses participative leadership, rather than making all the decisions, seeks
to involve other people, thus improving commitment and increasing collaboration, which leads to
better quality decisions and a more successful business (Lamb, 2013).

2.1.1.7 Transactional/Management
Transactional leadership theories, also known as management theories, focus on the role of
supervision, organization and group performance and the exchanges that take place between
leaders and followers. These theories base leadership on a system of rewards and punishments
(Charry, 2012). The theory states that a leader‟s job is to create structures that make it
abundantly clear what is expected of followers and the consequences (rewards and punishments)
associated with meeting or not meeting expectations (Lamb, 2013). When employees are
successful, they are rewarded and when they fail, they are reprimanded or punished (Charry,
2012). Managerial or transactional theory is often likened to the concept and practice of
management and continues to be an extremely common component of many leadership models
and organizational structures (Lamb, 2013).

2.1.1.8 Relationship/Transformational Theory

Relationship theories, also known as transformational theories, focus on the connections formed
between leaders and followers. In these theories, leadership is the process by which a person
engages with others and is able to “create a connection” that result in increased motivation and
morality in both followers and leaders. Relationship theories are often compared to charismatic
leadership theories in which leaders with certain qualities, such as confidence, extroversion, and
clearly stated values, are seen as best able to motivate followers (Lamb, 2013).

2.1.2 Principles of Leadership

In addition to leadership theories, the principles of leadership are a commonly studied
phenomenon. The United States Army (1983) has identified eleven basic principles of leadership
and the means for implementing them:

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  Be technically proficient: As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid
familiarity with the tasks of your different employees;
 Develop a sense of responsibility in your workers: Help to develop good character traits
that will help them carry out their professional responsibilities;
 Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished: Communication is key.
A leader must be able to communicate effectively. Leaders should spend most of their
day engaged in communication. Older studies, in fact, noted that organizational leaders
(managers) spent 70 to 90 per cent of their time each day on communication and related
activities (Barrett, [n.d]);
 Keep your workers informed: Know how to communicate with not only junior staff, but
senior staff and other key people as well;
 Know your people and look out for their well-being: Be well versed in basic human
nature and recognize the importance of sincerely caring for your workers;
 Know yourself and seek self-improvement: In order to know yourself, you have to
understand what you are, what you know, and what you can do (attributes). Seeking self-
improvement means continually strengthening your attributes. This can be accomplished
through self-study, formal education, workshops, reflection, and interacting with others;
 Make sound and timely decisions: Use good problem solving, decision making, and
planning tools;

 Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions: Search for ways to guide
your organization to new heights. When things go wrong, do not blame others. Analyze
the situation, take corrective action

2.1.3 Leadership Styles

Leadership styles are the approaches used to motivate followers. Leadership is not a “one size
fits all” phenomenon. Leadership styles should be selected and adapted to fit organizations,
situations, groups, and individuals. It is thus useful to possess a thorough understanding of the
different styles as such knowledge increases the tools available to lead effectively.
The concept of leadership in the global financial crisis has resulted in a wave of unprecedented
challenges to the world‟s economic & political order. In a situation of turbulence, the one key
factor that can make a difference, through foresight and dexterity, is Leadership. The search for
the right definition has been age-old. According to Bass and Avolio (1997), a single specific

17
definition of leadership is a very complex task as literature and studies on this topic are varied
and there is no definition which is widely and universally accepted. Some definitions describe
leadership as an act of influence, some as a process and yet others have looked at a person‟s trait
qualities. Nel et al. (2004) define leadership as the process whereby one individual influences
others to willingly and enthusiastically direct their efforts and abilities towards attaining defined
group or organizational goals.
.Bass, Waldman, Avolio, and Bebb (1987) discovered that leaders scoring higher on
Transformational Leadership factors have followers who display greater levels of
transformational behaviors. There is nothing enduring about their relationship; no actual
engagement has occurred. Whereas transactional leaders on the other hand expect certain work
behaviors from their subordinates who are compensated for these behaviors by both monetary
and nonmonetary rewards. Laissez-faire leadership, also known as delegation leadership, is a
type of leadership style in which leaders are hands-off and allow group members to make the
decisions. The concept of Employee commitment which has direct relationship with leadership
style followed by the managements defined as the degree of identification and involvement that
individuals have with their organization‟s mission, values and goals. It is a multidimensional
construct that comprises affective commitment, normative commitment and continuance
commitment. Allen and Meyer (1997) define affective commitment as the employee‟s emotional
attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization. This statement shows
how that the leader and his or her followers should develop a healthy relationship where trust,
confidence and aligned to the same destination play a pivoting roll in achieving the set goal.
Therefore, proper leadership which create employee‟s motivation could be taken as a key factor
in business performance.

2.1.3.1 Autocratic Leadership Style

Autocratic leadership is an extreme form of transactional leadership, where leaders have

complete power over staff. Staff and team members have little opportunity to make suggestions,
even if these are in the best interest of the team or organization. The benefit of autocratic
leadership is that it is incredibly efficient. Decisions are made quickly, and the work to
implement those decisions can begin immediately. In terms of disadvantages, most staff resent

18
being dealt with in this way. Autocratic leadership is often best used in crises situation, when
decisions must be made quickly and without dissent.

2.1.3.2 Bureaucratic Leadership Style

Bureaucratic leaders follow rules rigorously and ensure that their staff also follow procedures
precisely. This is an appropriate leadership style for work involving serious safety risks (such as
working with machinery, with toxic substances, or at dangerous heights) or where large sums of
money are involved. Bureaucratic leadership is also useful in organizations where employees do
routine tasks (Shaefer, 2005). The drawback of this type of leadership is that it is ineffective in
teams and organizations that rely on flexibility, creativity, or innovation (Santrock, 2007).

2.1.3.3 Democratic/Participative Leadership Style

Democratic leaders make the final decisions but include team members in the decision-making
process. They encourage creativity, and team members are often highly engaged in projects and
decisions. There are many benefits of democratic leadership. Team members tend to have high
job satisfaction and are productive because they are more involved. This style also helps develop
employees‟ skills. Team members feel a part of something larger and meaningful and so are
motivated to by more than just a financial reward. The danger of democratic leadership is that it
can falter in situations where speed or efficiency is essential. During a crisis, for instance, a team
can waste valuable time gathering input. Another potential danger is team members without the
knowledge or expertise to provide high quality input.

2.1.3.4 Laissez-Faire Leadership Style

Laissez-faire leadership may be the best or the worst of leadership styles (Goodnight, 2011).
Laissez-faire, this French phrase for “let it be,” when applied to leadership describes leaders who
allow people to work on their own. Laissez-faire leaders abdicate responsibilities and avoid
making decisions, they may give teams complete freedom to do their work and set their own
deadlines. Laissez-faire leaders usually allow their subordinate the power to make decisions
about their work (Chaudhry & Javed, 2012).

2.1.3.5 Transactional Leadership Style

This leadership style starts with the idea that team members agree to obey their leader when they
accept a job. The transaction usually involves the organization paying team members in return

19
for their effort and compliance. The leader has a right to punish team members if their work
doesn't meet an appropriate standard. The minimalistic working relationships that result
(between staff and managers or leaders) are based on this transaction (effort for pay)

2.1.3.6 Transformational Leadership Style

Transformational leadership links with positive outcomes on individual as well as organizational
levels. Transformational leaders embolden followers to attain higher-order needs like self-
actualization, self-esteem (Bass, 1985), and are influential in surging followers' motivation in the
direction of “self-sacrifice and achievement of organizational goals over personal interests (Bass,
1995). Leaders with Idealized Influence demonstrate heightened concerns and cognizance of
followers' needs and generate a sense of shared risk-taking” (Jung et al., 2008). Inspirational
Motivation affords a cradle of encouragement and challenges followers to achieve the set goals,
whereas, Intellectual Stimulation inspires followers to be more creative and innovative in their
problem-solving skills.

This is the leader who is the path maker. This is the leader who is the visionary. This is the leader
who motivates, uplifts, inspires, and empowers people to perform at levels far beyond anything
they‟ve ever done before.

Throughout Ethiopia be it public or private business, some of the above leadership styles have
been practiced. The dominant and typical styles observed by the researcher are Autocratic,
Democratic, Transactional d transformational types; and this study tried to address the
mismanaged Transformational leadership style which was practiced at the Ethio Telecom.

2.1.4 Factors That Determine Leadership Style

There are a number of factors that can help to determine which type of leadership style is most
effective and/or when to draw on a different or combination of leadership styles. Listed below
are a number of these factors as outlined by (Ibara, 2010, pp. 74-76).

2.1.4.1 Size of an Institution/Organization

Many organizations have the tendency to grow, and as they grow, to divide into subgroups where
the real decision-making power lies. As institutions or organization grow, problems arise which
may become more difficult to address at a macro or senior management level. At the same time,
as institutions and organizations grow larger and become more multifaceted, there is a propensity

20
for decision making to be centralized (Naylor, 1999). This situation leads to limited employee
participation or no participation at all.
Old and traditional organizations like Ethio Telecom have decades of built culture whereby the
management practices and cultures are carried over to the generations where individuals became
repository of knowledge and change management is usually resisted. Modern technology
companies always operate with a slimmer structure and defined processes and flexibility. It is
difficult to implement change to bigger organizations like Ethio Telecom within a shorter period
of time. This is mainly because effective changes happen with the readiness for change in the
mindset of the employee first.

2.1.4.2 Degree of Interaction/Communication

Organizational interaction or communication in this paradigm refers to a relational approach
between two or more individuals on the basis of social and organizational structures aimed at
achieving goals (Ololube, 2012). Given that uncertainty surrounds many situations in
organizations, leaders need to be involved with their staff. In this way, leaders can keep focused
on key issues and ensure that organizational learning takes place. The quantity and quality of
interaction in an organization tends to influence the style of organizational management with the
main issue being that employees must work together in order to accomplish tasks. According to
Naylor (1999), for organizations to be effective managers must have open channels. Managers
must constantly share information; If the employees are denied from critical information, which
determine the futurity of their company. including the placement of staff in non-transparent
manner that have a direct effect on their carrier employee‟s commitment will remain in vain.
2.1.4.3 Personality of Members
The personality attributes of employees and other managers/leaders can influence the leadership
style of an organization. Some people tend to react more to certain styles of leadership than
others. Individuals who like to depend on others generally do not like to participate in
organizational affairs since their need for security and direction is better served by a rigid
organizational structure. Those with an understandable sense of direction wish to advance in
their careers and enjoy participating in organizational decision-making processes tend to be more
inclined towards open and collaborative leadership styles. Leaders should adapt to such

21
situations by providing opportunities for participation to those who desire them and directing
those who find it more difficult to participate in organizational decision-making (Ibara, 2010).

2.2 Motivation
2.2.1 The Concept of Motivation
Huczynski and Buchanan (2007) argued that “Motivation” is “A combination of goals towards
which human behavior is directed; the process through which those goals are pursued and
achieved, and the social factors involved”. Luthans (1992) says, “Motivation is a combination of
needs, drives and incentives. Motivation is defined as the process that starts with physiological or
psychological deficiency or need that activates behavior or a drive that is aimed at a goal or
incentive”. Mullins (1999) says, “The underlying concept of motivation is some driving force
within individuals by which they attempt to achieve some goal in order to fulfil some need or
expectation”. Mullins also distinguishes between extrinsic motivation related to tangible rewards
such as money; and intrinsic motivation related to psychological rewards such as the sense of
challenge and achievement. Intrinsic motivation from the above definition seems to fit for the
targeted employee since they are highly professionals who are graduated from universities and
working at communication industry that needs high technical competency which dynamically
changing globally.
2.2.2 Content and process theories
The motivation theories seen above have been divided into two contrasting groups: Content
theories: place emphasis on what motivates and are concerned with identifying people‟s needs
and their relative strengths, and the goals they pursue in other to satisfy these needs. Main
content theories include: Maslow‟s hierarchy needs model; Alderfer‟s modified need hierarchy
model; Herzberg‟s two factor theory and McClelland‟s achievement motivation theory (Koontz
and Weihrich, 1990; Child, 1984). Process theories: place emphasis on the actual process of
motivation. These theories are concerned with the relationships among the dynamic variables
which make up motivation, and with how behavior is initiated, directed and sustained. Major
approaches under this include; expectancy –based models, equity theory goal theory and
attribution theory (Koontz and Weihrich, 1990). Extrinsic and intrinsic the various needs and
expectation at work can be categorized in a number of ways for example the simple divisions
into physiological and social motives or into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

22
 2.2.3 Theories of Motivation
There are numbers of motivation theories that influence the way organizations manage
employees and can help for managers to understand how to motivate their employees to have a
motivated work force. These theories attempt to explain why people behave the way they do and
advice on factors and strategies to motivate and get the best out of employees (Kwasi D).

2.2.3.1 Early Theories of Motivation

Those theories are important because they laid down a foundation from which contemporary
motivation theories were developed and many practicing managers still use them. Maslow‟s
Hierarchy of Needs: This theory‟s central theme revolves around the meaning and significance
of human work in which behavior dominated by the unsatisfied needs and when one need is
satisfied people aspires for the next higher one. According to him motivating a worker at
different position, job type and conditions needs different mechanisms. Lower level needs are
predominantly satisfied externally while higher order needs are satisfied internally. Maslow
theory says that once a need is substantially satisfied, an individual is no longer motivated to
satisfy that need. Therefore, to motivate someone, you need to understand what need level that
person is on in the hierarchy and focus on satisfying needs at or above that level (Robbins, S.P.,
2001).

2.2.3.2 ERG Theory

Alderfer (1969) said there are three groups of core needs: existence, relatedness, and growth. It
was called ERG theory. The existence group is concerned about providing the basic material.
The relatedness group is concerned about personal relationships and the last group is growth
needs concerned about intrinsic desire for personal development. ERG theory is similar to
Maslow‟shierarchy of needs in many ways. However, there are important differences such as
Alderfer said sometimes multiple needs could also be operating as motivators and sometimes
people need the higher level before the lower level depending on each situation and each
situation is different (Wren, 1995).

2.2.3.3 Theory X and Theory Y

This theory is about managers‟ and supervisors‟ attitudes toward employees, and that attitude‟s
effect on workplace motivation.

23
Theory X believes that employees naturally dislike work, responsibility and are lazy averagely.
Here, managers must closely control and direct their activities by using threats and punishment
i.e. the stick and carrot management approach. On the other hand, Theory Y, which is a sharp
contrast to theory X, believes that employees naturally enjoy working and want to be productive.
They do not need control, managers must trust them to get the job done, as motivation for these
employees is the harder they work, the more pay or promotion. Hence, Theory X and Theory Y
are different from basic assumptions regarding human needs and behavior. Therefore,
understanding people‟s needs and behavior becomes an important skill all managers need to
develop (Pattarinee P., 2002).

2.2.3.4 Herzberg’s Theory

Herzberg‟s two-factor theory also called motivation-hygiene theory proposes that intrinsic
factors are related to job satisfaction while extrinsic factors are associated with job
dissatisfaction. Robbins, S.P. (2001)),stated that, according to Herzberg‟s theory people works
first and foremost in their own self-enlightened interest, for they are truly happy and mentally
healthy through work accomplishment. Herzberg‟s theory is based on two distinct sets of factors
that influence motivation: Basic factors influencing job dissatisfaction, which include pay,
organization policies, working environment, job security and the satisfaction with supervision as
well as motivating factors influencing job satisfaction, which include recognition, promotion,
achievement, and the intrinsic nature of the work and responsibility.

2.2.3.5 Three- Needs Theory

This theory is proposed by David McClelland and his associates, which says there are three
acquired (innate) needs that are major motives in work. These three needs are the need for
achievement, -which is the drive to succeed and shine in relation to a set of standards; the need
for power, -which is the need to make others behave in a way that they would not have behaved
otherwise; and the need for affiliation -which is the desire for friendly and close interpersonal
relationships (Robbins, S.P., 2001).

2.2.3.6 Contemporary Theories of Motivation

There are new theories that are being adopted in today‟s contemporary and modern workforce.
Goal-Setting Theory In 1960‟s, Edwin Locke put forward the Goal-setting theory of motivation.
This theory states that goals indicate and give direction to an employee about what needs to be

24
done and how much efforts are required to be put in. Goal setting theory is a technique used to
raise incentives for employees to complete work quickly and effectively and leads to better
performance by increasing motivation and improving the feedback quality. Reinforcement theory
Reinforcement theory of motivation states that individual‟s behavior is a function of its
consequences. Individual‟s behavior with positive consequences tends to be repeated, but
individual‟s behavior with negative consequences tends not to be repeated. Managers use
Positive and negative Reinforcement as well as Punishment and lay off. Reinforcement theory
explains in detail how an individual learns behavior. Managers who are making attempt to
motivate their employees must ensure that they do not reward all employees simultaneously.
They must tell the employees what they are not doing correct. They must tell the employees how
they can achieve positive reinforcement.

2.2.3.7 Expectancy Theory

This theory stresses and focuses on outcomes, unlike Maslow and Herzberg. The theory states
that the intensity of a tendency to perform in a particular manner is dependent on the intensity of
an expectation that the performance will be followed by a definite outcome and on the relevance
of the outcome to the individual. Here, employees‟ motivation is an outcome of how much an
individual wants a reward (Valence), the assessment that the likelihood that the effort will lead to
expected performance (Expectancy) and the belief that the performance will lead to reward
(Instrumentality). Thus, the expectancy theory concentrates on the following three relationships:

2.2.4 Type of motivations

There are two types of motivation as originally identified by Herzberg et al (1957):
 Intrinsic motivation – the self-generated factors that influence people to behave in a
particular way or to move in a particular direction. These factors include responsibility
(feeling that the work is important and having control over one‟s own resources),
autonomy (freedom to act), scope to use and develop skills and abilities, interesting and
challenging work and opportunities for advancement. According to Malone and Lepper
(1987), intrinsic motivation is what people will do without external inducement such as
hunger, a sense of duty, altruism, and a desire to feel appreciated.
 Extrinsic Motivation-De-motivators (extrinsic or hygiene factors): - Factors
characterizing on the job context and led to extreme employees‟ de-motivation (factors

25
 that are extrinsic and related to dissatisfaction or de-motivation which include company
policy, relationship with peer, relationship with boss, job security, salary and working
conditions
According to Armstrong (2009), People are motivated when they expect a course of action is
likely to lead to the attainment of a goal and a valued reward – one that satisfies their needs and
wants.

Hence, the purpose of this study is to identify and critically evaluate how the leadership style
influencing the motivation of the employees and draw the attention of the pursuant body find
ways to take care of its employees‟ motivation and achieve its objectives.

2.3 Empirical Literature Review

2.3.1 Empirical Literature Review Made Out Side Ethiopia
Previous studies reveal that leadership style affects employee‟s performance in many ways.
Vries, Roe, and Taillieu (1998) explained that leadership style, which is more human oriented,
tends to increase the job satisfaction among employees. Likewise, the research findings of
Packard and Kauppi (1999), Yahya and Ebrahim (2016) and Spano-Szekely (2016) indicated that
different leadership styles, when adopted by leaders result in different levels of job satisfaction.
For instance, leaders‟ support and recognition bring higher level of job satisfaction among
employees. However, everything is not same across cultures (Bhagat& Steers, 2009).

On another study the findings by Allah &Nawaz, Feb, 2017 are similar to the conclusions of
previous studies showing that transformational style of leadership is effective and thus common
in banks. Following Khan and Nawaz, (2016), the findings of the current study also have a
plausible explanation that transformational leadership expresses trust in subordinates that
encourage and motivate them to extend their full support for an organization in shape of
productivity. The findings show similarity to many previous studies(Abba et al. 2016; Chamika
and Gunasekara 2016; Mwongeli and Juma 2016; Rahimi, Khezrib, et al. 2016; Solomon 2016).

An empirical study titled as Behavior on organizational Commitment in Plantation Companies in

Malaysia made by Omar Rabeea Mahdi a, Erzan, Shafizan, BinGulam Mohdb, Mahmoud Khalid
Almsafirc( a,b,c Graduate Business School, College of Graduate Studies, Tenaga Nasional

26
University (UNITEN), JalanIkram-Uniten, 43000 Kajang,Selangor, Malaysia.)Which was
carried out with the intention of examining the impact employees‟ perceptions of their immediate
and directive leadership behavior and different types of organizational commitment in plantation
companies. The statistic results found that there is significant strong relationship between the
leadership behavior and the organizational commitment. More importantly, there are significant
impacts of the leadership behavior on organizational commitment. In addition, supportive and
directive leadership behaviors do play important roles in determining the levels of employee‟s
commitment. Leaders should consider in matching both leadership behaviors based on the
situation of their subordinate.

2.3.2 Empirical Literature Review Made In Ethiopia

Haile Mengesha (2015) has been conducting a survey Impact of leadership approaches on
employee motivation: An empirical investigation in Haramaya University. Finally he came up to
conclusion that the impact of transformational leadership approach on the motivation of
Haramaya University employees in Ethiopia is more effective than the transactional leadership
and Laissez-faire approach. This is consitent with Birhane Meskel Tena(2015), Mekasha
Kassaye (2014).

MICHAEL ASSEFA (2019) conduct a research on the effect of employee motivation on

organizational performance: a case of federal civil service commission, Ethiopia and he found
that lack of adequate motivation results in low performance and vice versa. The overall result
showed that employee motivation has a significant effect on organizational performance.

Mohamed Esse (2016) conducted a survey on 159 employees of Dashen Bank at Head Quarter,
Addis Ababa that excluded Top level managers and security guards on the Effects of Leadership
style on employee performance in Dashen Bank, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The findings of the
survey have shown that the type of leadership would have no significant influence on
achievement of organizational goals and objectives in Dashen Bank. However, decision-making
of leaders in Dashen Bank was not in right tracks.

27
 CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the research design, the population and sampling plan, instrumentation,
data collection procedures and the methods of data analysis. Finally, the chapter presents an
evaluation of the research methodology regarding reliability and validity.

3.1 Research Method

Descriptive and explanatory type of research design is employed as a main research design to
realize and meet the intended objective. Descriptive research design is most appropriate when the
research focuses on detailed description of the characteristics and features of the issue under
investigation (Howitt and Cramer, 2011). The reason behind using descriptive research design is
because the researcher is interested in describing the existing situation under study.

Research Design

Research design is an overall framework of the research that explains the direction and method
to be used in the study to gather the information needed, either from primary or secondary
sources (Malhotra, 2007).

Quantitative research method was used to describe the affect leadership type on employee
motivation. This rational behind it was, the strong beliefs‟ of the researcher that this method
could be appropriate for getting the research questions which is based in describing the current
status of employee motivation and their relationships with the practiced leadership styles at
ETHIO TELECOM. Hence, the study employed a quantitative data collection method within the
descriptive survey research design.

28
3.2 Population and Sampling Techniques
3.2.1 Population

According to Hair and Bush (2006), target population is said to be a specified group of people or
object for which questions can be asked or observed to develop required data structures and
information. The target population for this study were all employees working at six zone and
head office at core divisions found in Addis Ababa.

3.2.2 Sample and Sampling Techniques

3.2.2.1 Population
According to (Zikumund, 2003) The definition of population is identifiable total set of elements
of interest being investigated by a researcher. The target population is defined as the entire group
a researcher is interested in. Thus, the main respondents of the study were the employees who
were working at the head office and zone offices in Addis Ababa.

3.2.2.2 Sample population

Ethio Telecom has one Head Quarters and six Zonal offices in Addis Ababa and seventeen
Regional offices as of August,2019. Due to financial constraints, Addis Ababa was selected to be
convenient for collecting data. To make the study manageable and representative of the total
population staff identified by simple random sampling method. In this technique all sample units
will get equal probability to be selected. The study population consisted of all the employees of
the Head quarter offices and zonal offices in Addis Ababa by taking a representative of the
research study.

The researcher used stratified by core division and random sampling technique in six divisions
and headquarters. This sampling technique give equal chance to all member of ETHIO
TELECOM staff. As the result, the researcher believed that the sample is well representative of
the intended study group. Therefore, the result could be generalized to all ETHIO TELECOM
employees who are working in the company. Robson (2002) tell us that sampling theory supports
stratified random sampling as an efficient choice because the means of the stratified samples are
likely to be closer to the mean of the population overall.

For this study, the sample size was determined based on sample size calculating formula of
(Yamane, 1967) at 95% confidence level. the formula is;

29
Where: n is the sample size and N is the population size & e = the error of sampling. To have
better representative from the target population the study used stratified sampling technique to
identify how many respondents should be approached from each category.

Accordingly, n = 260/1+260

n = 158 (therefore, 158 respondents were selected as respondents of this study)

Table 3.1 The sample population per six divisions and the head quarter

Table 3.1: Summary of the Respondents (Source: Own Survey)

Work Station Total
Head Quarter SAAZ WAAZ NAAZ EAAZ SWAAZ CAAZ
Target 53 32 30 38 34 38 35 260
Sample 18 21 22 25 23 25 24 158

3.3 Sources of Data and Data Collection Tools/Methods

3.3.1 Source of Data

Primary and secondary source of data were used in the current study. Primary source of data was
collected through questionnaires from employees of ETHIO TELECOM, while secondary source
of data were used to triangulate the data collected through the primary sources of data. In doing
so the researcher reviewed previous research works and the related literature. Moreover,
documents and other articles of the organization were used as additional secondary sources of
this study.

3.3.2 Data Collection Tools

For the proper achievement of the objectives of the study; among different primary data
collection method, questionnaire was used. The respondents who are working at the head quarter
and zones were given the questionnaire to give their reply. Structured questionnaires were
developed containing closed ended questions to be easily understood by the respondents. The

30
variables were measured using Likert scale with five response categories. (Strongly disagree,
disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree and strongly agree). “The Likert scale method was
preferred to make questions interesting, because it give an opportunity for each respondents to
show their degree of agreement or disagreement

The primary source of data was collected using close ended questionnaires which were
distributed to 158 employees of ETHIO TELECOM. The researcher developed the questionnaire
and before deploying the questionnaire to the data, a pilot test was conducted. The pilot test
helped to determine the practicability of the instrument and make the necessary amendments.

The secondary source of data was gained from documents from archives, organization‟s
documents, past research papers, reports, observation, and other validated sources. Moreover,
studies and literatures related to knowledge sharing were used to get more ideas and insights.

3.4 Data Collection Procedures

A total of 158 questionnaires (around 5% of the total population) were distributed to gather
relevant information primary data. The primary source of data was collected using close ended
questionnaires which has been developed; and before deploying the questionnaire as data
collection instrument, a pilot study was conducted on 10 selected employees of ETHIO
TELECOM. The pilot test helped to determine the practicability of the instrument and make the
necessary amendments.

The researcher, at first, got permission from the ETHIO TELECOM administrator to conduct
this study. Hence, the data collection procedure was started after getting the management
willingness and cooperation to distribute questionnaires. The questionnaires were distributed to
potential sample employees after a short brief and get consent from sample population.

The questionnaire contains five separate sections. The first four parts of the questionnaire were
about the leadership style practice level and the respondents‟ preference. The fifth part was about
the motivation practice and preference.

The secondary source of data was gained from documents from archives, organization‟s
documents, past research papers, reports, observation, and other validated sources. Moreover,
studies and literatures related to knowledge sharing were used to get more ideas and insights.

31
3.5 Methods of Data Analysis

The quantitative data that was collected and processed using SPSS software 24. In this data
analysis procedure, the descriptive and analytical analysis were used. Various analyses have been
used such as frequency distribution of the characteristics of the respondents about age, education
and experience. The practiced and preferred leadership type and employee motivation was
examined and summarized on the descriptive summary tables. Finally, the relationship and
effects of leadership type on employee motivation were analyzed using Pearson bivariate
correlation and multiple linear regression

3.6 Reliability and Validity of Measures

Data Quality Assurance

The questionnaire was exclusively filled by the management staff and employees and the
researcher promised the confidentiality of their response and strictly kept his promise. To ensure
data quality, the data were entered with two data encoders and evaluated the mismatch between
those two data sets. Finally, corrections were made based on the responses in the respective
questionnaires that made data entry error

3.6.1 Reliability Assurance

Cronbach's alpha is a measure of reliability or internal consistency based on the average inter-
item correlation, which range from 0 to 1. The higher Cronbach's alpha the more reliable of
getting similar result with other survey that made in similar situation. A reliability coefficient of
0.70 or higher is considered „acceptable‟ according to different literatures. Measures in this study
are judged to be reliable if Cronbach‟s coefficient alpha is 0.7 or greater (Sekaran, 2000).
Table 3.2: Reliability Analysis

No Item Category Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

1 Autocratic .928 5
2 Democratic .891 5
3 Transactional .928 5
4 Transformational .931 5
5 Employee motivation .902 5
Over all .864 25
Source: own data June 2020

32
In this regard, Table 3.2 shown the result of Cronbach‟s alpha for four type leadership styles,
employee motivation and total data. The overall Cronbach's alpha was 0.864 that indicate
acceptable reliability of the survey questionnaires. This has proven that the likelihood of getting
similar result with another sample was 86.4%. And the result of Cronbach‟s alpha for all sub
categories (four leadership type and motivation questions) was shown above acceptable standard.
Hence questions that were incorporated in the instrument were appropriate and have played their
role in acceptable manner.

3.6.2 Validity Assurance

According to Kothari, R (2004), Validity is the most critical criterion and indicates the degree to
which an instrument measures what it is supposed to measure. Validity can also be thought of as
utility. In other words, validity is the extent to which differences found with a measuring
instrument reflect true differences among those being tested. As stated on the methodology,
questionnaire was used to collect the primary data. Therefore, to particularly assure the content
validity of the instrument the researcher has discussed with professionals in the area. With some
remarks they have given their positive feedback. finally, it was validated by the advisor with
some adjustment.

3.7 Ethical Considerations

The researcher respected ethical considerations of confidentiality and privacy throughout the
research process. A written guarantee was given to the respondents that their names will not be
revealed in the questionnaire and the research report. Moreover, the participants were given a
verbal and written description of the study, and informed consent was obtained before the
survey. Participation in the study was made only voluntarily and also they were assured that the
responses will be kept confidentially and only be used for the purpose of this study. Finally, a
copy of the final report could be given to the organization if demanded.

33
3.8 Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework is graphical representation of the survey and indicate the dependent
and independent variables.

Figure 1. Conceptual framework of the study

Independent variables
 Autocratic leadership
 Democratic leadership
 Transactional leadership Dependent variable
Employee motivation
 Transformational leadership

Source: Developed by the Researcher

34
 CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION AND DISCUSSION
In this section, the collected data using questionnaire of five scale Likert scale is presented as
follows. It represents summary of responses for the whole respondents. The figures represent
number of respondents that gave their feedback with respect to their agreement/disagree level or
frequency of responses with respect to their agreement and/or expectation level.

In this chapter, based on the objective of the study that is set above, the collected data using
questionnaire was analyzed and presented. Data analysis involves reducing accumulated data to a
manageable size, developing summaries, looking for patterns, and applying statistical techniques
(Cooper & Schindler 2011).

This study used different statistical methods to analyze the collected data from the employees of
Ethio Telecom i.e. descriptive statistics like (tables, charts, graphs); measures of central tendency
which included the (mean, mode, and median); Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS)
version 24 was used to facilitate the data analysis.

4.1 Response Rate

158 Employees and management staffs have been taken as a total sample for the study.
Questionnaire was dispatched to the entire sample of which 154 questionnaires were returned
with a response rate of 97.47%. As the result, this 2.53% non-return rate could be taken as
tolerable by all expert in data analysis.

4.2 Demographic Characteristics of Respondents

In conducting this study, 158 questionnaires were distributed for respondents. Among them, 154
respondents participated in filling questionnaires and 4 questionnaires were not returned.
Accordingly, the following Table 4.1 shows the sex and age of the respondents who are currently
working at the headquarters and zone offices in Addis Ababa at core divisions. In addition, the
table contains educational level and working experience of the respondents in the organization.

35
Table 4.1: Demographic Characteristics of respondents

Category Frequency Percent

Gender Female 22 14.3
Male 132 85.7
Age group 21 - 30 77 50.0
31 - 40 33 21.4
41 – 50 29 18.8
51 – 60 15 9.7
Service years 0 - 5 years 40 26.0
6 - 15 years 64 41.6
16 - 24 years 40 26.0
Greater than 25 years 10 6.5
Education level BA / BSC 110 71.4
MA / MSC 44 28.6
Total 154 100.0
Source: own data June 2020
In this study there were 22 female respondents which account for about 14.3%, and 132 were
male which account for about 85.7%, which covered two -third of the employees. As shown in
the Table 4.1, the percentage of male respondents is higher than males. As indicated in the above
table, the figures representing age category have shown the highest percent which is 50% being
reported by respondents between 21 and 30 age group, 21.4% fall in the age range between 31-
40 years, and 18.8% belong to the age group of 41-50 year. Therefore, the result indicates that,
most of the participants of this study are in youth group categories.

Concerning service years 41.6% were reported they were in between 6 and 15 years of services
and followed by 0 - 5 years of services and 16 – 24 years, both groups of respondents accounted
for 26% of the total respondents. Regarding the educational level of the respondents, majority of
respondents 71.4% of the respondents have Bachelor degree. This indicates that most of the
participants of this study are first degree holders.

36
Work experience is another very important factor that might affect the satisfaction level of the
individual. Individuals who are performing the type of job they want for more years are expected
to enjoy their job while individuals working the type of job they do not want for many years
might get bored with the job. For this study, 64 respondents which accounts 41.6% have
between 6-15years of work experience; 40 respondents which accounts 26.0% of the respondents
have between16-24years of experience; again 40 respondents which accounts 26.0% of the
respondents have between 0-5years of experience, and 10 respondents which accounts 6.5% have
work experience greater than 25 years. Therefore, from these figures it is possible to see that
majority of the respondents have work experience between 6-15 years and only few of them have
more than 25 years of work experience. Level of Education of the Respondents show that there
were 110 degree holders which accounts about 71.4% and 44 Master holders which accounts
about 28.6%.

4.3 Analysis of Data Collected for the Leadership style in ETHIO TELECOM

In this section, the collected data using questionnaire of five scale Likert scale is presented as
follows. It represents summary of responses for the whole respondents. The figures represent
number of respondents that gave their feedback with respect to their agreement/disagreement
level or frequency of responses with respect to their agreement and/or expectation level.

4.3.1 Autocratic Leadership Style

An autocratic leader mostly makes selection on the basis of their own judgments and ideas that
rarely include followers „advice and these leaders have absolute control over the group (Zareen
et al, 2015). Iqbal et al (2015) also further confirm that autocratic leaders give orders without
explaining the reasons or future intentions. Furthermore, could be cause for undermines
creativity of employee because these managers consider themselves to be right. There are certain
characteristics of autocratic leadership such as - no inputs from other group members are taken,
group leader(s) dictate all the tasks or distribute responsibilities among other employees, and no
reward or recognition is given to employees to boost morale.

37
Table 4.2: Autocratic Leadership style

Expectations (%) Practiced (%)

Strongly agree
Not expected
Total number of sample population

unexpected

Expected

Disagree
expected
Strongly

Strongly

Strongly
disagree
Neutral

Neutral
= 154

Agree
10. 16. 30. 33.
Your manager makes decision 48.1 27.9 11.7 8.4 3.9 8.4
without taking input from you. 4 9 5 8
Your manager tells you what to do 12. 21. 31. 22. 17.
and want you to accomplish 32.5 35.7 18.8 .6 7.1
3 4 8 1 5
without asking advice from you.
Your manager makes decisions
39. 26. 22.
alone or with a small, trusted 21.4 52.6 15.6 5.2 5.2 3.2 9.1
group and expect employees to do 0 6 1
exactly what they‟re asked.
You are expected to adhere to the 11. 20. 33. 35.
decision made any time and space 37.0 32.5 18.8 .6 .6 9.7
0 8 8 1
stipulated by your manager.
Your manager reach decision, 14. 21. 27. 31. 11.
communicate them to you and 57.8 22.1 5.2 .6 7.8
3 4 9 8 0
expect prompt implementation.
10. 17. 32. 29. 13.
Total Autocratic
39.4 34.2 14.0 3 2.2 5.8 9 6 9 8

Source: own data June 2020

As it is shown in Table 4.2, the majority of respondents (73.6%) have shown their no or little
expectation for the implementation of autocratic leadership style. In high contrast with
expectation of employees, majority of respondents (32.6%) was not showing their agreement nor
disagreement to say the practiced autocratic leadership in ETHIO TELECOM. This indicated
that there is some indication that prohibit the majority of respondents to vote against autocratic
leadership. This supported by 29.9% and 13.8% of respondents by showing their agreement and
strong agreement for practicing Autocratic leadership in ETHIO TELECOM.

38
Within practiced autocratic leadership style, respondents showed highest agreement for subscales
“manager makes decisions alone or with a small trusted group” and followed by “manager reach
decision, communicate them and expect prompt implementation” with a small margin difference
between the two subscales. As the result it seems that Managers in ETHIO TELECOM make
decisions alone with a small, or trusted group and expect employees to implement exactly what
they‟re asked. They even need prompt implementation. They tell the staffs what to do and want
them to accomplish without asking advice from them. This support Greenfield, (2007) that says
authoritarian leaders make all the decisions themselves without involving employees or
followers and impose these decisions on them.

This result agrees with Boehm et al, (2015) which says autocratic leadership represents all those
leaders who makes decision without consent of team members and is usually applied when quick
decision is be taken and team agreement is not important for acquisition of successful results.
Amanchukwu et al (2015) further confirmed this idea by saying “little opportunities are given to
staff and team members to make suggestions, even if it is in the best interest of the team or
organization.”

4.3.2 Democratic Leadership Style

The democratic style of leadership emphasizes group and leader participation in the making of
policies. Decisions about organizational matters are arrived at after due consultation and
communication with various people in the organization. The leader attempts as much as possible
to make each individual feel that he is an important member of the organization. Communication
is multidirectional while ideas are exchanged between employees and the leader (Heenan and
Bennis, 1999). In this style of leadership, a high degree of staff morale is always enhanced (Mba,
2004).

39
Table 4.3: Democratic Leadership

Expectation (%) Practiced (%)

Strongly agree
Not expected
unexpected

Expected

Disagree
expected
Strongly
Strongly

Strongly
disagree
Total number of sample

Neutral

Neutral

Agree
population = 154

You and your co-workers feel 22.

their voices are heard and .6 68.2 9.1 21.2 29.2 14.9 32.7 1.9
1
their contribution matters.
Manager asks you for input
and consider feedback from .6 .6 30.5 43.5 24.7 32.7 28.6 9.7 25.8 3.2
you before making decision
Your manager leadership
style is essential for your 1.3 50.0 36.4 12.3 11.7 40.9 27.9 17.5 1.9
innovative tasks.
You are involved in making 4.5 18.8 62.3 14.3 21.4 51.3 4.5 14.9 7.8
decision.
Your manager allows you to .6 27.9 37.7 33.8 37.0 35.7 3.2 20.8 3.2
exercise authority.
Total democratic 0.26 1.43 29.87 49.61 18.83 27.79 37.1 12.08 19.35 3.64
Source: Own data June 2020

As it is shown in Table 4.3, the majority of respondents (68.4%) have shown their expectation to
have democratic leadership style in ETHIO TELECOM. In this sense employees need to be
involved in making decision, co-workers feel their voices are heard and their contribution
matters, they need to give their inputs before their managers pass decisions, they need their
managers to help them in innovating their tasks. This support the Daft, (1999) stated a
democratic leader delegates authority to others, encourages participation, relies on subordinate‟s
knowledge for completion of tasks and depends subordinate respect for influence.

In respect of implementing democratic practicing, (22.99%) have perceived against employees‟

expectation which was democratic style is being practiced or gave their agreement for being
practiced in the organization. This leadership style is known with its characteristic, such as
cooperation, active participation, accountability and delegation of responsibilities and tasks. This
implies that little cooperation, modest participation in decision making and few delegation was
exercised in ETHIO TELECOM.

40
Within practiced democratic leadership style subcategories, respondents showed highest
disagreement for subscales “Your manager leadership style is essential for your innovative tasks”
and followed by “You are involved in making decision”. As the result of this, it seems that
ETHIO TELECOM employees had hardly small chance to be manifested their innovative task,
employees rarely in making decision.
4.3.3 Transactional Leadership Style
Transactional leadership styles can affect performance positively or negatively. It depends on
employee assessment. Positive effect can occur when employees assess transactional leadership
positively and a negative effect can occur if employee considers that transactional leadership
styles cannot be trusted because they do not keep their promises, dishonest or not transparent.
Transactional leadership or transactional management is the part of one style of leadership that
focuses on supervision, organization, or performance; it is an integral part of the Full Range
Leadership Model. Transactional leadership is a style of leadership in which leaders promote
compliance by followers through both rewards and punishments.

41
Table 4.4 Transactional Leadership type

Expectations (%) Practiced (%)

Strongly agree
un

Not expected

Expected

Disagree
expected

expected
Strongly

Strongly
disagree
Total number of sample

Neutral

Neutral

Agree
Strongly
population = 154

At your workplace is being

14. 28.
innovative to improve 7.1 49.4 10.4 12.3 24.0 33.1 20.1
performance is substantially 9 6
rewarded.
Your manager Clarify what is
13.
the expected performance, 0,1 .6 8.4 77.9 13.6 13.6 24.0 35.1 13.6
How to meet such expectation 0
and allocating rewards
His/her style of leadership
29. 15.
focus on mentorship, 2.6 51.9 6.5 13.6 21.4 42.2 16.2
instruction targeting to archive 9 6
and enjoying the results.
Your manager rely quite
22. 22.
heavily on organizational 0.1 5.8 48.7 7.1 9.1 32.5 38.3 13.0
rewards and punishment to 7 7
influence your performance..
Your manager communicates 18. 13.
his/her appreciation for all of 0.1 7.1 61.0 9.7 12.3 25.3 32.5 20.1
2 6
your hard work
18. 18.
Total transactional 0.3 4.7 57.8 9.5 12.2 25.5 36.2 16.6
8 7
Source: own data June 2020
As observed in the literature, the transactional leadership motivates and influences subordinates
by exchanging reward with a particular performance. In this regard, ETHIO TELECOM
management was evaluated using five questions.

As observed in Table 4.4, the majority of respondents (76.5%) have shown their expectation for
being implemented transactional leadership style in ETHIO TELECOM. In this respect
performance of employees is substantially expected to rewarded, manager expect clarify what is
the expected performance from the subordinate explaining and how to meet such expectation

42
and, the leadership is expected to focus on mentorship, instruction targeting to archive and
enjoying the results.

In Table 4.4, 52.8% of respondents confirmed that transactional leadership style is not being
practiced well at its best. On the contrary to the expectation level of the employee to be practiced
transactional leadership approach was very low. This seems that leaders in ETHIO TELECOM
may not show characteristics in expected levels such as clarify what is the expected performance
from them, explaining how to meet such expectation and allocating rewards for meeting
objectives, they need innovativeness & improved performance to be substantially rewarded;
employees need to receive appreciation for all of their hard work. Employees also appreciate
manager‟s style of leadership to focus on mentorship, instruction targeting to archive and
enjoying the results.
4.3.4 Transformational Leadership Style
Transformational leader encouraging and motivating subordinates to show maximum
performance, stimulates subordinates to act critically and to solve problems in new ways and
treat employees individually. Butler (1999)
Transformational leadership is an approach in which a leader inspires and motivates team
members to create positive changes within an organization. This leadership style can increase
group morale, lead to rapid innovation, improve conflict resolution, decrease turnover and foster
a sense of ownership amongst a team.
Transformational leadership is a leadership style that can inspire positive changes in those who
follow. Transformational leaders are generally energetic, enthusiastic, and passionate. Not only
are these leaders concerned and involved in the process; they are also focused on helping every
member of the group succeed as well.

43
Table 4.5: Transformational Leadership style

Expectations (%) Practiced (%)

Total number of sample population

Expected
expected

Disagree
expected

expected
Strongly

Strongly

Strongly

Strongly
disagree
Neutral

Neutral

Agree

agree
Not
un
= 154

You have a basic set of tasks and

19. 46. 31. 18. 57. 12.
goals, but your manager is 3.2 4.7 5.8
constantly pushes you outside your 5 1 2 8 8 8
plan
79. 11. 39. 32. 10.
Your manager spent much of 5.8 9.7 8.4
his/her time on the big picture. 2.4 0.6 5 7 0 5 4
Your manager gives you to handle 16. 39. 37. 46. 24. 10.
many delegated tasks without 6.3 9.1 9.7
9 8 0 8 0 4
constant supervision
Your manager leadership style
28. 45. 24. 33. 44. 14.
encourages you to view problems 1.3 0.7 5.8
from new perspective and provide 6 5 7 8 8 8
support.
Your manager main objectives are
27. 42. 28. 26. 42.
to work on change or transform 1.3 7.7 9.1 11.7
their follower‟s needs and re-direct 9 2 6 6 9
their thinking.
19. 50. 26. 33. 40. 11.
Total transformation 2.4 2.5 6.4 8.3
7 6 6 0 4 5
Source: own data June 2020

Table 4.5 shown that 77.2% (majority of respondents) had expectation to be implemented the
transformational leadership in ETHIO TELECOM. This has an implication that majority of
employees in ETHIO TELECOM are very much expectant of their manager to spend much of
leader time on the big pictures that helps to transform the organization forward. They also expect
their manager to give them to handle many delegated tasks with little constant supervision. This
helps employees to exercise responsibility and create sense of ownership in employee.
Furthermore, according to Bass & Avolio, (1990) the relationship between a transformational
leader and followers is characterized by pride and respect. The employees often develop a high
level of trust and confidence in such a leader.

44
The practice of transformational leadership style was evaluated as usual using five questions and
found that the agreement level of the respondents indicates it was below 20% for level at which
transformational leadership style being practiced; and on the other hand 39.4% have shown their
disagreement and 40.4% have shown neutral position for the implementation of this leadership
style. This implies that practiced level of transformational leadership in ETHIO TELECOM was
very low.

Summary of Expected and Practiced leadership style

Table 4.6: Rank based on Expected and Practiced Leadership scores

Expectations Practiced
Leadership Std. Std.
category Mean Deviation Rank Mean Deviation Rank
Autocratic 2.0182 .86239 4 3.2779 .95529 2
Democratic 3.8532 .43268 3 2.3390 .97855 4
Transactional 3.9052 .45169 2 3.3831 .79078 1
Transformational 4.0403 .38221 1 2.7312 .91162 3

Table 4.6 On the above table Mean value and standard deviation of each leadership style of
employee motivation for both what is being practiced currently in the organization and what is
expected to be practiced. This is helpful for comparison

As tabulated in the above tables, it can be inferred that the expectation and perceived leadership
styles were highly in contrary. From the summary table it can be seen that the two most preferred
and expected leadership style per the respondent‟s reply were Transformational which scored
77.2% followed by transactional leadership which has scored 76.5%. The mean score in Table
4.6 disclosed that the most preferred leadership style in ETHIO TELECOM was
Transformational.

On the other hand, the practiced level of leadership style was highly dominated by transactional
(52.8%) over the other three leadership style (autocratic, democratic and transformational) which
followed by autocratic (43.7%) leadership style. Similar finding were obtain using the mean

45
score as shown in table 4.6. As pinpoint by different literatures transformational leadership was
ideal in establishing autonomous motivation among employees while controlled motivation
generates transactional leadership. As perceived by employees, the combination of transaction
(the 1st) and autocratic (2nd) leadership style may create high control over the task and low
relationship between subordinate and managements. This finding consistent with Mohamed Esse
(2016) and against Haile Mengesha (2015), Birhane Meskel Tena(2015) and Mekasha Kassaye
(2014)

As seen in Table 4.6 the most dominant leadership style in ETHIO TELECOM at the time of
survey was transactional leadership style, which is characterized with contingency reward and
management by exception. This management style focuses on economic exchange to meet
subordinates‟ current material and psychological needs in return for contracted services rendered
by the subordinates. This may be happening as the result ETHIO TELECOM after undergone
organizational transformation process and because of ETHIO TELECOM by the newly
appointed Leaders, due to lack of experience and the need for execution inflated quota given by
the company to be accomplished within limited period forces to give less priority to the human
element. This may cause high turnover and dissatisfaction in the employee‟s side.

4.4 Effects of Leadership on Employee Motivation

Motivation of the employee can be affected either positively or negatively due to style of
leadership that we apply on to it. motivating employees became today an important objective for
organizations that want to remain viable on the market today. Motivation of human resources in
the organization will bring extra performance to the manager that hopes to reach the
organization's goals.

46
Table 4.7: Employees motivation Practiced

Expectation (%) Practiced (%)

Strongly expected

Strongly disagree

Strongly agree
Not expected
unexpected
Total number of sample

Expected

Disagree
Strongly

Neutral

Neutral
Agree
population = 154

You are feeling gratified when

you complete your given task 12. 64. 20. 27. 20.
because you have had the chance
3.2 3 3 1 33.1 9 1 13 5.8
to practice your skill.
Your manager appreciates your 24. 15. 48. 16. 15.
effort and gives recognition for
0.6 9.7 7 50 6 16.9 7 9 6 1.9
successful accomplishment.
you are comfortable with the job 38. 28. 51. 10. 16.
placement carried out at the
5.2 27 7 4 0.6 13 9 4 9 7.8
Ethio-telecom establishment.
You feel the work environment 83. 16.
is conducive and fulfill your
0.6 9.7 1 6.5 43.5 26 7.1 2 7.1
expectation.
Your manager leadership style is 12. 64. 21. 45. 16. 19.
appropriate to energize you for
1.9 3 3 4 17.5 5 2 5 1.3
discharging your responsibility.

19. 58. 12. 14. 16.

Motivation total score
1.3 8.4 5 0 8 24.8 40 1 2 4.8

Source: own data June 2020

Here in this survey the investigator were measured the extent of employee motivation by raising
question relevant to gratified feeling when they complete their task, manager appreciation,
conducive work environment and others. These include both internal and external motivation
forces as Williams (2009) definition that motivation is “The set of forces that initiates, directs
and makes people persist in their efforts to accomplish a goal”. This force of initiation comes
from within or outside individual employee.

47
The survey result table 4.7 shows that 70.8% of respondents disclosed that their high level of
expectation in employee motivation, while only 21% of the respondents have shown their
agreement for motivation questions that includes gratified feeling when they complete their task,
manager appreciation, conducive work environment and others. Hence level of employee
motivation was much higher than the perceived one in ETHIO TELECOM at the time of survey.
In other words, the expectation of the employee for being motivated is higher while what is
being practiced is lower in actual.

4.4.1 Effects of ETHIO TELECOM Leadership on Employee Motivation

Table 4.8: Average motivation practiced per leadership category

No Leadership style Mean N Std. Deviation Rank

1 Autocratic 2.4107 56 .95454 4
2 Democratic 2.9833 24 1.02137 2
3 Transactional 2.9094 64 .94746 3
4 Transformational 3.2500 10 1.07419 1
Total 2.7617 154 .99969
Source: own data June 2020
As shown in Table 4.8, difference between different leadership types in average perceived
motivation of employees was observed simply without statistical confirmation. Though
transformational leadership is the least perceived in ETHIO TELECOM it generated
(Mean=3.25) better motivation on employees as it is confirmed by different literature by saying
transformational leader motivate and energize follower in to a common vision while the
autocratic leadership style (Mean=2.41) produced the least in this particular survey.

The total average motivation of employee was 2.76, which was very low level motivation, it was
completely below average. This finding was consistent with MICHAEL ASSEFA (2019). This
implies that employees in ETHIO TELECOM have shown at low level of motivation to work
and may not contributing properly to the success of the company in full hearted.

48
4.5 Relationship between leadership style and employee motivation measures
The objective of this study was examining the relationship between different leadership style and
employee motivation at ETHIO TELECOM using two-tailed Pearson Correlation. The result of
the analysis provides correlation coefficients to indicate the strength and direction of the
relationship between the leadership type and motivation of employees.

Correlation analysis as a hypothesis testing procedure starts by writing hypothesis. Here is the
null hypothesis

H0 : “there is no significant relationship between different leadership styles and employee

motivation”
H1 : “there is significant relationship between different leadership styles and employee
motivation”
H0 : “there is no significant relationship between expected and observed scores of different
leadership styles”
H1 : “there is significant relationship between expected and observed scores of different
leadership styles”
H0 : “there is no significant relationship in between expected and perceived employee
motivation”
H1 : “there is significant relationship in between expected and perceived employee motivation”

The decision rule for accepting the null hypothesis (H0) is based on the value of sig (p-value).
Significant relationship (reject H0) when there is small sig value (p value), which is less than
0.05 at 0.05 level of significance, otherwise the relationship between the two pairs are
insignificant.

Correlation analysis
According to Huck (2012), a positive correlation coefficient (r) indicates a direct relationship and
a negative correlation coefficient (r) indicates an indirect relationship. According to Somwkh and
Lewin (2005) if correlation coefficient (r) is below 0.33 it is considered to be a weak

49
relationship; if correlation coefficient (r) is between 0.34 and 0.66 it indicates a medium strength
relationship; and if correlation coefficient (r) is greater than 0.67 indicates a strong relationship.
Table 4. 9: CORELATION

Expectations Practiced
Tran Tra Tran
sfor Moti Auto nsa sfor
Autoc Demo Transa mati vatio crati Demo ctio mati
ratic cratic ctional onal n c cratic nal onal
Democ R .134
ratic
Sig .098
Transac R .067 .430**
Expectations

tional Sig .410 .000

Transfo R .091 .134 .087
rmation Sig
.260 .098 .281
al
Motivat R -
ion -.028 -.125 -.111 .299*
*

Sig .731 .124 .170 .000

Autocr R -.175* .052 -.118 -.032 -.020
atic Sig .030 .523 .143 .691 .809
Democ R -.041 .095 .067 -.067 -.078 .005
ratic Sig .615 .239 .407 .406 .338 .947
Transac R .462* -
.078 .239** .061 * .045 .002
tional .179*
Sig .339 .003 .455 .000 .026 .582 .983
Practiced

Transfo R -
.526* .43
rmation .000 .337** .375** * .239
*
-.049 .168*
* 8**
al
Sig .00
.997 .000 .000 .000 .003 .543 .038
0
Motivat R .272* - .47 .464*
.106 .476** .160* * .085 .317**
ion .182* 7** *

Sig .00
.189 .000 .048 .001 .024 .297 .000 .000
0
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Source: Own data June 2020

50
Relationship between Expected and practiced leadership styles

The relationship between expected & perceived autocratic leadership was R= -0.175 and sig =
0.03. This shown significant and negative relationship because p value is less than 0.05 and R is
negative. Similarly, the relationship between expected & perceived transformational leadership
have shown positive and significant because correlation coefficient, r is positive (R= 0.526) and
sig = 0.00 (less than 0.05). On the other hand between expected & perceived democratic (R=
0.095 and sig = 0.239) and between expected & perceived transactional leadership (R= 0.061 and
sig = 0.455) styles have shown insignificant relationship because p value (sig) is greater than
0.05.

Relationship between Expected and practiced motivation

The relationship between expected & perceived motivational scores was R= -0.182 and sig =
0.024. The result shows that a significant and negative relationship exist between the two
variables because p value is less than 0.05 and R is negative. The inverse relationship has an
implication that as expected motivational score getting higher then lower the corresponding
perceived motivational score

Relationship between different leadership styles and motivation

The relationship between the four leadership styles in motivating employee at ETHIO
TELECOM. The results clearly show that the perceived employee motivation significant and
positively related with three leadership style (Democratic (R= 0.317 & sig = 0.000.),
Transactional (R= 0.477 & sig = 0.000.) and Transformational (R= 0.464 & sig = 0.000.)

This is an indication that enhancing in the score of these three leadership style will also lead to
increased employee motivation. On the other hand the result have shown insignificant
relationship between perceived autocratic leadership and perceived employee motivation (R=
0.085 and sig = 0.297) because p value (sig) is greater than 0.05. This has an implication that
scores in perceived autocratic not related with perceived employee motivation. Lack of statistical
significant between perceived autocratic leadership and motivation suggest that autocratic
leadership style not related. That implies the second most practiced leadership style had little or
no influence on needed motivation. That could have a negative impact on success of the

51
organization. Further it could be an indicator for presence of de-motivated employees in ETHIO
TELECOM because of different reasons.

Impact of Leadership Style on Motivation Scores

Multiple regressions analysis has been used to examine the impact of different leadership style
on employee motivation in ETHIO TELECOM. The result of a regression analysis is an equation
that represents the best prediction of a dependent variable from several other independent
variables. The researcher employed multiple linear regression because the data has one
continuous dependent variable (which is employee perceived motivation) and had four
continuous independent variables. The test, examines the determination capacity regression
coefficient (B) of each independent variable.

The coefficient table, in standard regression output provides information about the effects of
individual predictor variables. Generally, coefficients and significance tests are two types of
information in the Coefficients table. Sig column tells us each predictor whether contribute
significantly or not and the coefficients indicate the increase in the value of the dependent
variable for each unit increase in the predictor variable
Multiple liner regression
As a hypothesis testing procedure, multiple linear regression begins with stating hypothesis as
follows. „‟ null hypothesis that all of the coefficients are jointly zero‟‟.

52
Table 1 Table 4.10: Multiple linear regression table (Coefficients)

Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta T Sig.
1 (Constant) .086 .396 .218 .828
Autocratic practiced .032 .069 .031 .472 .638
Democratic practiced .209 .068 .205 3.066* .003
Transactional practiced .262 .093 .209 2.831* .005
Transformational
.444 .082 .407 5.448* .000
practiced
a. Dependent Variable: Employee motivation practiced
b. R square = 0.354 (35.4%); adjusted R square = 0.337; F(4,149) = 20.451 and p-value =
0.00
c. *- indicate that the predictor has significant impact to determine value of dependent variable
Source: own data June 2020
Model testing

Some of the output of multiple linear regression tell us about overall model. This includes that R
square value and F–ratio (ANOVA table).

The R-squared value measures how well the regression model explains the actual variations in
the dependent variable (Brooks, 2008). R-squared statistics and the adjusted- R squared statistics
of the model was 35.4% and 33.7% respectively. The adjusted R2 value of 33.7% indicates the
total variability of determinant of employee motivation in ETHIO TELECOM was explained by
the variables in the model. Thus these variables collectively, are low explanatory variables to
identify the determinant of ETHIO TELECOM employee motivation.

The regression F-statistic (4,149) and the p-value of zero attached to the test statistic reveal that
the null hypothesis that all of the coefficients are jointly zero should be rejected. Thus, it implies
that the independent variables in the model were able to explain variations in the dependent
variable.

53
Individual predictors testing
The aim of Table 4.10 (coefficient table), is used to identify those predictors who have
significant or insignificant impact on Dependent variable A predictor with low sig (p-value) is
the one which has significant impact on dependent variable.

The coefficient of democratic, transactional and transformational leaderships which are

measured by claim incurred to earned better employee motivation and had positive and
statistically significant impact at 1% significance level (p-value=0.003, p-value=0.005 and p-
value=0.000). The results indicate that high perceived democratic, transactional and
transformational leadership causes high effect on employee motivation. It implies that higher
perceived democratic transactional and transformational leadership increases the motivation of
employee to perform the given task.

A factor with higher standardized beta indicates that the one who has the highest impact on the
dependent variable. As you can see in Table 4.10, Transformational leadership has the highest
standardized beta (Standardized  = 0.407). This implies though perceived Transformational
leadership was limited in number it was most determinant leadership style for producing
motivated employees in ETHIO TELECOM. This is consistent with Haile Mengesha (2015),
Birhane Meskel Tena(2015) and Mekasha Kassaye (2014).

54
 CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
This chapter compiles the relevant conclusion and recommendation as outcome of the data
collected, analyzed and hypothesis verification

5.1 Summary of Major Findings

Male comprised the highest proportion, which was (53.8%) of respondents and half of the
sample group (50%) were from age group 21-30 years old. The dominant Service year was 6 -
15 years followed by 16 – 24 and less than 5 years. Most of the respondent (71.4%) educational
background was those who have BA/BSC.

 Dominant and preferred leadership style in ETHIO TELECOM

As the expectation and perception of respondents, almost all four leadership styles were
practiced in the company. According to the evaluation of the respondents, transformational
leadership style was the most preferred leadership style in the company, with average score 4.04
out of 5 and followed by Transactional scored 3.905 out of 5.

Overall summary of the survey indicates that all four types of leadership stated in this study are
being practiced at different levels. As perceived by the employees, Transactional leadership style
with (52.8%) score was placed on the first rank followed by Autocratic leadership (43.7%); and
the third in the rank was democratic (22.99%). Transformational (19.8%) stood the least
practiced style at Ethio telecom. Therefore, dominantly practiced leadership style in ETHIO
TELECOM was Transactional style as the perceived by the respondents. But, the high second
ranked result for Autocratic leadership was unexpected and might lead to low motivation level of
employees which is an alarming issue for the management of ETHIO TELECOM and need to be
addressed with a proper sustainable solution.

The study result also indicates that transformational leadership was poorly being practiced well
in Ethio telecom. Only less than 20%is being practiced where there is higher expectation from
employee which is greater than 77.2%.

55
  Leadership style that motivate most
The survey indicates that the total average score of practiced motivation was 2.76.

All four types of leadership stated in this study are being practiced at different level and although
leadership style motivation level differ significantly from one another. Transformational
(average = 3.25 out of 5) is placed on the first rank being followed by democratic (average =
2.98 out of 5) and transactional (average = 2.909 out of 5). Autocratic (average = 3.25 out of 5)
stands at the last with low level of motivation at Ethio telecom. Therefore, the leadership type
that motivates most in ETHIO TELECOM was transformational even if the number of practiced
transformational leaders were limited to 10 %..

 Relationship between leadership style and motivation

The relationship between expected and practiced scores for Autocratic and Transactional
leadership styles have shown significant relationship but negative for Autocratic and positive
Transformational while insignificant relationship was observed in expected and practiced
Autocratic and Transactional styles.

The finding has shown that positive and significant relationship were observed at 0.05 level of
significance between practiced motivation with Democratic, Transactional and Transformational
leadership types, while insignificant with Autocratic leadership.

Multiple linear regression further employed and to identify those which leadership style has
significant effect on motivation. The finding has shown that only Democratic, Transactional and
Transformational leadership styles had significant impact on employee motivation. And
furthermore the regression model reviled that Transformational leadership played the
determinant role for creating and fostering of employees‟ motivation.

56
5.2 Conclusions
The findings of this survey are summarized as follows:

1. Though all four types of leadership stated in this study are being practiced in ETHIO
TELECOM at different levels. The dominant practiced leadership was Transactional and
which is followed by Autocratic leadership style, while the preferred leadership style was
Transformational style.
2. The motivation level of ETHIO TELECOM employees was significantly low at the time
of study. The rationale behind it could be the practice of Autocratic leadership which do
not comply with the employee interest.
3. ETHIO TELECOM employees prefer the practice of Transformational leadership which
they believe will enhance their motivation level to the highest possible level which is in
compliance which is recommended for business firms that need the creativity and
innovativeness from its empoyees.
With
4. Transformational, Transactional and Democratic leadership styles are the most influential
leadership styles that could motivate employees while the practice of Autocratic
leadership should be discouraged and curbed since it demotivates employees.

5.3 Recommendations
It is understood, that good leadership is has a significant role in acquiring a motivated work force
which is the prerequisite for sustainable development, issues related to , human resource
management should be get high emphasis to be addressed in time. Thus, Ethio telecom may
address issues that are found out by this study as recommended below.

 ETHIO TELECOM should have a mechanism that evaluate and its management system.
o ETHIO TELECOM should have created a means to use the former ETHIO TELECOM
senior management expertise before they are retired.
o ETHIO TELECOM management should work to minimize the extent of Autocratic
leadership style, which was practiced in the Ethio telecom to the lowest possible level,
because the Autocratic leadership could prohibit individual innovation skill.

57
 o ETHIO TELECOM should organize training programs that enhance the leadership skill
for all managers on continuous manner
 Maintaining two way channels of communication to resolve conflict or grievances and create
transparency
Is critical in developing belongingness and create a conducive and healthy relation between
the management and the employee.

FUTURE RESEARCH

The findings of this survey answer questions like: What is the preferred and practiced type of
leadership in ETHIO TELECOM? What is the impact of the leadership followed by ETHIO
TELECOM leadership team on Ethio-telecom system in general and motivation of employees in
particular? The researcher has a strong belief that this assessment study will have a significant
contribution towards answering the research questions. However, the researcher would like to
recommended further study to be conducted in-depth for better understanding of the practiced
leadership styles and their impact on the company employees.

ETHIO TELECOM is on verge losing its monopoly in telecom business in Ethiopia that need
different inputs from different researches in the telecom business. So the researcher of this paper
recommend further researches that complement this research, and enable ETHIO TELECOM
not only survive in the business here in Ethiopia but ,could also help to start work as
international telecom company throughout the world. The following research are proposed.

o Study the most influential determinant that are affecting ETHIO TELECOM employees‟
motivation and set possible remedies to maximize their motivation
o Conduct rigorous study to the type of leadership and structure that fits to ETHIO
TELECOM to cope up to the upcoming fierce competition with world class telecom
operators.
o Based on the findings develop pragmatic alternative strategy for retaining ETHIO
TELECOM employees in the fierce telecom business competition

58
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 APPENDIX
QUESTIONNAIRE

ST. MARY’S UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIESFACULTY OF BUSINESS

Dear Sir/ Madam,

My name is. I am studying Mast Fikeremariam bereded of Business Management at Kidest

Mariam university. I kindly request your assistance in completing a questionnaire which I am
using to assess the impact of leadership style on employee motivation at Ethio- telecom. Your
views are extremely important to improve the organization‟s performance. Your participation in
this research is voluntary and all the information provided will be kept strictly confidential and
will only be used for the purpose of the study. If you have any question or if you may need
support, please contact me using the below mentioned address.

Tel. +251 911256020

E-mail: Fikeremariam.bereded@ethiotelecom.et

Part I: General Instruction

1. No need of writing your name on the sheet.
2. Feel free and attempt all questions.
3. Please indicate your response by marking tick () in the appropriate box that reflects your
agreement level.

4. Please be notified that

4.1 On the first column under practice1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4= Agree
and 5 = Strongly Agree

4.2 On the second column under expectation 6= Strongly unexpected 7= Not expected
8= Neutral 9= expected and

10= Highly expected

62
Part II;- Items related to the study

A. Demographic Information

1, Gender Male [ ] Female [

2, Age 20-30 [ ] 31-40 [ ] 41-50 [ ] 50-60 [ ]

3, Service year 0-5 [ ] 6-15 [ ] 16-24 [ ] > 25 [ ]

4, Education level Grade 12 complete [ ] College Diploma [ ]

Bachelor‟s Degree [ ] Master‟s degree [ ]

63
 Section „A‟ Responses
Practiced A1 Expectation A2
No Statement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 Your manager makes decision without
taking input from you.
.2 Your manager tells you what to do and
want you to accomplish without asking
advice from you.
3 Your manager makes decisions alone or
with a small, trusted group and expect
employees to do exactly what they‟re
asked.
4 You are expected to adhere to the decision
made any time and space stipulated by
your manager.
5 Your manager reach decision,
communicate them to you and expect
prompt implementation.

Section „B‟ Responses

Practiced B1 Expectation B2
No Statement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
6
You and your co-workers feel their voices
are heard and their contribution matters.

7 Your manager asks you for input and

consider feedback from
you before making decision
8 Your manager leadership style is essential
for your innovative tasks.

64
9
You are involved in making decision.

10
Your manager allows you to exercise
authority that you might need in the future
position you might hold.

Section ‘C’ Responses

PracticedC1 Expectation C2

No Statement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 At your workplace. being innovative
to improve performance is
substantially rewarded.
`12 Your manager Clarify what is the
expected performance from you,
explaining How to meet such
expectation and allocating rewards
for meeting objectives
13 His/her style of leadership focus on
mentorship, instruction targeting to
archive and enjoying the results.
14 Your manager rely quite heavily on
organizational rewards and
punshenment to influence your
performance.
15
Your manager communicates his/her
appreciation for all of your hard work

65
 Section „D‟ Responses

Practiced D1 Expectation D2
No Statement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
16 You might have a basic set of tasks and
goals that you are assigned to complete,
but your manager is constantly pushes you
outside your comfort zone
17 Your manager spent much of his/her time
on the big picture.
18 Your manager gives you to handle many
delegated tasks without constant
supervision
19 Your manager leadership style encourages
you to view problems from new
perspective and provide support.
20 Your manager main objectives are to work
on change or transform their follower‟s
needs and re-direct their thinking.

Section „E‟ Responses

Practiced E1 Expectation E2
No Statement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
21 You are feeling gratified when you
complete your given task because
you have had the chance to practice
your skill.
22 Your manager appreciates your effort
and give recognition
for successful accomplishment.

66
23 you are comfortable with the job
placement carried out at the Ethio-
telecom establishment.
24 You feel the work environment is
conducive and fulfill your
expectation.
25 You think your manager leadership
style is appropriate for creating a
work environment that energize you
for discharging your responsibility.

Thank you for your cooperation!

67