Influence of Leadership Styles and Communication on Performance in the case of Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair Company in Saudi Arabia
Abstract
The performance of the Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair company has been declining. The company reported a net loss of SAR 535.6 million in 2019 and SAR 381.9 million in 2018. The company's poor performance illustrated that a study needed to be examined to establish the cause of the increase in the net loss. Thus, the study was conducted to examine the effect of leadership styles and communication on performance. The study was based on two theories, namely, trait theory and communication theory. The study was descriptive in nature. The target population was 672 employees from Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair company. The sample size was 251. A simple random sampling technique was used. The study found that leadership styles and communication explained 36.1% of the performance variation within the Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair Company. The study concluded that leadership styles and communication were positively and significantly related to performance. The most notable variable that influenced performance to a large extent was leadership styles because it was found that a unit change of the leadership styles would lead to an increase of performance by 0.115 units while a unit improvement in communication increase performance by 0.094 units when other factors are held unchanged. The study concluded a positive and significant relationship between leadership styles and performance. The study concluded democratic and transformational leadership styles are the most effective. In democratic leadership, a leader invites other members of the team to contribute and participate in the decision-making process before making the final decision. A transformational leader focuses on transforming others to help each other. The study concluded that communication is positively and significantly related to performance. The study concluded that integrated communication includes applying more than one communicating strategy to pass the information from one point or group to another. The study recommended the best leadership style need to be adopted within the company. The most potent leadership style is democratic and thus, the company need to embrace enhancing democratic leadership in all departments. The study recommended the company should also embrace transformational leadership styles. The study recommended that Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair company should rely much on the usage of the various communication styles such as verbal, nonverbal, written and electronic. The study recommended that assertive communication is the best communication style used in the organization. Assertive communication expresses positive and negative ideas and feelings in an open, honest and direct way.
Keywords: Leadership styles, communication, performance, Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair, Saudi Arabia
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