The Relationship between Leadership Styles and Employees Job Satisfaction in Nepalese Federal Civil Service

Abstract

본 논문은 네팔 연방 정부에서 리더십 유형(변혁적, 거래적, 자유방임적 리더십)과 공무원의 직업 만족도 간의 관계에 대해 분석한다. 리더십 이론과 직업 만족도 이론에 대한 선행 연구를 살펴보면 네팔 연방 정부에 대한 연구는 아직 이루어지지 않았다. 본 연구는 리더십 유형(변혁적, 거래적, 자유방임적 리더십)과 공무원의 직업 만족도 사이에 상관관계가 있는지를 연구 질문으로 설정하고 성별, 연령, 직무 경험, 계급, 학력을 통제변수로 두었다. 조사대상은 네팔 연방 정부조직 중에서도 특히 내각총리실(OPMCM)에 소속된 281명의 정규직 공무원으로 선정하였다. 그리고 확률비례 층화표본추출법을 사용하여 165명의 표본을 추출하였다. 리더십 유형과 직업 만족도에 대한 인식은 각 Avolio & Bass(2004)의 다요인 리더십 조사 설문지 6S(MLQ)와 Spector(1985)의 직업 만족도 조사 설문지를 활용하여 조사하였다. 연구 가설을 검정하기 위해 기술적 분석, 상관분석, 분산분석, t-검정과 다중회귀분석을 시행하였다. 검정 결과 변혁적 리더십, 거래적 리더십, 자유방임적 리더십의 세 개의 독립 변수 중 변혁적 리더십과 자유방임적 리더십만 종속 변수인 직업 만족도와 통계적으로 유의한 수준에서 양의 상관관계를 보였다. 그리고 회귀분석 결과 결정계수는 0.2214로, 리더십이 직업 만족도를 설명하는 정도인 모형의 설명력은 약 22.14%이며 약 71.86%는 리더십 외 다른 변수에 기인하는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 선행 연구의 결과와 일부는 일치하고 일부는 상반되는 결과이다. 본 연구는 네팔 연방 정부 및 공공부문의 인적 자원 관리에 기여할 수 있을 것이라 기대된다. 네팔 정부는 공무원의 직업 만족도 향상을 위해 변혁적 리더십과 자유방임적 리더십의 두 가지 선택지를 가지고 있다. 그 중에서도 변혁적 리더십은 공무원의 직업 만족도에 더 효과적일 것으로 보이며, 장기적인 전략 계획, 사업과 정책을 추진하는 데 적합하다. 향후 연구 대상을 네팔 정부 전체로 확대하고, 행정부, 입법부, 사법부에 대한 비교 연구가 이루어져야 할 것이다.

This study has examined the relationship between leadership styles (transformational, transactional and laissez-faire) and employee job satisfaction in Nepalese federal civil service. The gap in the literature for Nepalese federal civil service has been acknowledged by using the existing literatures in full range leadership theory and job satisfaction theories. Is there any relationship between leadership theory (transformational, transactional and laissez-faire) and employee job satisfaction with control variables: gender, age, work experience, leadership rank and education in Nepalese federal civil service? was the main research question of this study. The target population of this study was Nepalese federal civil service, particularly, Office of the Prime minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM) which comprises currently working 281 full time civil servants. A proportionate stratified sample of 165 was selected by using stratified systematic sampling method. The perception on leadership styles and job satisfaction was collected by using Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 6S form (Avolio & Bass, 2004) and Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1985) respectively. The result of the principal component analysis with varimax rotation showed slight changes in the distribution of the factors for MLQ 6S in Nepalese federal civil service context. Out of seven factors theoretically assumed in MLQ 6S related to leadership styles, only five factors comprising 17 items with factor loadings more than 0.4 were retained after varimax rotation. The Cronbachs alpha for transformational leadership (11 items), transactional leadership (4 items), laissez-faire (2 items) and MLQ 6S (with 17 items) were 0.89, 0.80, 0.54 and 0.893 respectively. The results of internal consistency showed that the retained factors for MLQ were reliable. Further, confirmatory factor analysis with maximum likelihood estimation showed Comparative Fit Index (CFI) of 0.93 ≥ 0.9, Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) of 0.05 < 0.08, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) estimate of 0.07 < 0.08. These results from the principal component analysis, value of Cronbachs alpha and the fit indices obtained from confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the validity and reliability of five factor model of MLQ 6S in Nepalese context. The descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, ANOVA, t-test and multiple linear regression analysis were performed to test the hypotheses of this study. The female in gender category, civil servants with 30-50 years of age in age category and civil servants having 10-20 years of work experience have perceived more job satisfaction in their respective category of demographic variables. Similarly, senior executive level civil servants perceived higher level of job satisfaction among different ranks. With respective to level of education, employees with intermediate level of education showed higher level of job satisfaction in OPMCM. The civil servants perceived more laissez-faire leadership behavior than transformational leadership and transactional leadership behavior. After testing hypotheses, out of three main independent variables (transformational leadership, transactional leadership and laissez-faire leadership) and seven control variables, this study revealed a positive and statistically significantcausal relationship of job satisfaction only with transformational leadership style and laissez-faire leadership style. The regression model showed the coefficient of determination of 0.2214. So, the predictors in the regression model exhibited 22.14% percent of goodness of fit to explain the job satisfaction. The transformational leadership and laissez-faire leadership showed a positive significant relationship with job satisfaction with partial regression coefficients of 0.1429 and 0.0325 respectively at 0.05 level of significance. Whereas transactional leadership showed a positive but statistically not significant relationship with job satisfaction at 0.05 level of significance. Among three leadership styles, transformational leadership style has shown greater predictability of job satisfaction with standardized regression coefficient of 0.257 at 0.05 level of significance than other leadership styles. The results of this study showed a mixed evidence of past literatures. The major findings of current study are believed to contribute in the field of public human resource management in Nepalese federal civil service as well as in the field of public administration. This study presented two options for Government of Nepal for selection of leadership theories to enhance the level of civil servants job satisfaction. Out of these two choices, the adoption of transformational leadership theory is highly recommended because of its superiority over laissez-faire leadership in boosting employee job satisfaction as well as to implement long term strategic plan, policy, program and policies. Further, any studies with similar theme covering whole Nepalese civil service as well as any comparative studies in three level of government in Nepal will be more interesting and are recommended for the impending study.