Leadership Processes and Employee Attitude in HEIs: A comparative study in the backdrop of Likert’s Systems Theory

Abstract

Present study was conducted to make a comparison among leadership processes and
employee attitude in public and private sector organizations in the light of Likert’s
System 1-4 Organizational Theory. This theory indicates that System 1 is led by
autocratic leadership processes which manifest negative employee attitude and
System 4 is more towards democratic side showing a positive employee attitude.
Three universities from each sector in Islamabad region having Social Sciences and
Management Sciences departments were randomly selected and 200 faculty
members were taken as sample of the study. An Opinionnaire having 36 statements
in two subscales was used to collect data. Its psychometric properties were
determined and Chronbach’s alpha .89 confirmed its reliability. Data analysis
revealed that public sector organizations come under the domain of System 3 and
private sector in System 2 in leadership processes. Employee attitude and leadership
processes were positively correlated in public sector and negatively correlated in
private sector. 83% of the variance in leadership processes was due to employee
attitude in both the sectors. It was concluded that if organizations want a shift
towards System 4 which is the most productive form af an organization, they have to
focus upon leadership training as leadership processes directly effects employee
attitude which manifests in a positive or a negative manner.